Berkeley Sugar Fest

Ben (reluctantly) agreed to one more trip to Berkeley with me today, since I hadn't really done any serious exploring even though I spent three years in grad school there, including half a year literally a block away from the "Gourmet Ghetto," which includes such famous Berkeley institutions as Chez Panisse and the Cheeseboard.

First item to cross off the bucket list was the Cheeseboard, which, again, similar to Arizmendi in Oakland (rather, Arizmendi is similar to Cheeseboard).  Vegan, mostly organic and local, cooperatively owned.  The pizza of the day was more "classic" than the one we had last week with the corn and cilantro.  Today was "roma tomatoes, red onion, mozzarella and montalban cheese, fresh herbs, and garlic oil."  I was a little disappointed that it wasn't some weird esoteric combination of veggies and condiments, but it was still good, and I'd never had or heard of montalban cheese before.  The cheeses went together really well.  We got separate plates of one slice each, and each plate came with a small extra slice of pizza, as opposed to Arizmendi where we had one extra slice for a whole half pizza (four regular slices).  Since almost everything we wanted to do in Berkeley was food related, we decided to "graze" today, hence single slices for each of us.

We also wandered next door to the cheese and bread bakery, where I was lost in the smell of cheese and fresh bread.  But one thing they don't have here:  cheese curds!  Looking forward to that in Wisconsin.  We didn't buy anything, but I wanted to see the bakery.

We then drove over to Cinnaholic, a vegan bakery that sells one thing:  cinnamon rolls (with different toppings).  We got the "Old Skool" cinnamon roll (plain vanilla frosting) per Yelpers' advice and split it.  Even Ben could not object to the delicious, gooey vegan animal-free sugar.  Hooray!

We walked past a van in Berkeley that had two stickers:  Wisconsin -- You're Among Friends, and Don't Mess With Texas.  Spooky!

Here I am revisiting where I had my spirit crushed. Etcheverry Hall is the mechanical engineering building.

Ben had an item on his bucket list:  visit the top of the Campanile (the large clock tower on campus, which is apparently the largest clock tower in northern California).  This was the one of the few things I had already done in Berkeley that Ben hadn't!  The views are amazing.  This is a view from in front of the bay, which I have to specifically spell out since my photography skills are lacking and I cannot take a decent shot of both the background and my guys (Big and Little).

The carillon bells in the Campanile!

Ben looking at the Lab where he worked

We stopped in the Doe Memorial Library and I had to take a photo with Mark Twain and a phantom foot.  Here is a random Mark Twain quote:  "Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principle one was that they escaped teething."

The Sather Gate is a Berkeley landmark, and I wanted to get a picture of this guy walking through it.

Not really.  But it does look like he's the focus, rather than the Gate and Ben and Michael over in the left there.

We then went into the campus store and walked down Telegraph Avenue.  The street vendors didn't have any of the anti-Bush t-shirts that I saw so prominently last time I walked down Telegraph (it had been awhile), but there were pro-Obama and "People's Republic of Berkeley" shirts (a term I'd only heard used pejoratively before).

We went to Fuddrucker's yesterday with Ben's friend and his wife, both Berkeley grads, and I asked if they had any ideas to add to the Berkeley Bucket List.  They suggested Ici, an artisan ice cream store that I've passed a couple times and always noticed a huge line running out the door.  They added we needed to get the cone.

We took the scenic route through the Berkeley hills to get there, but Michael was screaming most of the time so it wasn't quite as enjoyable as it might have been.

We managed to get to Ici between lunch and dinner traffic.  There was a small line (not quite out the door yet), and still a fairly significant wait because everyone ahead of us got samples.  I sampled the Earl Grey, Rosemary Pine Nut Praline, and Ginger Crème Brûlée.  I went for the praline, while Ben got a boring old chocolate.  I enjoyed mine, especially the crunchy pine nuts, but I thought Ben's was boring!  They had so many interesting flavors, and he got chocolate?!  But more importantly, Ben enjoyed it and was sad to reach the bottom of the cone.

The cone was good.  According to one Yelper, it was made by the former pastry chef at Chez Panisse.  I'm not a big fan of cones in general, but this wasn't waffle.  Nestle Drumsticks has delicious cones, too, though I haven't had one of those in ages.  Both the Ici and Drumstick cones have a little pool of chocolate on the bottom!

By the time we walked out of Ici with our ice cream (we ate standing on the sidewalk outside), there was already long line of people running a couple storefronts down the street.  You can see some of the crowd in the background here!

