La Note is usually mobbed; they take no reservations, and the wait for Sunday brunch is hellish. The upside is that Pegasus Books is half a block away, good for browsing in the event of a half-hour or more wait.
Saul's, on Shattuck two doors down from Black Oak Books, is usually pretty crowded but has enough seating that it moves pretty quick, and is a very good NY-style deli.
On Solano, there's the Sunny Side Cafe and Walker's Pie Shop.
Only 2-3 blocks from the North Berkeley station there's the Monte Cristo Taqueria (listing B on the Googlemap), which is pretty good (amazing nachos) and extremely unlikely to be crowded, and about another block down there's The Bread Workshop, which has unbelievably shitty, lackadaisical service but really good food and coffee when you finally get it (and thus is rarely crowded and almost always easy to walk into with a loosely planned crowd).
eta: Gotta reemphasize that the Monte Cristo is really quite good; it's just at the ass-end of a wee strip mall on a major artery next to a dollar store, so it gets almost no Sunday brunch foot traffic.
I'll leave the venue choices up to the experts. I'll eat most things you're likely to find in a restaurant and have no food allergies to worry about.
I'm so glad I'll have the chance to meet several buffistae.
If the Berkeley knowledgeable people pick a place, I'll show up, especially if it's not too early.
eta: Maybe about 12:30 or 1:00?
Earlier is better for me, but I can always pop in and out. Will be good to see everyone in between bouts of studying.
Too much earlier would mean I couldn't go.
Ooh, I want to come brunch with Calli and everybody!
I like the sound of the Monte Cristo - good places tucked away in strip malls are a personal favorite of mine and not crowded sounds wonderful.
Got no druthers as to time.
Sunday I'm booked with my Great Uncle and Aunt in Albany (near the North Berkley Station of the BART, I'm told--I have no idea where it is, aside from near a BART station)
Heh. Emmett goes to school and plays baseball in Albany (which is a tiny five square miles.)
Take her to Cafe Leila.
La Note is usually mobbed; they take no reservations
La Note will take reservations if the party is big enough. I no longer remember, of course, what defines big enough. But sitting outside in the courtyard is lovely on a good weather day.
I wanna go to SF!!
good places tucked away in strip malls are a personal favorite of mine
Two of my favorite restaurants are/were in strip malls (Uzbek food in Buffalo Grove and Tunisian in Chicago which is now no longer serving food, sad to say, damn smoking regulations).
Two of my favorite restaurants are/were in strip malls
One of my favorites is too - Caffe Bella in Randolph, MA (of all places). It's a constant presence in the Boston Zagat top food ratings list (which is how I found it).
