Urbano Cellars took over the old Donkey & Goat space at 2323B Fourth Street. Photo: Fred Dick

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.”(...)

Read the rest of New Berkeley winery Urbano Cellars throws opening party (282 words)

By Frances Dinkelspiel. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Bob Rawson, Donkey & Goat, Fred Dick, Urbano Cellars

Soop owner Marc Kelly serves comfort food daily. Photos: Sarah Henry

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.(...)

Read the rest of Marc Kelly dishes on the story behind Berkeley’s Soop (1,260 words)

By Sarah Henry. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Alice Walker, Berkeley Bowl, Corso, Epicurious Garden, Gourmet Ghetto, Marc Kelly, Michael Pollan, Rivoli, SOOP, Venus

Phyllis Grant chronicles life cooking with children, pictured here with son Dash. Photo: Matt Ross

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.(...)

Read the rest of Phyllis Grant: Not your average mommy food blogger (1,073 words)

By Sarah Henry. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: dash and bella, Phyllis Grant

Chef Darryl Kimble takes a break from behind the stoves to talk breakfast. Photo: Sarah Henry

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.(...)

Read the rest of Darryl Kimble: 27 years cooking breakfast at Bette’s Diner (921 words)

By Sarah Henry. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Bette Kroening, Bette's Oceanview Diner, cafe rouge, Darryl Kimble, kirala, Manfred Kroening, Rivoli

Students enjoy homemade food and create community. Photo: courtesy CoFED

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.(...)

Read the rest of Occupy food: College co-op advocates gather in Berkeley (897 words)

By Sarah Henry. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: berkeley student food collective, CoFED, Nikki Henderson, yoni landau

Contributing photographer Christina Diaz captured many of the best of Berkeleyside's edible images this year, including the fine food on offer at the Chez Panisse 40th anniversary

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:(...)

Read the rest of Top food stories from Berkeley in 2011 (1,134 words)

By Sarah Henry. | Permalink | 3 comments |
Post tags: 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