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The Ark Toy Company
1812 Fourth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 tel 510.849.1930
3845 24th Street San Francisco, CA 94114 415.821.1257
hours: 10am-6pm everyday
"Batteries required" is not a phrase you hear much at The Ark Toy Company. With very few and carefully-chosen exceptions, this store carries toys powered strictly by imagination. Handmade French and German puppets, Russian nesting dolls, and pinwheels from Italy share the shelves with Brio trains, Kettler tricycles, pint-sized musical instruments, puzzles, art supplies and more–toys you might have had as a kid, or, at any rate, wish you had. Owners Pamela Byars and her daughter Temple began with a tiny but much-loved store in San Francisco's Noe Valley, and recently added this much larger space in the heart of Berkeley's wonderful Fourth Street retail district. Shoppers strolling the tree-shaded sidewalks, lined with clothing and housewares boutiques and gourmet restaurants, find the charming double-decker store irresistible, whether they have kids or not. And kids greet the old-fashioned toys at The Ark with such wide-eyed glee, you'll wonder why video games were ever invented.
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