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Category Archives: Food
New Berkeley winery Urbano Cellars throws opening party
For the last two years, Urbano Cellars has had a nomadic existence, storing its barrels of wine at other wineries and not having a place to call home.
The winery, run by Fred Dick and Bob Rawson, had rented space for years at Periscope Cellars on Hollis Street in Emeryville. That operation had to shut down. For a while it looked like the 15-year old Urbano would open a place in Oakland. The longtime friends had found a space near Jack London Square, but it needed retrofitting. The city of Oakland tempted the partners with tax breaks, but had to rescind the offer when Gov. Jerry Brown and the legislature eliminated redevelopment agencies.
Then Donkey & Goat winery moved, in 2011, from its Fourth Street home to new quarters on Fifth near Gilman in Berkeley’s burgeoning “drinks district.” Urbano Cellars took the old space and brought in the 100 barrels and assorted bottles of Zinfandel, Chenin Blanc, and Syrach-Grenache blend that had been scattered around the East Bay.
On Saturday, they are throwing a big party to celebrate the move.
“Donkey and Goat’s space became available,” Dick said earlier this week as he rushed around to ready the place for the Grand Reopening. “Low and behold we had a turnkey winery with everything we needed.” … Continue reading »
Tagged Bob Rawson, Donkey & Goat, Fred Dick, Urbano Cellars
Marc Kelly dishes on the story behind Berkeley’s Soop
As mid-life crises go, Marc Kelly’s was a pretty productive one — with a little spice thrown in for good measure.
Seeking change after a 20-year career in the fruit and vegetable export business, Kelly was keen to open a food joint of his own. Something modest and manageable, a takeaway place that satisfied his culinary aspirations and cravings.
That’s how Soop, one of the original anchor businesses in the Gourmet Ghetto’s Epicurious Garden, came about.
Kelly, a self-taught chef, determined that soup was an unexplored market niche in the edible landscape. He sensed an opportunity. Six years into serving up soup every day, Kelly’s enthusiasm for the comfort food he sells is still apparent.
He has a loyal band of regulars — Kelly sees them coming and knows which ladle to reach for. And his years of global travel inform what he sells: every culture has a soup tradition and on the road he learned the universal language of soup. … Continue reading »
Tagged Alice Walker, Berkeley Bowl, Corso, Epicurious Garden, Gourmet Ghetto, Marc Kelly, Michael Pollan, Rivoli, SOOP, Venus
Phyllis Grant: Not your average mommy food blogger
So-called mommy bloggers, who pontificate on all manner of parenting matters, have proliferated like randy rabbits on the internet. Ditto food bloggers who fetishize everything edible. And mommy food bloggers: they permeate the worldwide web by the thousands.
So to stand out from the pack, a food blog with a parenting focus has to look gorgeous, offer recipes that seduce a home cook, and showcase a unique voice.
Dash and Bella fits that brief. And Berkeley’s Phyllis Grant, a former New York City pastry chef “who tired quickly of sugar and burning her forearms and never sleeping,” is behind the blog, recently named one of the top 100 food mom blogs by Babble.
Grant slow cooks with her kids and blog namesakes Dash, 4, and Bella, 9, and isn’t afraid to throw in an f-bomb or two in posts on everything from whole beast cooking to making popcorn ice cream. Her witty and insightful musings about cooking while mothering — no chicken nuggets or plain pasta in sight — have caught the attention of The New York Times, food52, and Real Simple. … Continue reading »
Tagged dash and bella, Phyllis Grant
Darryl Kimble: 27 years cooking breakfast at Bette’s Diner
In the restaurant business, chefs change jobs about as often as the lead in a Superbowl playoff. So to have stayed the course at one spot, worked your way up the ranks almost since the inception of a beloved eating institution, and still genuinely enjoy going to work every day, well, that’s worth noting.
Such is the case for Darryl Kimble, the manager at Bette’s Oceanview Diner on Fourth Street, which celebrates its 30th year in 2012. Kimble has been cooking there for 27 and a half years; he joined the kitchen crew at 19.
The perennially popular restaurant serves breakfast and lunch to an astounding 135,000 people a year, although it only sits about 50 inside. … Continue reading »
Awards tap Berkeley taste makers for national contest
Berkeley’s food mavens will likely be out in force tonight at the Good Food Awards at San Francisco’s Ferry Building and many of the judges for this annual event — sponsored by Seedling Projects and now in its second year — hail from this city’s gourmand ranks. But only one Berkeley name may find a place on the winners’ podium.
The concept behind this socially and ethically responsible food contest is to highlight “best in show” from five regions of the country in various edible categories. This year, prizes will go to makers of beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, pickles, preserves, and — a new area — spirits.
At last year’s soirée — with a keynote address by restaurateur and sustainable food champion Alice Waters — three Berkeley winners emerged in the beer, charcuterie, and pickles categories. … Continue reading »
Occupy food: College co-op advocates gather in Berkeley
Taking matters beyond burritos, pizza, and beer, a boot camp for college food activists from across the country kicks off today at Berkeley Student Cooperative‘s Cloyne Court Hotel. The intensive, three-day retreat is designed to help train students who want to run campus co-op food cafés and stores stocked with wholesome foods for college kids seeking something other than a steady diet of fast food.
