Most people think of San Francisco as the food center of the Western United States. My friend Scott asserted recently that, in terms of value per dollar, San Francisco may very well be the food center of the world. This assertion was uttered during a dinner in which nine of us enjoyed an incredible five-course meal featuring buttery seared scallops, truffled potato gratin, local little gem lettuces and foie gras—plus several bottles of wine—at Isa in San Francisco’s Marina District, all for about $65 per person. I think Scott has a point.
But few people really appreciate the food scene across the Bay in Berkeley and North Oakland. To most San Franciscans, the “East Bay” might as well be somewhere in the Midwest. In fact, it’s less than 10 miles from San Francisco’s Financial District. Ironically, Berkeley really is where California’s food revolution began, at Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse in 1971. The iconic restaurant happens to be within walking distance of my office and remains, nearly 40 years after its opening, a true showcase for local and organic ingredients. Within a block of Chez Panisse is the more casual Cheese Board Collective, which sells not only cheese, bread and pastries, but also a different kind of wood-fired pizza every day and which, by about 6 p.m., can be identified by the line snaking out 
the front door and halfway down the block. And in Oakland, two fabulous restaurants have recently come on the scene: Dopo on Piedmont Avenue and Camino on Grand. The old standbys are still standing: Oliveto on College Avenue and BayWolf, practically a next-door neighbor to Dopo. (I would be remiss not to mention here that the founder of Dopo is a former chef from Oliveto, and the owner of Camino is a 21-year veteran of Chez Panisse.)
For the at-home chef, farmers markets and neighborhood grocery stores abound. Berkeley holds farmers markets on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, while Kensington (a quaint little neighborhood in the North Berkeley Hills) has its own on Sundays, and Albany (the town next door) has one on Tuesdays. Montclair Village (a suburb of Oakland) has its own on Sundays too. That’s a farmers market for just about every day of the week.
And if you happen to need a farmers market on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, just head for Monterey Market on Hopkins Street at the Berkeley-Albany border. Monterey Market is like a farmers market every day, with crate upon crate of the freshest, most beautiful local vegetables, fruits, honeys, cheeses, oils and other delectable treasures. During one visit last fall I spotted seven varieties of chevre: Cypress Grove, Haystack Mountain, Skyhill, St. Marcellin, Florette, Brebicet and Pt. Reyes. I was dumbfounded when I found myself confronted with not one, not two, but eight varieties of fresh beans, including Romano, yellow Romano, French fillet, purple wax, yellow wax, cranberry, organic long, and white. Come to think of it, I don’t think there were any regular ol’ green beans. On the condiments aisle, I found 98 varieties of olive oil and at least half as many varieties of vinegar. Think potatoes would be a narrower category? Guess again. There were nine varieties to choose from, including huckleberry, German butterball, red, Yukon Gold, Colorado rose , yellow fin, red , russet and white. Who knew? On the way out, I spotted black mission, kadota, brown Turkey and Adriatic fresh figs.
And the best news is that the folks at Monterey Market are much, much friendlier than the folks at Berkeley Bowl. If you’re a local, you know what I mean.
PHOTO CREDIT: Dinner at Camino, Shuna Fish Lydon
