Vital Vittles started as a flour mill in 1976, then became a bakery in 1979, working out of Virginia Bakery on Shattuck Avenue. It later moved to its own facility on Heinz Street, and finally opened a bakery on San Pablo Avenue in West Berkeley, where it still stands today. Photo: Amalya Dubrovsky
2810 San Pablo Ave. (near Grayson Street), Berkeley
Owners Binh and Huong Tran, along with three other employees, get up in the early morning hours to go to Vital Vittles, a West Berkeley bakery on San Pablo Avenue, where they prepare the organic, whole wheat bread, muffins and cakes that have fortified countless meals at Berkeley cafes, school cafeterias and homes for decades.
Supriya Yelimeli looks forward to visiting a crowded dining room at Viks Chaat for cholle bhature then going back in line for sweets and seconds. Photo: Mighty Travels/Flickr
Our final installment of year-end food reflections focuses on the future hopefully, the not-so-distant future when we can safely eat, drink and gather again in restaurants and with others outside our immediate households without masks.
Below, you’ll find the hopes and wishes of Nosh, Berkeleyside, Oaklandside and Cityside contributors and staff on the topic, but we’d love to hear what you’re looking forward to most, when it comes to food, when the pandemic is over. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The Peruvian chicken dinner from Michoz, a pop-up operating out of Hidden Cafe in Berkeley, was a memorable feast. Photo: Sarah Han
Usually, around this time of year, we’re feeling pretty good. We’re buzzing with a sense of joy and relaxation, spending time with family and friends, gathering and eating meals together and looking back on the fun times we had over the last 12 months. After almost a full year of living with COVID-19, those halcyon holiday times seem so distant from our current reality. But while we didn’t get many opportunities to eat at restaurants or meet up for meals with friends, we still did have some good times and ate plenty of good food in 2020.