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[Oakland] Scharffen Berger's Cafe Cacao

ludja

By ludja
in California: Dining

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ludja

ludja

Posted
Posted

Anyone been or heard anything about the Cafe? (I still haven't been to a tour of the factory yet.)

Here's their website which includes their menu.

Here's a review.

But Café Cacao isn't just a tourist destination. The area around Seventh and Heinz continues to fill up with offices, and many of the workers have to get in their cars to search for lunch. Offering coffee, salads, and panini -- most in the $6-$10 range -- the cafe is bringing smart, affordable Californian cuisine to the lunch crowd.

and

The dinner menu will incorporate chocolate in the savory dishes, but none of the lunchtime offerings do. Instead, Oren works in a pan-Mediterranean palette of flavors, treating seasonal ingredients with the delicacy you'd expect, given his pedigree.

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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melkor

melkor

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Posted

I've done the tour, but I haven't had a chance to eat at the cafe. The tour is worth doing, it's nice to see so many people who clearly are proud of the work they are doing and the product they are making.

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Carolyn Tillie

Carolyn Tillie

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The cafe is quite nice and surprisingly good. I've had a spinach salad there as well as some sandwichy thing which escapes memory. The real treat, however, is ordering their hot chocolate. Yeah, I know I could make it at home (and do!) but somehow they make it taste better. And, needless to say, all the chocolate desserts are divine.

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TurtleMeng

TurtleMeng

Posted
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Great, now I am back in LA from Berkeley and saw this thread. :angry:

Well, it's not that hard to go up I guess...only took us about 5 hrs one way, driving "a little" over 90 mph, should be careful though...

"Mom, why can't you cook like the iron chef?"
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ludja

ludja

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  • Topic Starter
Posted
Great, now I am back in LA from Berkeley and saw this thread. :angry:

Well, it's not that hard to go up I guess...only took us about 5 hrs one way, driving "a little" over 90 mph, should be careful though...

Your previous thread re: Cocolat had me searching on the web--that's what inspired me to post this thread! :smile: Well, it hasn't been open too long so it should be there awhlie, at least until your next visit. :raz:

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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ludja

ludja

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I've done the tour, but I haven't had a chance to eat at the cafe.  The tour is worth doing, it's nice to see so many people who clearly are proud of the work they are doing and the product they are making.

Same here so far. We did the tour which was fun and informative. It was great to taste and compare the different Scharffenberger % cocoa chocolates side by side as well. Pretty neat to see the vintage equipment they use in preparing the beans. I agree re: the passion and their product--it comes through in the presentation and tour.

The cafe is quite nice and surprisingly good. I've had a spinach salad there as well as some sandwichy thing which escapes memory. The real treat, however, is ordering their hot chocolate. Yeah, I know I could make it at home (and do!) but somehow they make it taste better. And, needless to say, all the chocolate desserts are divine.

I wanted to try out the hot chocolate but had tasted enough chocolate during the tour that I had to have a diet coke in the cafe!!! Need to go back another time to check out the food/hot chocolate and desserts.

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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terri

terri

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Tour is short and "sweet" thanks to offering of educational-samples. The cafe was worth eating it and pleasant surprise with fresh salads, grilled cheese (forgot cheese combo) because was so absorbed in toasted chocolate sandwich (on both the entree and dessert menu) which was done flawlessly. Care was taken to partner each sandwich with correct bread. Not blown away by the hot chocolate - it was thinner than I anticipated.

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