The event, dubbed “Occupy Your Plate,” is sponsored by the year-old Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFED), a Berkeley-based program that was inspired by the launch of the Berkeley Student Food Collective (BSFC), across the street from campus on Bancroft Way. Speakers at the training include People’s Grocery executive director Nikki Henderson; cookbook author Mollie Katzen; CoFED supporters include Cal professor and author Michael Pollan.
We spoke with CoFed co-founder and UC Berkeley graduate Yoni Landau — who was instrumental in getting the BSFC up and running and, in 2009, lead a protest to keep the Chinese fast-food chain Panda Express off campus – about what’s cooking with the CoFED crew this weekend and in 2012, which has been dubbed the International Year of Cooperatives by the United Nations. … Continue reading »
Top food stories from Berkeley in 2011
As the year draws to a close, it’s time to look back to see what food stories created a buzz around town and on Berkeleyside in 2011.
Granted, there’s an arbitrary nature to such end-of-year lists. But it’s an opportunity to take stock of the city’s culinary culture.
For the purposes of this post we’ve focused on food news stories, which doesn’t take into account the dozens of interviews with foragers, farmers, artisans, advocates, chefs, cooking teachers, preservers, pasta makers, cheese purveyors, pop-up restaurateurs, and farmers’ market vendors we’ve published during 2011.
This year also saw controversial coverage of corner stores, reporting on detractors of school food, an insider’s take on speed dating with a veg-friendly focus, and a widely criticized first-person piece on disappointing camp chow.
Readers may differ on what food stories caught their attention. Feel free to add your own highlights (or low points) in the comments section.
In alphabetical order: … Continue reading »
Tagged Aaron Rocchino, Alice Waters, Amphora Nueva Berkeley Olive Oil Works, Andronico's, Berkeley Food & Housing Project, Berkeley Food Pantry, Chez Panisse, crop swap, David Wittman, Ebbett's Good to Go, Food Rules, Ice cream, Liba, Michael Pollan, Monterey Market, off the grid, pizza, Saul's, The Local Butcher Shop, Tom Mueller, Transition Berkeley, urban adamah, Whole Foods Parking Lot
Klezmer and latkes and Christmas
One of the more joyous street gatherings on Christmas Day happens in front of Saul’s, the Jewish deli on Shattuck Avenue near Vine.
For the last three years, Klezmer musicians have gathered to play outside the deli, their lively, upbeat music serenading the long line of people waiting to go inside the restaurant or those just wanting to hear a tune.
People wait to buy latkes on Christmas Day. Photo: Emanuah Hauser
This year, the annual Christmas Day concert coincided with Hanukkah, and Saul’s owners’, Peter Levitt and Karen Adelman, sold their famous latkes from a food truck for the first time. Inside, dozens of people gathered around large tables to eat communally.
Mike Perlmutter, a biologist, and Emunah Hauser, a food publicist and host at Saul’s, came up with the idea of the Christmas Day music jam while talking outside the restaurant a few years ago, said Hauser. Since then, Perlmutter, who books klezmer and Jewish folk acts at the Subterranean Arthouse on Bancroft Way, has organized the musicians. (He plays the sax and clarinet.)
“Saul’s is slammed on Dec 25 with a captive audience enjoying the ubiquitous day off together, and it is always fun as a musician to give people the unexpected,” said Hauser. “The beauty of street performance is exposing people to an experience they didn’t plan on, who didn’t buy a ticket to the show – who don’t know they are going to get this raucous treat as they walked the desolate streets towards Saul’s, but are grateful and happy it is there. This is especially true of heritage and traditional music, I think – we forget to listen and recollect in our busy modern lives these shared histories.”
Ira Serkes made the video.
Musicians outside Saul's Deli. Photo: Emunah Hauser
Volunteers stuff 770 grocery bags with holiday food
Dozens of volunteers joined dozens of Berkeley firefighters Saturday morning to put together holiday food bags for local seniors.
For more than 20 years, Berkeley Firefighters Random Acts has been providing food at Christmas for low income elderly. What started out as a small initiative has taken on the tone of a military operation, with volunteers lining up to unpack boxes of food and redistribute it into brown paper grocery bags.
The volunteers, who included Girl Scouts, members of two Berkeley Lions clubs, and city employees, starting packing bags for close to 800 seniors at Fire Station #5 on Shattuck Avenue at 8:30 am. By 10:30, volunteers were beginning to load the bags into various vehicles for delivery to those in need. … Continue reading »
Farmers’ market favorite Phoenix Pastificio
It’s one thing to run a successful food business. But to have two edible start-ups do well, even in a food-friendly town, is quite an accomplishment in an industry known for slim profits and fickle customers.
That’s the case for couple Eric and Carole Sartenaer, who started off with a little bakery in Kensington called Semifreddi’s — ring any bells? — sold that for a tidy sum three years later, then departed to Oregon for seven years to run their own bakery before returning to the Bay Area in 1993.
Eric worked for Fat Apple’s in El Cerrito for two years, but he was eager to start another food business. So, in 1995, he set up shop, and later a restaurant, on Shattuck Avenue turning out fresh pasta at The Phoenix Pastifico. The company also makes a line of baked goods — cookies, macaroons, and biscotti — as well as its signature olive bread and pasta sauces. … Continue reading »
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