TIDY OPENING California Closets has opened a manufacturing and retail space at 1716 Fourth Street and will be holding an official grand opening on October 19th, from 5-8 pm. The company, which is a franchise operation, makes custom closets, and is taking over a mixed-use light industrial-zoned space that has been vacant for several years. The location will also be the company’s regional headquarters and is bringing new jobs to the city as it is currently hiring.
“This is good news for Berkeley,” said Dave Fogarty, from the city’s economic development office, “as it brings both retail sales taxes and blue collar jobs to the city.”
CULTURE BITES Grace Street Catering has taken over the catering for Cal Performances’ Café Zellerbach on the UC Berkeley campus. Offerings are largely organic, locally sourced and made in-house. Pre-performance menu items include soups, salads, sandwiches and charcuterie; while fresh fruit tarts, gluten-free fig bars and cookies feature on the intermission menu.
Most popular dish so far? The Sicilian Tuna Salad which comes with seared, medium-rare tuna, organic greens, shaved fennel and Castelvetrano olives. Early reports praise “the attention to detail and inspired flavor pairings”.
EDIBLE YARD Looks like Annie’s Homegrown, which, as Shop Talk reported earlier this month has settled into its new Berkeley HQ at Fifth Street and Cedar, is putting in a good-looking, extensive vegetable garden. Thanks to reader Patrick Nagel for sending in the photo
A KITCHEN SHOOTS FOR THE MOON Kitchen on Fire, the wildly popular cooking school on Shattuck Avenue, will open a second branch in mid-November at Rocket Restaurant Resource, a restaurant equipment supply store, at 2940 7th Street in west Berkeley. The new school will have two kitchens and a top-of-the-line array of equipment.
DOWNTOWN CULTURE The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life moved into its new space at 2121 Allston Way a few weeks ago. It will take a number of months, however, to move the 10,000+ piece collection of paintings, prints, photographs, textiles, and Judaica into the newly renovated building.
The Magnes Collection, which was formed in 2010 when the Judah L. Magnes Museum merged with UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, will hold a grand opening in January and public programing will follow shortly after that.
Shop Talk is our regular column in which we post updates on Berkeley businesses — openings, closings, new directions, relaunches, relocations. If you’re a Berkeley business with news, or a Berkeleysider who has spotted a change in your neighborhood or on your travels, shoot us an email with the details.
