Cafe Fanny, Berkeley, CA

I just had a powerful flashback to a time when I think my love for simple, beautiful food was blossoming. It was an awakening of sorts. I was working in Berkeley at Ten Speed Press, and I discovered nearby the luscious Cafe Fanny, on San Pablo Ave. Cafe Fanny is one of Alice Waters' restaurants--although Fanny is so pleasingly small and cozy, the word restaurant doesn't seem to fit. There was just something about this place. All of the seating was outside (is still?), under trellised vines. The menu was so straightforward and simple: True to Alice Waters' mission, all of the food was farm fresh and in season. My go-to breakfast was a fresh baguette, from Acme Bakery next door, warmed in the oven and served with a little container of fresh butter and a little container of fresh honey. And I remember the first time I was served a latte in a latte bowl. I'm not sure what it was, but I immediately took to the sensual pleasure of drinking my coffee from a bowl. Maybe it was that the increased surface area created an improved situation for enjoying coffee aromas, or perhaps it was the intrinsic different-ness that resulted from drinking such a quotidian beverage from a dish I would normally have reserved for other uses. I do not know. But I can say that the whole experience, sitting outside with my latte bowl, slowly enjoying my baguette with butter and honey, was like taking a mini-vacation, and it would replenish me in the way that a good vacation does. And even though I didn't visit Cafe Fanny as often once I moved across the bay to San Francisco, this is one place that I sincerely long for . . . not so differently from how I long for the friends I left out West.