Founded in 2001, 7x7 is an independently owned and totally authentic guide to life in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our 24/7 online resource serves up stories on the best food and drink, arts and culture, style and design, hikes and wellness, regional travel, and more. Visit us anytime at 7x7.com,  and also find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Plus, subscribe to our podcast, "People Will Talk," for insightful interviews with Bay Area luminaries; you'll find it on iTunes and wherever you get your podcasts.

NOSH covers all the hot news and scrumptious food-related stories in the East Bay. NOSH provides the buzz on new restaurants and bars, the chefs, the pioneers, the artisans, the food reformers and all things delicious in Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda and the surrounding area. NOSH is produced by Berkeleyside, Berkeley’s locally grown, independent news website.

Christi Warren is an Oakland-based freelance writer, who is more interested in the stories behind neighborhood bars than what's on tap. In an effort to pay rent while in grad school at UC Berkeley, she publishes some of those histories here. Previously, she worked as a general assignment reporter at The Santa Rosa Press Democrat. You can find her on Twitter at @SeaWarren.

CUESA (Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating a sustainable food system through the operation of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and its educational programs. Learn more at cuesa.org.

Dana Velden grew up in the lush green suburbs of Wisconsin. Her earliest food memory is helping her grandfather slaughter and roast a delicious chicken for dinner. She was age 5. A man seriously ahead of his time, he also taught her to grow and eat kohlrabi and to make sourdough bread. She now lives in Oakland amongst apple, pear, lime, plum, apricot, persimmon and fig trees where she is working on her first book, a collection of essays about life in the kitchen, due out from Rodale in Fall, 2015. She has written for The Kitchn since 2008 and is a contributor to The Kitchn Cookbook, October 2014. Follow Dana on Instagram.

Dara Thompson N.D. is a Naturopathic Doctor practicing in Mill Valley, CA . She is passionate about medicine, and believes that the food we eat is an integral part of healing. Dr. Thompson studied cell and molecular biology at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UC Santa Cruz. She received her doctorate in naturopathic medicine at National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon, where she worked her way through school catering and teaching cooking classes. Dr. Thompson specializes in environmental medicine and providing supportive care for cancer patients. You can follow her food and nutrition blog.

Jennifer Biesty Chef-Owner Shakewell-Oakland Chef Jennifer Biesty started cooking in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, when she was in high school, after becoming one of the youngest students at the CIA in Hyde Park, NY. Biesty interned in New Orleans at the acclaimed Sazerac restaurant, after graduation she returning to Manhattan and joining the four star team of Aquavit with Marcus Samuelsson Biesty moved to San Francisco to cook with chef Loretta Keller at Bizou & C0C0500. She gained an in-depth understanding of the farm-to-table process, and took advantage of the freedom Keller gave her to handcraft farm to table menus. Biesty moved to Paris to gain experience of European culinary culture, spending time in France, Spain and Italy before settling in London cooking with Jamie Oliver, Ruth Rodgers and Rose Gray at The River Café. She returned to San Francisco to cook with Chef Traci des Jardins and Chef Richard Reddington at Jardinière restaurant. As Chef de cuisine at COCO5OO, StarChefs.com recognized Biesty as a Rising Star Chef. Shortly after this recognition Biesty competed on Top Chef season four an experience that she remembers fondly as florid accomplishment. Following Top Chef Chicago, Biesty became Executive Chef San Francisco’s Sir Francis Drake Hotel and Scala’s bistro. It is here Biesty met her future Shakewell business partner, Executive Pastry Chef Tim Nugent, whom she worked alongside for five years before opening Shakewell. Biesty and Nugent brought bold Mediterranean and Spanish cuisine with a fun cocktail bar to the Lakeshore neighborhood of Oakland California and made Shakewell there home.

Jesse Hirsch is the restaurant critic for the San Francisco Examiner. Before that he has been a critic for the East Bay Express, the editor of Edible Queens magazine, and a freelancer for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Wine and Spirits magazine, and the Village Voice. Since moving from NYC>SFO, Hirsch has joined a CSA, practices regular yoga, and barely uses his car horn. In short, he has undergone the type of Bay Area conversion that makes East Coasters feel smug. A theory – it’s possible Hirsch’s sharp edges have been blunted by an embarrassment of delicious food. Laugh away, oh ye cynics, while he Zens out on year-round produce, shrimp tacos, and everything al pastor. Full disclosure: Hirsch is goat cheese-averse.