On the corner of Eighth and Carleton streets in West Berkeley, hungry locals gathered by sun-soaked tables to try the newest addition to the local food scene: Caf\u00e9 Bolita.<\/p>\n
The Mexican cafe boasts fresh masa and ample outdoor seating. Caf\u00e9 Bolita \u2014 which soft-opened Feb. 26 \u2014 is owner Emmanuel Galvan\u2019s first-ever brick-and-mortar restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve wanted to open a casual-style Mexican cafe for years,\u201d Galvan said. \u201cEven though I started as a pop-up and farmer\u2019s market stall, I always had the intention of making our products more accessible, and I wanted to do that through opening something that was very casual, quotidian and approachable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caf\u00e9 Bolita was born out of Galvan\u2019s company of the same name, Bolita, which has served fresh masa, tortillas, salsa and more since 2020. The cafe occupies the space formerly held by Standard Fare, an institution that served the neighborhood for 11 years before closing in December 2025.<\/p>\n
Bolita uses specialized equipment for nixtamalization \u2014 the 3,000-year-old Mesoamerican technique of soaking corn in an alkaline solution to unlock its nutrients and flavors \u2014 to make masa.<\/p>\n
According to Galvan, this process adds elasticity, stretch and softness to their corn, which comes in colorful varieties and is sourced from Mexico City cooperatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wanted to showcase the variety and whole spectrum of corn that is currently available,\u201d Galvan added. \u201cI think it\u2019s a really important thing for people to see that maize is more than just blue, yellow and white.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current \u201csuper soft opening\u201d menu features items that highlight this versatility. Patrons can find a plant-based tamal made with white corn masa hydrated with carrot puree, or a 12-inch blue corn quesadilla stuffed with Oaxacan quesillo and mushrooms. And as a nod to the location\u2019s history, Galvan also serves a potato-packed frittata, a former staple of Standard Fare.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of neighbors who would come (to Standard Fare) multiple times a week,\u201d Galvan said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way for us to also build a little bit of trust by doing something, hopefully, that people are accustomed to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim Traber, a former regular of Standard Fare, said they were upset to see the restaurant close, but are happy to have a new place in town. \u201cBased on this, I\u2019ll be coming back,\u201d Traber said of Caf\u00e9 Bolita\u2019s food.<\/p>\n
Sarah Beard, an Oakland resident, said she was compelled to visit the restaurant after being introduced to Galvan\u2019s \u201cSalsa Macha\u201d product.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started eating it six months ago and we can\u2019t be without a jar in our house,\u201d Beard said. \u201cIt\u2019s lovely to come to a restaurant where people are thrilled and excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the cafe finds its footing, Galvan plans to expand the hours and menu to include other masa shapes, such as chochoyotes, a type of masa dumpling.<\/p>\n
Caf\u00e9 Bolita\u2019s grand opening is scheduled for March 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the corner of Eighth and Carleton streets in West Berkeley, hungry locals gathered by sun-soaked tables to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[97237,97236,97235,97244,69481,97238,97242,40600,97240,7888,2458,143,145,144,97241,97245,97243,97239,8387],"class_list":["post-211502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-bolita","tag-caf-bolita","tag-carleton-street","tag-chochoyotes","tag-eighth-street","tag-emmanuel-galvan","tag-kim-traber","tag-masa","tag-mesoamerican","tag-mexican","tag-mexico-city","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oaxacan","tag-salsa-macha","tag-sarah-beard","tag-standard-fare","tag-west-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}