They started lining up early, way before the 10 a.m. opening time, to be sure to get a tiny bit of Alice Waters, who hosted a “flea market,” with her daughter Fanny Singer on Sunday. By mid-morning, the line stretched from in front of Chez Panisse on Shattuck Avenue all away around to the end of Vine and then onto Walnut.
“It was a good-humored, patient and orderly line,” one person commented on Berkeleyside’s Facebook page.
Waters and Singers had only announced the sale of “treasures, bargains, and Alice’s hats,” on Instagram, but notice of it was picked up by local and national media, ensuring a huge crowd.
“Fanny and I are Spring cleaning and selling or giving away everything we do absolutely not want and need,” wrote Waters. “It is amazing how much I have accumulated over the years.”
The odds and ends that Waters and Singer did not want were set up on tables that stretched out on Shattuck Avenue in front of Chez Panisse. There were all sorts of items, including plates, glasses, jars, pitchers, tea kettles, ladles, bottles of olive oil and posters. Waters sat at a table in a multi-colored hat and laughed and chatted as she signed copies of her memoir and cookbooks.
Nancy Rubin, an accomplished photographer and frequent contributor to Berkeleyside, took these photos.
