I’ve reached that age when playing the “I remember when…” game is possible everyday. Street names change, buildings get rezoned and young folks get older. I'm a small business owner. Living and working in the same neighborhood that my family’s shop, La Borinquena, has been in for decades gives me a unique perspective of my surroundings.

I remember when the Market Square condo building in Old Oakland was the location of the Housewives Market. It was a huge sprawling building filled with foodstuffs galore: seafood, canned goods, produce, barrels of dried beans, lemon custard soft serve ice cream, smoked hocks, assorted meat cuts and sausages. It was sometime in the 1970s when I noticed a young Asian guy who always wore a button down that he never tucked in and wore his hair big and tall while he worked at the Taylor’s Sausage stand. As a young girl, that just seemed odd to me, especially since his last name could not be Taylor, I thought!

Flash forward to 2008. The sausage stand that moved to the Housewives Market in the 1950s from Hayward is now down the street in a marketplace that occupies what used to be the old Swan’s department store. The same guy is now the owner, his name is Ray Gee, and I must say his hair has gotten considerably shorter over the years. He started out as an employee, learned the fine art of sausage making over many years, and then purchased the business from the descendants of the original Taylor family in 1994. The sausage is prepared the way it’s always been with hand ground fresh meat, no preservatives added, and each variety spiced just right. The other sausage makers and counter people have been there a while, too. There's Harold, there's Courtney Harris and Hellen Davis -- and they all serve up sausages with plenty of smiles.  

In another part of town, sausage of this quality would be priced twice as much and called artisan. Not in Gee’s shop. This shop’s prices rise and fall based on Gee’s ingredient costs, but stay affordable.

My top picks include the boudin blanc, little piggy breakfast links and especially the Cajun chicken. Sausage making is becoming a lost art in the Bay Area, but that will not be the case here in Oakland. I’m already looking forward to years from now when Harold becomes the former young guy and I know one thing for sure, those sausages will still taste the same.
Taylor's Sausage Stand, 907 Washington St., Oakland CA 94607.

If you are looking for ways to enliven your Thursday evening, head over to Old Oakland for Thursday Night Live to hear Saoco Dos Four and some Cuban Reggaetown. 5.30 pm to 9.30 pm. at the intersection of 9th and Washington St.