Taste of the Town

Revival Rules

Organic Urban Renewal Revs Up Berkeley

For a restaurateur to open a restaurant in the current competitive and economically sluggish climate, she must have not only guts, but an
attention-grabbing concept, as well. Amy Murray has both. A downtown Berkeley’s culinary mainstay by virtue of Venus, the restaurant she opened on Shattuck Avenue 10 years ago to purvey her global yet homey spin on seasonal California cuisine, Murray has extended her reach a few blocks up the street to the former site of Downtown. When we made our two dinner visits to her ambitious Revival Bar & Kitchen, less than three months after its May 2010 opening, Murray had already found her footing and was waiting only for the crowds to find her. They will.
At the heart of Murray’s enterprise is her notion of revival. To paraphrase our server, who was explaining the absence of a hamburger on the menu, Murray is resurrecting dishes and cooking techniques from our grandparents’ and great-grand-parents’ kitchens. As Murray says, it’s also time for Berkeley to go through a renaissance of its dining scene, the way Oakland has. Moreover, she wants to contribute to the revival of downtown Berkeley — to bring back some of the grandeur that characterized Shattuck Avenue long ago, before urban decay set
in. Murray chose the name “Bar & Kitchen” because it connotes something homier and more solidly rooted than “restaurant.”
The rebirth began with a makeover of the Downtown space in the now-109-year-old building. The elements include a paint job that favors deep earth tones and plaster-like washes; a wood floor; banquettes upholstered in dark leather accented with red buttons; hospitable lighting from hurricane, pendant and standup lamps; white tablecloths on some tables and bare zinc tops on others; and a new back-bar that incorporates arches salvaged from a building next-door to Venus. All that, plus an assortment of curios and knickknacks, and waiters wearing vests, adds up to a turn-of-the-20th-century, taming-of-the-West ambience, not unlike the Barbary Coast theme taking hold in San Francisco.
Murray and her designer also inserted subtle religious-revival puns: a red I-beam “cross” through the windows to the right of the prominent bar and a suspended fabric “tent” above a central seating area that is set off by a baroque rug and low walls. The
only off note I detected in the cozy environment was the mood music: instead of Sinatra or Bennett it was Michael Bublé singing swing standards and romantic ballads in the background.
The theme of regeneration carries over into old-school kitchen practices (pickling, caramelizing, braising, smoking) and
house-made garnishes (chutneys, aiolis, pestos, relishes, mustards) that put an explicit pre-industrial-food-production spin on the contemporary locavore and snout-
to-tail trends.
But where any concept must play out is on the plate. And during two more-than-ample meals, we didn’t encounter a dish we wouldn’t order again, with the exception of a starter of corn and okra fritters ($10.50) that were a tad bland, despite the addition of pickled gypsy peppers and green tomato coulis, and an over-the-top dulce de leche–cocoa nibs sundae with too many chunks of blondie ($8.50). But those were truly matters of personal preference.
I can think of lots of reasons to become
a vegetarian. Revival’s mixed pig plate ($24) isn’t one of them. Because she has 3,000 square feet of additional storage, kitchen and butchery space in the basement, Murray can deal with whole animals. Her favorite is goat (a Boer breed from McCormack Ranch), which finds its way to the menu as chops with chimichurri ($12.50); in meatballs on a sandwich ($14) or small plate with mint chutney ($9); and braised with za’atar ($22) as an entrée. Long and Bailey pigs are transformed into rillette ($9.50) with smoked paprika and lemon chutney, and the aforementioned pig plate, a mix of ideal incarnations — falling-apart pulled shoulder, succulent belly confit, beautifully textured sausage and tender, juicy loin — served with crisp green beans and potato gratin.
On the daily-changing menu, fish offerings might include wild halibut cheeks ($22) or filet ($23), grilled yellowfin tuna ($22), a fried local cod sandwich ($14) or the thick chunks of seared tombo ($22) that I enjoyed with crunchy spiced crust, cool pink centers and accompaniments of braised butter beans, arugula, olive tapenade, aioli and sun gold and cherry tomatoes. Carnivores will also take pleasure in Lucky Dog Ranch steaks, Sonoma duck breast and confit and the occasional chicken breast.
Robin went meatless at our two dinners, with no regrets. She declared the house-made pasta ($18.50) — with roasted summer squash, caramelized fennel, cherry tomatoes and basil pesto — one of the best such dishes she’d ever had. And, after we shared a basket of sinfully scrumptious cornmeal-crusted onion rings ($6), she made a meal of a thick, pasta-sauce-like tomato-fennel soup ($7) with golden raisins and a dazzling brown rice salad ($11) with almonds, peppers, shaved Parmigiano and romesco.
The creative cocktail list and the well-selected international wine list (15 by the glass, $7–$14) add to Revival’s appeal. We front-loaded our meals with a Moscow Mule (vodka, lime and ginger beer, in a Russian copper mug), a Sazerac (in a throwback highball glass), a Velvet Underground (rum, apricot liqueur, Falernum and lemon) and a Purple Heart (bourbon, fresh plum, orange, lemon and peach bitters) (all $9).
If those don’t put you in a friendly mood, Revival has other ways: free corkage Tuesday through Thursday after 8 p.m., a weekday happy hour ($5 house wine, $7 cocktail du jour), Ladies Night on Thursdays (live music, $7 drinks for those in cocktail dresses) and the Sunday Supper Club (a $28 prix-fixe dinner on a monthly theme). There are plans for weekend brunch and, next spring, a roof garden to cultivate herbs and keep bees.
Likely to become a cornerstone of the Berkeley arts district, a hot spot for shoppers and patrons of the Berkeley Rep and Aurora theaters, the Jazz School, the Freight & Salvage and Shattuck area cinemas, Revival may be destined to nourish a downtown reborn, with organic urban renewal we can believe in.

Revival Bar & Kitchen. 2102 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, (510) 549-9950, www.revivalbarandkitchen.com

This article appears in the November 2010 issue of Alameda Magazine
Did you like what you read here? Subscribe to Alameda Magazine »