Berkeley's other revolution happened at the table. In 1966 Alfred Peet opened a small coffee shop at Walnut and Vine and taught America to take its coffee seriously; in 1971 Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse a few blocks away and invented what the world now calls California cuisine — cooking built on fresh, local, seasonal ingredients and direct ties to nearby farms. The stretch of North Shattuck around them earned the nickname the Gourmet Ghetto, and farm-to-table spread from these few blocks to the whole country. Wear local; feed local; it started here.
The name itself is a small piece of poetry. In 1866 the trustees of the College of California stood on a rocky outcrop above the new townsite — still called Founders' Rock — looked out through the Golden Gate, and decided to name the place for the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley, remembering his line, ‘Westward the course of empire takes its way.’ The land was Ohlone homeland for thousands of years, then a piece of the Peralta family's Rancho San Antonio, then a Gold-Rush settlement called Ocean View; in 1878 the campus town and the waterfront village merged and incorporated as Berkeley.
Why People Visit Berkeley
Berkeley balances learning with the outdoors. Visitors mix landmark architecture and famous kitchens with regional parks, rose terraces, and waterfront breezes. It is curious, green, and welcoming, with year-round appeal in its parks, paths, and public spaces. History and everyday culture sit side by side here in a welcoming way, from the Little Castle to the cafes of the Gourmet Ghetto and the trails of the hills above the Bay.
