Your roundup of East Bay food news to know for Monday, June 7, 2021. Heads up: We sometimes link to sites that limit access for non-subscribers.
- Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters, whose promotion of her new book led to a shocking claim about tomatoes, has another surprise for fans: She’s opening her first new restaurant since Berkeley’s now-shuttered Cafe Fanny. The new spot will be in Los Angeles, inside UCLA’s Hammer Museum (yes, those Hammers) and will start serving patrons “wholesome foods sourced from local farms dedicated to responsible and regenerative farming practices” this fall. (Eater LA)
- As they prepare to reopen under a new partnership, Oakland red sauce spot Mama has put out a call to local artists, seeking “stunning pieces to hang” in the restaurant, “all to be sold on consignment to our guests.” (Mama/Instagram)
- Davina Dickens, the owner of Downtown Oakland’s Graffiti Pizza, has a Japanese mom and a Black dad, and identifies as Black. She found herself at the center of a social media storm in May, after patrons falsely claimed that she wasn’t the restaurant’s owner/actually Black, and was just attempting to capitalize on the movement to support businesses owned by BIPOC folks. (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Eight-year-old North Bay beer company Headlands Brewing Company has opened its first taproom in Lafayette, with a menu of sausages and snacks as well as a “20-tap floating draught tower.” (East Bay Times)
- Berkeley-based nonprofit Charlie Cart has grown from a Kickstarted plan to teach school kids how to cook to a program in 38 libraries across the country. (Edible East Bay)