I wanted to visit Acme Bread Company.  This was added to my bucket list after I read a book called Ravenous: a Food Lover's Journey from Obsession to Freedom, which was written by an author who lived in Berkeley, or at least ate there a lot.  She described some enticing places in Berkeley that I just had to visit (after getting confirmation on Yelp that they were, indeed, worth it).  There were so many breads there that looked delicious, just like in the Cheeseboard bakery, and any other day I would've gotten a sweet dessert bread.  But so far this day, all I've had is sugar (and flour, if you count the Cheeseboard brunch) and I had some more planned for later.  So I got a ham and cheese turnover and shared with Ben.  Still yummy!

Even Michael wanted to try it.

Cafe Fanny is right next to Acme Bread Company.  It's Alice Waters' other restaurant, besides Chez Panisse.  I really wanted to visit and sip a Cafe au Lait, but it was closed by the time we got there, around 4 or 4:30.  :-(

I had one more stop on my list, also thanks to the Ravenous book, called the Xocolate Bar (get it?  ha ha!).  I didn't take a picture, but it was a cute, small shop on Solano Avenue and the nice lady at the counter loved Michael and let me sample some of their sipping chocolate and a few of their truffles.  I tried a chai-flavored truffle and a raspberry something or other.  I became paralyzed with indecision, as is my style, and she tried to reassure me that I could always come back later for something else, but I spilled that it was my last visit to the area.  When she found out I was going to Austin, her reaction was surprising, something to the effect of "Austin is nicer than Berkeley!"  Full of sugar already, I decided to buy a chocolate bar for later:  Cardamom Crunch.  She said it was the most popular chocolate bar they had.

We agonized over where to go for dinner.  We wanted to find a place on Solano, and while there were plenty of places that looked nice, nothing screamed a special "LAST MEAL IN BERKELEY!" to me.  Part of the problem was that a lot of the places that looked nice, especially the middle-eastern cuisine, cooked things very similar to dishes I already make a lot at home.  In a hopelessly optimistic last-minute play, I called Chez Panisse and asked if there were any available seats in the cafe (which is more informal than the restaurant) but was informed there was nothing until 9:30.  (It was around 6 on a Friday night... not surprising that I couldn't get in.)

We decided to walk down the Gourmet Ghetto again, because I wanted to stop at Cafe Gratitude.

I decided not to actually eat here after looking at the menu and being disappointed with the selection -- it seems they've revised their menu significantly since the last time I'd been there.  They now sell ... COOKED food (gasp!), in addition to a shortened raw menu.  I wanted to get something, and settled on "I Am Bright," a fermented kombucha tea that I liked, but Ben felt was not his cup of tea (har har).

Also, Michael!  He was fast asleep and I just carried him in my arms.  I love carrying my sleeping baby, especially when he snuzzles against my neck.

Again, there were plenty of places that I'd have tried any other day, but this had to be Last Meal Special.  Ben and I were struck by an idea that took the pressure off:  we were going to go back to the place where we had our very first date!  Mel's Original, now simply called The Original.  We couldn't pass on the symmetry.  Ben realized while we were there it was not only where our first date was, but also his first meal in Berkeley, hence it was symmetric on the Ben axis AND the Ben and Tarisa axis.  Plus the food didn't have to live up to any expectations, since the memory of the establishment itself and bringing our dining experiences around full circle is all that we were going for.

Still, couldn't complain!  I had a really yummy turkey burger with The Works (bacon, avocado, mushrooms, two types of cheese, tomato, lettuce... probably other stuff too I'm forgetting!).  Ben had roast beef sandwiches, and we shared the fried mozzarella sticks and fries.

I think Michael just let out a really cute burp and I started laughing here.  He really wanted to eat my sandwich but I wasn't prepared for him to make a mess -- I felt so bad!  I let him have a teeny bit of avocado before he started smooshing it all over and I didn't have much in the way of cleaning him so I was a bad mommy and took it away.  :-(

I'm sure people passing us were wondering why the heck we were taking pictures of this restaurant, of all places.

We passed several of these types of places (though "Berkeley's Secret Garden" seems to be the most prominent do-it-yourself marijuana growing establishments).

Michael hated being strapped in his car seat for most of the day, but he was pretty good on the ride home! He didn't like the flash though and made a Buddha face when it went off.

Here is my loot from the day.  We got some Tervis Tumblers from the student store, since I really like the ones we already have.  Plus my "xocolate" bar!  Yay.