Berkeley Bowl West

While running errands in the East Bay last week, I dropped by Berkeley Bowl West and deemed it my new favorite place to grocery shop! I frequented the original Berkeley Bowl while in college, but always found the crazy parking lot and crowds to be a bit overwhelming. But it’s new, larger and much-more-beautiful sibling store that opened in June just down the road is a piece of heaven. It offers locals a choice of pretty much every fruit, vegetable, grain, cheese, and meat imaginable in a beautiful, industrial-inspired space. Plus, there’s miles of parking so it’s much less painless to get in and out!

Berkeley Bowl prides itself on offering a vast produce selection, according to the company website,. And, truth be told, that was the first thing I noticed when I walked through the doors. Bins and bins of fruit and vegetables take up as much room as a normal supermarket’s produce and meat aisles combined! About a quarter of the produce is organic and the prices are very reasonable be careful though, just because they offer everything doesn’t mean it’s all in-season locally).

There’s also a large prepared food section like you’d find at Whole Foods (a curried Irsaeli couscous salad caught my eye!), as well as a moderate bread area where I found some loaves still warm from the oven.

I tinkered around in the cheese section for a while, checking out dozens of locally produced goat, gouda and mozzarella cheeses.

And I spent a good 15 minutes in the dry food aisles, where you can find lentils of every shape, size and color, prepared granolas and trail mixes, and grains I’ve never heard of like black quinoa.

There’s also a cafe across the front entrance and a wine tasting bar. Basically, you could spend the whole afternoon and come away with armloads of new ingredients and a full belly (tasting samples are plentiful!).

Check it out next time you’re in the area!

Tagged as: Berkeley Bowl West, East Bay, organic produce, resources, shopping, supermarket