In 2008, she started putting together a business plan for a cafe/restaurant in Berkeley. Just before she started looking for financing, the economy tanked--and the business plan went into a drawer. She returned to Chez Panisse, this time to do a year-long internship in the kitchen downstairs. She did some catering, some private cheffing, cooked at pop-up dinners and events with OPENrestaurant, with Samin Nostrat at Tartine AfterHours, at Local 123. She loved being the kitchen, but couldn't see herself working as just another line cook. Then, a colleague told her about the closure of Cafe Fanny, and how the original owners were looking for a new tenant. It seemed almost too good to be true, but she dusted off her plan, scaled it back to the casual, coffee-and-small-bites business she'd originally envisioned, re-did the numbers and hoped.

Before long, Alice Waters was calling from France: she loved Drexhage's vision. There was just one thing: She hated the name Drexhage had chosen. Could she think of a new one? Knowing that it's always wise to keep Alice happy when you're running a food business in Berkeley, Drexhage and Waters went back and forth until they agreed on Bartavelle, the French word for rock partridge, a plump, quail-like game bird.

Bartavelle business cards. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend — Bartavelle business cards.

Bartavelle interior. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Bartavelle interior. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Bartavelle cafe exterior. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Without the separate commissary kitchen that Fanny had relied on, Drexhage had to build more storage, refrigeration, and workspace into the narrow open kitchen. Adding in some new Health Department-mandated sinks revealed plumbing issues that required tearing up and replacing the entire floor. "My husband Stan, my dad, my brother--everyone helped out," said Drexhage. "I have some amazing artisan friends who did some amazing, wonderful things, a lot for trade." Eric Stark put up new counters, inside and outside, along with a tall cabinet at the back of the restaurant that discretely hides both dry storage and a refrigerator, while Paco Prieto and Pacassa Studios added zinc and copper cladding for both the counters and the outdoor tabletops.

Bartavelle smoked trout platter. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend — Bartavelle smoked trout platter.

Over the past two months, the brief opening menu of coffee, wine, and crostini has expanded into a appetite-whetting, seasonally-inspired list of sandwiches, small bites, and sweet and savory-topped toasts. Beautiful wooden boards, hand-carved by Prieto, are loaded with assortments of fresh and house-made pickled vegetables, cheeses, cured meats or smoked fish, with Acme bread on the side. In the morning, there's a whole-grain (and gluten-free) porridge of brown and red rice, red quinoa, amaranth and flax seed, served sweet, with butter, milk, brown sugar or maple syrup, or salty, dribbled with ghee and sea salt or sesame oil and gomaiso.

Bartavelle smoked trout platter. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend — Bartavelle smoked trout platter.

Almost every purchasing dollar gets spent locally: at Monterey Fish nearby, for local ling cod she salts and dries for brandade; at Sightglass Coffee Roasters and Red Blossom Tea, both based in San Francisco; at Marin's organic Straus Creamery for butter; at Tomatero Farm, Full Belly, Capay, and Happy Boy Farms for organic vegetables. Gorgeous eggs, with their marigold-yellow yolks bathed in olive oil, sea salt and marash pepper, or enriched with aioli and anchovy, come from a friend out in Clayton, who raises chickens on a biodynamic farm and Waldorf school called Beeloved Farm.

Bartavelle - Sheeps milk ricotta kale sandwich. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend — Bartavelle - Sheep's milk ricotta and kale sandwich.

Next door, Acme bakes an irresistibly chewy-crunchy Roman-style pizza bianca--a cross between ciabatta and pizza crust--only for Bartavelle, where it's used for sandwiches like this one spread with Bellwether sheep's milk ricotta from Marin, sauteed kale and fresh arugula, seasoned with preserved lemons and shallot vinaigrette.

The coffee program is run by her son, Sam Sobolewski, who started his coffee career at 15 as Blue Bottle's third employee, stamping bags and making drip coffees at the farmers' market. After several years with Blue Bottle, he went to New York to work for Joe: the Art of Coffee, returning last year to help out on the beverage side of Bartavelle.

Why Sightglass? Most importantly, it's taste: Sobolewski loves their coffee. Local 123, the nearest coffee shop, serves Four Barrel; Bartavelle is Sightglass's first account in Berkeley. There's no one coffee roaster that makes the "best" coffee, says Sobolewski, just like there's no one winemaker making the "best" red wine. It's all a matter of taste and style, and one that so far, even slow-to-change Berkeley is embracing at Bartavelle.

Bartavelle espresso machine. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend — Bartavelle espresso machine.

Bartavelle wine. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Sightglass coffee at Bartavelle. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Bartavelle owner Suzanne Drexhage with son and coffee director Sam Sobolewski in background. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

On this sunny, suddenly warm afternoon in January, Sobolewski looks up from his espresso machine to the wine bottles ranged in front of him as the golden-hour light sluices through the tall front windows, glowing through the pale salmon of the Abbatucci Gris Imperial. A day like this, it's almost rosé weather, I say. Absolutely, he agrees.

"It's rosé o'clock at Bartavelle!"

Information:
Facebook: Bartavelle Coffee and Wine Bar
Address: Map
1603 San Pablo Ave
Berkeley, CA 94702
Phone: (510) 524-2473
Hours: Tues-Sat 7am-6pm, Sun 8am-4pm

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