Page 84 - 2014 Travel Guide to California

BERKELEY
Free speech, superb dining, shopping
and performing arts
»
DINE,
SHOP, GOLF,
SEE A PLAY.
Berkeley Tourism
Information
visitberkeley.com
SUNSET OVER SAN FRANCISCO BAY
and the Campanile, above; Berkeley’s all
organic farmers’ market, below.
WORLD-FAMOUS as a historic center of
free speech and 1960s counterculture,
Berkeley, on the eastern shore of San Fran-
cisco Bay, has morphed into a foodie
destination and unique arts and shopping
mecca. But it’s still Berkeley, proudly off-
center, quirky and fun to visit.
The Downtown Arts District on Addison
Street showcases the superb Berkeley Reper-
tory Theatre, the Aurora Theatre Company
and venerable folk music haven the Freight
and Salvage, which is both a performance
venue and community-minded folk-music
learning center. North Berkeley along and
near Shattuck Avenue is the city’s Gourmet
Ghetto, with its jewel in the crown, Chez
Panisse, founded by the doyenne of fresh,
local, seasonal California cuisine, Alice
Waters. The 1966 original Peet’s Coffee and
Tea shop is right nearby, as are excellent
food markets, the first-rate cheese shop and
bakery the Cheese Board and fine restau-
rants such as the French-flavored Liaison.
One-of-a-kind shopping abounds on
Fourth Street, just north of University
82 2014 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A
B Y D A V I D A R M S T R O N G
Avenue in West Berkeley; standout shops
include Miki’s Paper, which features exqui-
site hand-made Japanese stationery and
wrapping paper.
Gorgeous brown-shingle wooden
homes and public buildings by cele-
brated architects Bernard Maybeck and
Julia Morgan—who adapted Arts and
Crafts design to form the Bay Region
style in the early 20th century—enrich the
city. Maybeck’s serene 1910 First Church
of Christ, Scientist, just east of Telegraph
Avenue and south of the University of
California campus, is an architectural
hymn to silence.
On the UC Berkeley campus proper, Cal
Performances brings international head-
liners to Zellerbach Hall, while Cal’s Golden
Bears football team puts on another type of
performance in Memorial Stadium over-
looking San Francisco Bay from its hillside
site. Got golf? Certainly. Visitors and locals
alike tee it up at the 18-hole Tilden Park Golf
Course, in the woodsy Berkeley Hills high
above the Bay.
ANDREAS HUB/LIAF.DE.. TOP: CHAO KUSOLLERSCHARIYA/SHUTTERSTOCK