While some students may still be mourning the closure of Brown’s, UC Berkeley Dining gave a taste of what’s to come with a soft opening of Gateway Café on July 20.
Located on the ground floor of the Barbara and Gerson Bakar Gateway building, the new 160-seat on-campus restaurant is open on limited hours from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. until Aug. 8. The cafe will reopen Aug. 24 with normal hours, when it will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
From avocado toast in the morning to bowls and gyro wraps in the afternoon and early evening, Gateway Cafe serves up Mediterranean-style breakfast, lunch and dinner. Students can use meal equivalency swipes, flex and flex plus dollars and will be able to order pickup through Grubhub starting in the fall. A swipe gets one wrap, toast or bowl with a beverage.
“We created this menu as a Mediterranean concept because we don’t really have this in our portfolio,” said director of campus restaurants and retail Matt Rasmussen.
According to Rasmussen, UC Berkeley Dining’s customizable menu model at Local x Design in Wurster Hall found success, and he wanted to replicate this after they acquired and started planning the space last year.
Additionally, Gateway Café offers a limited Peet’s menu and serves desserts such as baklava and Cupcakin’ Bake Shop’s mini cupcakes. Senior executive chef for campus restaurants Glenn Kang said his personal favorite menu item is the chicken souvlaki wrap.
“I feel like it’s something that I would eat on my days off,” Kang said. “It’s really handy; it’s really healthy; it’s really tasty.”
Previously launched at Monsoon Kitchen this past spring semester, UC Berkeley Dining will provide reusable containers at Gateway Café, in partnership with Dispatch Goods. According to Rasmussen, UC Berkeley Dining plans to expand the program across all campus restaurants soon.