Set in the foothills, with Berkeley’s riches spread below, California Memorial Stadium sits like the head of an immense banquet table spread with dishes of every flavor and nationality.
A brisk walk from the stadium will take you to anything your heart desires – hot dogs or hoagies, ramen or Japanese curry. And beer, of course, for those who prefer to do their tailgating indoors with frosty mugs and sports TV.
Here are five excellent choices for dining near the stadium on Cal game days – or really any day.
Pizzeria da Laura
If you’ve got some mini-Mitchell Schwartzes in the family, you could stuff them with stadium pretzels and hot dogs. Better yet, take them to downtown’s Pizzeria da Laura, run by Laura Meyer who has won Italy’s World Pizza Competition and spent two decades at that local gem, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana.
The restaurant is in a natural light-filled corner space bursting with Art Deco flair, two floors of dining space and an outdoor patio. Meyer offers four styles of pizza: New York, Sicilian, Grandma and cheese-crusted Detroit. Vegetarians will be happy with their options (including an addictive arugula pesto), as will die-hard meat lovers, who can choose among sausage, bacon, soppressata and thin or thick-cupped pepperoni — and pizzas topped with smoked scamorza, shallot confit and garlic fermented honey.
The menu offers housemade pastas, too, and if you absolutely must have salad, the asparagus with roasted tomatoes and whipped ricotta is an almost-healthy indulgence. Did we mention the Negronis and build-your-own gin and tonics?
The dish: Meyer’s known for her inventive pizzas – her braised lamb, pomegranate and tzatziki pizza won at 2014’s Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. So trust her when ordering the tasty Chi Town pie, made with mozzarella, sausage, Romano and house giardiniera ($26-$33).
Details: Open for lunch and dinner Wednesday-Sunday at 2049 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley; pizzeriadalaura.com.
Angeline’s Louisiana Kitchen
There might not be an established dish called “Voodoo Shrimp” in New Orleans, but Angeline’s does things a little differently. The Louisiana-themed restaurant, helmed by Baton Rouge chef Brandon Dubea, is full of delightful twists on French Quarter classics – buttermilk-fried chicken breast with ginger-vanilla sweet potatoes, grilled baby-back ribs with bourbon sauce and, yes, those Voodoo Shrimp, a take on buttery barbecue shrimp with Blue Lake green beans.
Walking into Angeline’s is a delight. There’s gator art, plastic beads and brass instruments on the walls, and brass bands on the speakers. Heavy iron chandeliers and lazily swinging fans lend a touch of Southern Gothic class. On any given day, it’s bound to be bustling – especially at brunch — with diners hunkered over massive plates of fried chicken and hush puppies with honey butter.
Sweet tea or “Swamp Water,” a mix of lemonade and ice tea? Abita beer and hurricanes? They’re here. Red beans and rice, catfish po’boys, jambalaya and that olive-and-cured-meat gut bomb known as the muffuletta are all represented. The only thing missing is Kermit Ruffins blowing his trumpet in the corner – perhaps they can get that going soon.
The dish: The house gumbo has a perfect, coffee-colored roux with deep, toasty flavors, accentuated with bay shrimp, okra, andouille and tasso ham ($19). And because New Orleans loves excess, follow it up with Bananas Foster bread pudding with rum-caramel sauce ($10).
Details: Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday and weekend brunch at 2261 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley; angelineskitchen.com.
Chengdu Style Restaurant
Fired up about the game? Match your enthusiasm with truly fiery cuisine at this no-frills restaurant just a long pass away from Memorial Stadium.
Chengdu is named for the capital of Sichuan province and is about as well known in critics’ circles as 1893’s Coach Pudge Heffelfinger is among Cal fans. But it’s worth visiting for its aromatic, fearlessly spiced dishes, which trigger explosions of heat and flavor in your mouth — pow pow pow! – like fireworks after a winning game.
Chengdu’s dishes are well spiced, but that doesn’t always mean spicy. There’s a Chinese-American menu section with milder classics like orange chicken and beef and broccoli. But you’ll instantly become a fan of offal with the cold appetizer of beef tendon and ox tripe in chili sauce, gleaming with tongue-numbing Sichuan-peppercorn oil and spiked with sesame and cilantro. The green beans are wok-blistered to an almost buttery flavor. And if you want to eat like Marshawn Lynch, there’s a tender Dongpo pork joint that your server might carve like a Thanksgiving turkey.
The dish: The Toothpick Lamb ($21) is an immense platter of lamb chunks on skewers, fried ’til crispy and dusted with numbing peppers and cumin and fresh herbs.
Details: Open for lunch and dinner daily at 2600 Bancroft Way, Berkeley; chengdustylerestaurant.com.
Comal
Owned by local restaurateurs Andrew Hoffman and John Paluska – who, fun fact, used to be a manager for Phish – this long-time Berkeley hot spot serves California-Oaxacan fare that’s scrumptious, inventive and always in reverence of seasonal bounty.
Matt Gandin, formerly of San Francisco’s Delfina, runs the busy open kitchen. Flame eruptions are frequent, and a stack of firewood reminds diners that Gandin’s all about live-fire cooking. You’ll find more heat in the fire pit in the back covered garden, a chillax space with lush greenery and an outdoor bar.
Pretty much everything is made in-house, from the margarita mix to the flaky tortilla chips to the salsas, which range from fiery roja to tangy verde.
A chilled soup of chayote and poblano is summer perfection, while the tlayuda (a pizza-sized crunchy tortilla) scattered with smashed garbanzos, queso fresco and squash blossoms might be the prettiest dish in town. Still left with a Matthew Cindric-sized hunger? Try one of the Platos Fuertes meant for two people, like the bone-in 22-ounce ribeye or the spit-roasted whole chicken with fingerling potatoes.
The dish: Does alcohol count as food? The beverage list at Comal offers more than a hundred mezcals and tequilas, plus samplers including the Mezcal Flight pa’ el Viajero, a Oaxaca-specific pairing served with sangrita roja and sal de gusano.
Details: Open for dinner Monday-Sunday at 2020 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley; comalberkeley.com.
Olfactory Brewing
Football, beer and a big ol’ sandwich – is there any trio more sacrosanct in America? And you can get it all on Cal days by taking a detour to the new Olfactory Brewing taproom, which serves a menu of Chicago-style hot dogs and East Coast Italian hoagies.
Olfactory was founded in 2022 in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood by owners that include UC Davis grads who have worked at Almanac Beer in Alameda and Sudwerk Brewing in Sacramento. The brewery is known for its sustainable techniques, locally sourced floor-malted grains and collaborations with East Bay fixtures like Oakland’s Ghost Town and Temescal Brewing.
The Berkeley taproom that opened this spring is dark and intimate, a perfect space to reflect before the game. And by reflect, we mean enjoy a beer – a Hana Kolsch with crisp notes of sweet grass, or a Celestial Leisure fuzzy pale ale or sour raspberry saison aged in oak foudres for more than a year. Perhaps the best-known offering is — deep breath, now — The Lamp Industry Is Booming During These Dark Days, a naturally carbonated black lager that’s toasty, smooth and chocolaty.
Enjoy those brews with the taproom’s grub — Chicago Dawgs (veggie versions available), German potato-bacon salad and Italian Beef sandos with unapologetically hot giardiniera.
The dish: East Coasters will delight at a new place to devour Italian hoagies ($19). The fillings on these stacked slammers vary: One week they might include mortadella, halal turkey and soppressata, another might skew mild coppa, jambon de Paris and Calabrian chili-garlic mayo.
Details: Open from 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday at 2055D Center St., Berkeley; olfactorybrewing.com.
