Berkeley

Berkeley's modern culinary record is concentrated in a few blocks of North Shattuck Avenue, between Hearst and Rose, later nicknamed the "Gourmet Ghetto" — a joke attributed to Cheese Board Collective member and actor Darryl Henriques and popularized by the writer Alice Kahn. Alfred Peet opened Peet's Coffee, Tea and Spices at Walnut and Vine on April 1, 1966, roasting dark and selling close to the roaster, and is credited with founding American specialty coffee culture. The Cheese Board, begun in 1967 and later run as a worker collective, reworked what a food business could be; by the late 1970s its staff were baking bread and working shifts at the restaurant next door.

That restaurant was Chez Panisse, opened by Alice Waters in August 1971 in a converted Craftsman house at 1517 Shattuck, built around a single fixed-price menu that changed daily and on direct relationships with local farmers and ranchers. It is generally identified as an originator of California cuisine and of farm-to-table practice. Its alumni stayed in the district: Richard Mazzera opened the tapas bar César in 1998, Wendy Brucker and Roscoe Skipper opened Corso in 2008.

On the drinks side, Triple Rock Brewery and Alehouse at 1920 Shattuck, founded by Reid and John Martin, brewed its first batch on Christmas 1985 and opened in 1986; it claims to be the fifth American brewpub and the oldest still under its original ownership.