Berkeley Bakery/Café

[linnstewart]

My mom and I are headed to San Francisco next month for a “girls weekend” to celebrate her birthday. She is picking me up at the Sacramento airport at 8:00 am and we will be driving straight into the city. I thought we may stop in Berkeley for some coffee and a light breakfast/pastry. Definitely do not want anything mainstream, maybe even just a great bakery that serves coffee. Any suggestions for a small place?

[MollyGee]

Moms love Cafe Fanny (though my mom is a huge fan of Crixa for coffee and pastries, too).

[linnstewart]

Wow... thank you so much! I cannot wait!!!

[sensi63]

This is a no brainer. Bette's and Bette's to go are literally seconds off the freeway. Coming from Sacto, exit at Gilman and turn R onto 4th st or exit at University and over the fway to 6th and hang a left and another left on hearst. Bette's to go has really good bran muffins, cinnamon roles, sometimes they also have the best custard danish, as well as hot selections. They make good coffee, or if you want, Peet's is right across the street. If you hit it right time wise, in between the breakfast and lunch rushes, you can even sit down.

[Ruth Lafler]

Cafe Fanny. I really don't think that Bette's is a good idea for a "quick" stop on a weekend.

[Robert Lauriston]

Line's often quite long at Fanny too. At least at the slow speed they handle orders. But the stuff is better.

[sugarbuzz]

Sweet Adeline just on the Berkeley/Oakland border is a nice place to go..they are not always packed & they have a nice selection of baked goods,cookies & some savory items as well.

http://www.imaginature.org/sweetadeline/

[Karl Gerstenberger]

There are sit down cafes and stand up bars so weather rules potentially.

If you want to wait for another 15 minutes you could have a North Beach experience. I've always been happy at Cafe Greco.

Limited seating: Masse's, La Farine (College or Solano), Fanny, Bette's To-go, Cheeseboard

More seating: 817, French Hotel/Espresso Roma (same owner), Crixa, Oliveto Cafe, Cafe Trieste

If you've never been to Fanny I'd recommend the experience. It tweaks some people's price value matrices, but I've always been happy there. The beans are from Mr Espresso in Oakland. All food produced in a kitchen a few blocks away and assembled on site. The bread line at Acme is a fun view.

Oliveto Cafe knows how to handle milk (as in Italy) and the pastries are produced a few feet away upstairs.

[Robert Lauriston]

The branch on Solano is closer to the freeway.

In the same neighborhood as Masse's, the French Hotel has great coffee, and what appear to be La Farine pastries.

[oaklandfoodie]

It's South of Alcatraz.

[Robert Lauriston]

Oops, my brain was upside-down.

[dordogne]

La Farine on College (just South of Alcatraz) has a selection of great pastry (croissants, frangipane [a square-shaped almond croissant], scones with excellent crumb, chocolatines, Swiss Twinkies [croissant with chopped nuts, cinammon, sugar], etc. and good-not-great coffee) that can be enjoyed at a large, round community table centered with a vase of flowers. Masse's on Shattuck (two blocks north of Cedar) also has wonderful pastries, better coffee, whimsical accoutrements and several small tables.

[Morton the Mousse]

Consider Guerilla Cafe or Cafe Fanny.

cafefanny.com

guerillacafe.com

[Robert Lauriston]

The two best bakery-cafes in Berkeley are:

http://www.lafarine.com
http://www.crixacakes.com

There's also:

http://www.cafefanny.com

[coolbean98]

I would totally second Crixa, my neighborhood cake shop. Aside from excellent Hungarian pastries and good coffee, there's great teas and no crowd (a rariety!). Also plenty of outdoor and indoor sitting, which LaFarine (which I love for breads) can't offer.

Note that its specialties are really more cake-oriented, aside from a few items like Saffron Buns and Fatima's Thighs.