Three years after sparking protests, Bar Panisse opens in Berkeley

The team behind the lauded Berkeley bistro Chez Panisse is launching its next offshoot, Bar Panisse, on Thursday, Dec. 11. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the bar will serve small plates, entrees and cocktails, and a draft menu submitted to the City of Berkeley includes snacks like fritto misto, housemade potato chips and duck liver mousse crostini, plus a spin on Chez Panisse’s famous garden lettuce salad. A coy Instagram post announced that Bar Panisse is walk-in only; diners can expect service Thursday through Sunday evenings from 4-10 p.m. Chez Panisse recently won the Nosh Award for Best Restaurant for Special Occasions for the second year in a row.

The bar is in the former location of César. In 2023, when Chez Panisse owner Alice Waters decided to end César’s sublease after 24 years so she could take it over for her own concept, fans of the popular Spanish tapas restaurant protested. Three years have not healed the wounded César champions, either, judging from the emails Nosh receives on a regular basis. Upon Chez Panisse winning the special occasions award on Monday (voted on by Nosh readers), one person emailed:

“Perhaps if Waters hadn’t killed César there would be a different special occasions winner? We’re still grieving and miss it constantly.”

Bar Panisse’s kitchen with be led by chef Amelia Telc, formerly of San Francisco’s Tartine and New York City’s Mission Chinese Food, and the drinks program was developed with Dylan O’Brien of Prizefighter Bar in Emeryville, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Bar Panisse, 1515 Shattuck Ave. (at Vine St.), Berkeley

Cafe da Fonk, a self-described eco-friendly, Berlin-inspired community café, has opened near the Oakland waterfront. You’ll find coffee and tea alongside breakfast plates like halal turkey spam and eggs over rice and green chile brisket breakfast tacos. But perhaps the most nostalgically German item on the menu is the schorle — fruit juice infused with fizzy water — which this contributor rarely sees stateside. Cafe da Fonk, 465 2nd St. (at Broadway), Oakland

Local coffee chain Highwire is opening up a new location inside Uptown Oakland’s Vespr apartment complex, joining Tarts de Feybesse bakery on the ground floor. Soft opening hours are set to 7 a.m. until 1 p.m. until they gear up to 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Highwire Coffee, 312 24th St., Oakland

There are many wonderful ways to eat a biscuit, and the newly-opened Town Biscuits just might have cooked up every option. There are, of course, plain handmade buttermilk biscuits reminiscent of North Carolina kitchens — but there is also the blueberry jam and goat cheese biscuit, the fried chicken biscuit, the bacon egg and cheese biscuit, and more. The Town Biscuits, 434 25th St., Oakland

Three years after sparking protests, Bar Panisse opens in Berkeley

Tags: