Bright blue umbrellas, brown takeout bags and the bustle of lunch customers animated the corner of Shattuck and Hearst avenues as Mendocino Farms officially opened its doors in Berkeley on Oct. 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mendocino Farms is a sandwich and salad chain founded in Southern California in 2005. While the name might be more familiar in Los Angeles, where the chain boasts 27 restaurants,Mendocino Farms has more than 80 locations across five states.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Berkeley Mendo,\u201d as Mendocino Farms CEO Kevin Miles called it, is located\u00a0 next to Marugame Udon and across the street from Sweetgreen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that Berkeley is a town of foodies so we are excited to share our elevated sandwiches, salads, and more with residents who we know will be excited to try our unexpected flavor combinations,\u201d Miles said in an email.<\/p>\n
At the entrance, an employee \u2014 whose nametag highlights their favorite dish \u2014 greets you with a smile and directs you to a menu\u00a0 featuring each item, its ingredients and its calorie count.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After having a great meal at Mendocino Farms, customer Susan Tanzillo said she plans to order takeout next time.The waiting line has a designated shelf for takeout bags, which are labeled with the customer name as well as the name of the employee who quality-checked the bags.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m amazed at how good and how large the portions are,\u201d Tanzillo said. \u201cI can\u2019t eat gluten, so this is wonderful for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Customers LoriAnn Kim and Minji Lee come to Berkeley for church from Dublin and Emeryville respectively. They had both been to other Mendocino Farms restaurants before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been to Mendocino Farms that many times, but from the few times that I have, I have liked it because it is always a healthy and delicious option,\u201d Kim said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lee appreciated the spaciousness and the cleanliness of the Berkeley location. Both Lee and Kim commented on the nice service and planned on returning next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
UC Berkeley Ph.D. student Jinna Brim came to Mendocino Farms for the first time after her friends recommended it to her and one friend posted about its opening on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brim, who works in Barker Hall, said she was happy to find a new restaurant close to her side of campus, where food options are somewhat limited.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mendocino Farms\u2019 Berkeley location seemed to attract a diverse clientele, including campus students, young families, older couples and office workers.<\/p>\n
Miles expressed gratitude for Berkeley customers\u2019 support and was confident that the restaurant would attract residents with its unique sandwich and salad offerings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are plenty of fast casual options in Berkeley, but none are quite like Mendo,\u201d Miles said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to get a \u2018Not So Fried\u2019 Chicken Sandwich or Spicy Curried Couscous anywhere else.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bright blue umbrellas, brown takeout bags and the bustle of lunch customers animated the corner of Shattuck and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[19474,19472,764,7626,12043,19463,19471,19465,19469,47,19466,19464,19470,143,145,144,16344,1009,19475,19468,19467,19473],"class_list":{"0":"post-25390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-not-so-fried-chicken","9":"tag-barker-hall","10":"tag-berkeley","11":"tag-dublin","12":"tag-emeryville","13":"tag-hearst-avenue","14":"tag-jinna-brim","15":"tag-kevin-miles","16":"tag-loriann-kim","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-marugame-udon","19":"tag-mendocino-farms","20":"tag-minji-lee","21":"tag-oakland","22":"tag-oakland-headlines","23":"tag-oakland-news","24":"tag-shattuck-avenue","25":"tag-southern-california","26":"tag-spicy-curried-couscous","27":"tag-susan-tanzillo","28":"tag-sweetgreen","29":"tag-the-mendo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25390","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=25390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}