[Updated on Sept. 5 with new launch date] NETFLIX + SAMIN NOSRAT Earlier this week, Netflix announced the launch of a new docu-series based on Berkeley author Samin Nosrat’s James Beard award-winning debut cookbook, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. The four-part miniseries, directed by Caroline Suh, features Nosrat as she travels to various kitchens around the world, including to Chez Panisse in Berkeley, where she first started her career in food. The show, which will also feature cooking in Mexico, Japan and Italy, launches on Oct. 11 on Netflix. This won’t be the first time Nosrat is featured in a Netflix series — she’s appeared in Michael Pollan’s 2016 Netflix series, “Cooked,” based on his book by the same name.
NATIVE EAST BAY We got word from co-founder Vincent Medina that Berkeley’s Café Ohlone by mak-‘amham, what will be California’s first Ohlone-run café serving pre-contact, pre-colonial Ohlone foods, will be opening on Sept. 2. Right now, Medina and his partner Louis Trevino are busy readying the space — found on the back patio of University Press Books — so that it reflects a “celebration of Ohlone culture.” That means there’ll be baskets, tule mats and other Ohlone objects on display, as well as photographs of Medina and Trevino’s families and community members, and a large communal redwood table, which is meant to pay homage to their ancestors who once lived amongst the redwoods in the East Bay and Carmel Valley hills.
As Medina and Trevino mostly gather the ingredients they’ll serve, Café Ohlone will offer a menu of small bites that’s guided by the seasons. Through the end of summer, the menu might include dishes made with local berries, California buckwheat and chia; while fall dishes will feature acorn and bay nuts and winter’s offerings will showcase heavier, heartier and more preserved ingredients, like dried berries, local mushrooms and bay salt-cured meats. Speaking of meats, Café Ohlone plans to offer smoked meats on a daily basis. Venison, quail, salmon, elk, duck and more will be roasted in a wood smoker with fragrant oak, manzanita and bay laurel wood. To drink, there will be native teas made with rose hips, yerba buena, hummingbird sage, artemisia, elderberry, black sage and manzanita berry, as well as Ohlone-style coffee, which will be infused with roasted bay nuts and piñon nuts and served with walnut and hazelnut milks infused with bay laurel. (Read more about Café Ohlone and Mak-‘amham on Nosh) Café Ohlone by Mak-‘amham, University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way (between Dana and Telegraph), Berkeley
MONTCLAIR TO GET NEW SPANISH SPOT Chef-co-owners Sergio Monleón and Emily Sarlatte of Berkeley’s Spanish tapas bar La Marcha are expanding their reach to a new venture in Oakland. The duo will open a new full-service restaurant called Alcalá in Montclair in 2019. The 62-seat restaurant will be found on the third floor of a new mixed-use building on Mountain Boulevard designed by Lowney Architecture. Like La Marcha, Alcalá’s focus will on Spanish cuisine, with an emphasis on whole-animal cooking and locally sourced ingredients. Chef Raiden Brenner — who’s spent time in kitchens at Oliveto, Revival, Duende — will head the kitchen at this upcoming upscale eatery. Alcalá will be at 2084 Mountain Blvd. (at Antioch), OaklandWINE AND CHEESEBOARD PAIRING Confused about what wines go best with what cheeses? If so, or maybe just because you like wine and cheese, you’ll want to get a ticket for this pairing event at The Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley. At 1 p.m. this Sunday, Aug. 5, POE Wines founder Samantha Sheehan will be on hand with a selection of her California wines, including a Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Rosé, as well as three vermouths for guests to taste with a variety of cheese. Tickets are $40. Cheeseboard Collective Pizzeria, 1512 Shattuck Ave. (at Vine), Berkeley
THE WELL IS RUNNING AGAIN The Well in Temescal is celebrating its grand re-opening today. The wellness café closed at the end of 2017, when founder Marielle Amrhein decided to take some time off to reassess the business. As Nosh reported in May, Amrhein ultimately decided to sell The Well, handing it off to new owner Anwen Cai Baumeister, who has been dedicated to the café’s focus on herbal drinks and food, but with new additions, like a kava bar.
Thanks to a successful Indiegogo campaign, Baumeister raised more than $9,000, money she has used to make improvements and additions to the space. For instance, because Baumeister plans to serve Chinese teas, the café now has a Chinese tea tasting area. This space can also do double duty as a performance stage, especially now that The Well has new audio equipment to make live shows possible. There’s now a cold case for grab-and-go items, more indoor and outdoor seating and a new retail area. Baumeister still has a wish list of things that she’d like to do for her new café and is continuing to raise funds for further improvements.
In the meantime, the public is invited to see for themselves what’s happening at The Well at tonight’s grand opening party. From 5 p.m. to midnight, there’ll be musical performances, an art show, and workshops and tasting with Top Leaf Farms, Alchemy Collective, Ancestral Apothecary, Sacred Roots Wellness, The Stinging Nettle and other local vendors. The Well, 5443 Telegraph Ave. (at 55th), OaklandBEER BARON PARTY Taking place a little more than four months after it officially opened its doors, Beer Baron is hosting a grand opening party at its Rockridge location. Starting at noon, Sunday, Aug. 5, the taproom-restaurant will feature half-off house barrel selections; a special beer list featuring rare releases and brews from Oregon makers like Crux Fermentation Project, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, Breakside and Deschutes and passed appetizers. There will also be live music, games and more. Beer Baron Bar & Kitchen, 5900 College Ave. (at Chabot), Oakland
FOB KITCHEN UPDATE Back in February, Nosh reported that Filipino restaurant FOB Kitchen would be taking over the former Juhu Beach Club space. Originally, co-owners Janice and Brandi Dulce had hoped to be up-and-running by spring, but with that deadline passed, we decided to check in with them to get an update on progress. The Dulces report they’ve been busy. Aside from being in the middle of the buildout phase of the space, they recently moved from San Francisco to the East Bay and have plans to participate in Outside Lands, the popular San Francisco music festival that will take place in the middle of August. With all that to keep them busy, they decided to move back FOB Kitchen’s opening to early September. Plus, they’ve been concentrating on another important matter — FOB Kitchen’s bar program.
“We knew that if we were going to be one of the first Filipino restaurants in Oakland with a full liquor license, we had to do it right, and we knew we wanted someone who could see our vision and be as excited as we were,” Janice Dulce wrote in a release.
That someone is Cali Gold, a bartender and drink consultant with an excellent name who’s spent time developing drinks at Blackbird and Beretta in San Francisco. For FOB Kitchen, Gold is creating an Island-inspired tropical cocktail menu that will go well with Filipino flavors.
We’ll have more updates as on FOB Kitchen as the opening date approaches, so stay tuned! FOB Kitchen will be at 5179 Telegraph Ave. (at 51st), Oakland
DON’T MISS THIS ‘CHECK, PLEASE!’ We’re excited to announce that Nosh contributor Alix Wall will appear on KQED’s “Check, Please! Bay Area,” airing tomorrow (Thursday, Aug. 2) at7:30 p.m. Yes, Alix will be chatting it up with host Leslie Sbrocco and the two other guests about their favorite Bay Area restaurants.For now, mum’s the word on the place she’ll be presenting, but Alix could tell us it’s one of her favorite Oakland eateries that she’s written about for Nosh. Tune in to watch her talk about this spot and review the two restaurants chosen by the others.
