The Berkeley Kitchens: Third Culture & Standard Fare

Most East Bay residents know about Berkeley’s historical Gourmet Ghetto. It’s a food lovers’ delight, home to Chez Panisse and Cheeseboard (both there since the 1970s), and the very first Peet’s Coffee (which opened in 1966).

Less well known but growing in popularity, is a foodie neighborhood in West Berkeley, established in 2013 called The Berkeley Kitchens (which I’m going to refer to as TBK from here on out). TBK is a “commercial kitchen facility...a 26,000-square-foot historic West Berkeley building filled with stand-alone kitchen units, each of them leased to some up-and-coming food entrepreneur” (read more on the East Bay Express).

There’s a link between the Gourmet Ghetto and TBK in that current chef at of Standard Fare at TBK, Kelsie Kerr, used to work at Chez Panisse. Researching this made me want to make a flow chart of all the former Chez Panisse chefs and where they are now. You'd find a range of delicious restaurants, several of which are in the East Bay.

For the purpose of this blog, I want to highlight TBK’s tenants, Standard Fare and Third Culture, although they have a whole host of talented small food businesses you can read about on their website. Both are located on Eighth Street between Carleton and Pardee. Berkeley Humane is right around the corner, and open to prospective adopters on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Need some puppy love or kitten cuddles in your life?).

As a volunteer for Berkeley Humane, it’s become a casual ritual of mine after I walk cute pups, to pop around the corner and grab a Vietnamese coffee mochi donut from Third Culture and a black coffee with a splash of cream from Standard Fare.

Third Culture is probably most well known for being “home of the Original Mochi Muffin®” which is gluten free and made from mochiko rice flour (basically sweet rice flour), coconut milk, butter and sesame seeds. My favorite thing here though is their colorful array of beautiful mochi donuts, which are baked instead of being fried, skipping that heavy feeling that comes post fried donut indulgence. The flavors are among the most unique I’ve seen at a bakery (chai latte, thai tea, guava cheesecake, etc) and the dough has a satisfying chew without being dry or dense. The bakery itself has an inspiring and sweet love story- it’s owned by a couple, Sam Butarbutar and Wenter Shyu, who decided to start a bakery influenced by their immigrant backgrounds in Indonesia and Taiwan. As they say on their website, “this bakery exists because of love.” The sweetness of their story is reflected in the sweetness of their desserts, and the pop of color in their decor and cute aesthetic (hello little felted donut decorations) make it feel like a celebration.

Standard Fare is unique cafe in that it is an open kitchen, so you can see the many chefs preparing your food. Along with breakfast and lunch options, they have a host of pastries, coffees, and to go options in glass jars like homemade yogurts with meyer lemon and persimmons, caramel pudding with salted whipped cream, hummus and preserved lemons (which I once bought to make with a Morrocan chicken dish). Ingredients are local, organic, and like its neighbor Third Culture, you can tell its many offerings have been made with love.

The area itself isn’t just home to TBK. You’ll find a whole lot of gluten across the street from Standard Fare at the sour beer brewery The Rare Barrel, which offers tastings to the public. Around the corner, there’s something warm and comforting about smelling fresh bread (yes, more gluten!) as I walk down the street by Acme bread (located on 9th and Pardee, and started by a former Chez Panisse busboy, because it’s a small world around here). As I glance at the bakers working away on their batches of dough, I’m left with a similar feeling to what arises at TBK. It reminds me of the satisfaction of knowing where my food comes from, that there is a person behind what is being made and their creativity and hard work have made what I’m consuming special. In an increasingly tech-based world, there is still space for honoring what is handmade.