First look at Uqbar, West Berkeley’s new literary-inspired restaurant

About eight of them on their very first date Years in the past, Benji and Jennie Smith joked about opening a restaurant collectively.

On the time, Benji was working as a prep chef at Momofuku in Washington, DC, and Jennie had labored as a bartender throughout school. The 2 bonded over their love of meals and cooking.

That first date led to a second after which a 3rd. The couple fell in love and shortly moved to San Francisco, the place Benji labored as a sous chef at Canteen. They quickly moved to Chicago, the place Jennie earned her MBA from the College of Chicago Sales space Faculty of Enterprise, after which moved again to the Bay Space to Berkeley, the place Jennie grew up, and have been quickly married.

However regardless of the whole lot, the concept of ​​​​opening a restaurant remained with them.

And that concept has lastly turn into a actuality, because the couple’s new restaurant, Uqbar Mediterranean Cafe, will maintain its grand opening on Friday, November 21. The restaurant is situated within the former Tomate Cafe area on Fifth Road in West Berkeley.

The title Uqbar comes from the quick story by Jorge Luis Borges, ‘Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius’, revealed within the Argentine writers’ assortment ‘Labyrinths’.

“Uqbar is a made-up nation, possibly someplace within the Mediterranean or Asia Minor, it is ambiguous,” Jennie mentioned.

The phrase, pronounced ‘oook-bar’, can be simply enjoyable to say. After studying the story, Benji randomly shouted it across the couple’s home. And sooner or later they thought it was the proper title for his or her Mediterranean restaurant.

Just like the fictional nation of Uqbar, “Mediterranean” can be an “ambiguous time period,” Benji mentioned. However for the couple it means three issues.

First, there may be the Mediterranean local weather, which California enjoys.

“Meaning there’s a rising season all yr spherical,” says Benji. “So we’re getting all these nice merchandise and all these nice incentives. So we actually wished to spotlight that.”

Second is the Mediterranean eating regimen, which Benji referred to as the “best-studied eating regimen for human well being and longevity.”

This facet is private for Benji, who was identified with Crohn’s illness a yr in the past and needs to be cautious about what he eats.

“We need to provide complete grains, greens, lean proteins, legumes and all these issues,” says Benji. “And solely put ahead one thing that we are able to actually get behind and really feel like we’re benefiting our neighborhood in an actual approach.”

And thirdly, there may be the Mediterranean itself, the place the couple has traveled collectively. The area’s cultures, cuisines, hospitality, historical past and even structure have all been an inspiration to Uqbar.

That inspiration is expressed in numerous methods. An instance: the desk playing cards used within the restaurant. As a substitute of your customary 1-99 buyer numbers, the Smiths use letters, with every letter representing a special facet of Mediterranean historical past or mythology: M for Minotaur, N for Neptune, V for Virgil.

There may be additionally the labyrinthine Uqbar emblem, made by the Smithswhich was partly impressed by a visit to Crete, the place the parable of the Minotaur Labyrinth originated.

And naturally there may be the meals. The café’s menu will function a rotating collection of Mediterranean delicacies, altering “day by day to weekly” relying on the seasons. However a couple of issues will stay fixed, together with the hummus, which is all over the place on the menu. Uqbar’s model is lemony and filled with garlic and is given a stupendous texture by the addition of ice, which helps aerate the dip as it’s combined.

“Ice cream is likely one of the little chef’s tips,” Benji mentioned.

Flatbread shall be one other mainstay of the cafe. Impressed by the plancha within the restaurant’s kitchen, Benji started creating a recipe, beginning with Mannequin Bakery’s English muffin recipe, which he saved tweaking, rolling out thinner and thinner and making an attempt totally different flours, till he discovered the proper combine. The result’s powerful, comfortable and agency. Simple to tear, straightforward to dip.

The restaurant’s produce comes from Feed Sonoma, a farmer-worker cooperative made up of small, native, natural farms.

“We order on Wednesday, they choose it up on Thursday and ship it on Friday,” says Benji. “The very best a part of my week is coming in on Friday and seeing that order there.”

The restaurant has been in soft-opening mode for the previous few weeks, and on a current Tuesday it was filled with neighborhood workplace staff having lunch, in addition to two dozen cyclists from the Gradual Pokes biking group, who stuffed the restaurant’s courtyard and heartily munched on shakshuka and braised lamb sandwiches after an extended experience.

The cyclists have been common clients at Tomate Cafe and have been glad to have the ability to eat on the location once more.

Different Tomate Cafe regulars who enter Uqbar will probably acknowledge some acquainted faces among the many workers. That is as a result of the Smiths have been capable of provide jobs to all 5 of Tomate Cafe’s workers. A kind of workers has moved on to a different job, however the different 4 have a mixed expertise of greater than 50 years on the location.

Uqbar has additionally inherited Tomate’s liquor license and at present serves a restricted menu of 5 wines (together with two from close by Broc Cellars), three native beers and a wide range of drink specials, together with a seasonal fruit sangria this weekend. The cafe’s present opening hours are Tuesday to Thursday, 8am to 2pm, with prolonged opening hours on Friday and Saturday, 8am to 8pm. Comfortable hour on Friday afternoon runs from 4:00 PM to six:00 PM. It will likely be a bowl for the espresso and a residence for the wine species.

A lot of Tomate’s infrastructure stays, together with tables, benches and chairs, however the Smiths spruced issues up with a contemporary coat of paint and the addition of loads of vegetation. A lot of these vegetation hold from the rafters in macramé hangers made by Jennie’s mom, who additionally did a lot of the backyard work on the out of doors patio. In the meantime, Jennie’s father is busy placing the ending touches on a big clock he made himself, which is able to hold on the massive west wall of the café.

When Jennie was a youngster rising up in Berkeley, she by no means imagined she would reside in her hometown as an grownup. However now that Uqbar is lively, there isn’t a place she would quite be.

“This neighborhood specifically was tremendous welcoming, and this area is gorgeous,” says Jennie. “We’re very grateful to be right here.”