Gourmet Ghetto
Birthplace of California cuisine and farm-to-table dining.
The Gourmet Ghetto is a colloquial name for the North Shattuck business district in Berkeley, California, recognized as the birthplace of California cuisine. The neighborhood, which coalesced as a culinary destination in the mid-1970s, is credited with pioneering specialty coffee, the farm-to-table movement, and the popularization of open-kitchen restaurants and California pizza. The nickname was coined in the late 1970s by comedian Darryl Henriques.
Quick Facts
- Location
- North Shattuck business district, Berkeley, California
- Nickname coined
- Late 1970s
- Nickname coined by
- Darryl Henriques
- Early founding influences
- Peet's Coffee
- Chez Panisse
- Cheese Board Collective
- Key figure
- Alice Waters
- First peet's coffee opened
- April 1, 1966
- Cheese board founded
- 1967
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- Alice Medrich's chocolate truffles, sold out of Pig-by-the-Tail in December 1973, sparked an American craze for chocolate truffles.
- Chez Panisse's upstairs cafe, opened in 1980, featured one of the first California-style pizzas with toppings like goat cheese and duck sausage.
- The 'Gourmet Ghetto' name was dropped by the North Shattuck Association in 2019 after coffee shop co-owner Nick Cho called it inappropriate and offensive.
History
The Gourmet Ghetto's origins trace to April 1, 1966, when Alfred Peet opened the first Peet's Coffee at Walnut and Vine. Peet's was the first U.S. coffee retailer to offer specialty beans from around the world, with darker roasts such as French roast, and initially sold only whole bean coffee for home preparation. The activist-oriented Berkeley Co-op grocery store, focusing on natural foods, was already in the neighborhood, along with several butcher shops. In 1967, Elizabeth and Sahag Avedisian founded the Cheese Board a few doors from Peet's, selling fine cheeses while they studied. The Avedisians sold the store to their six employees in 1971, who formed an employee-owned collective renamed the Cheese Board Collective. The collective introduced the sourdough baguette to the U.S. in 1975, which sold well with soft cheeses.
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