Pimiento de la Vera roasted leg of lamb with “baba ganoush” in ciabatta
Today I hit Gregoire for lunch. If you don’t know Gregoire, it’s the East Bay’s premiere take-out place — a little tiny postage stamp of a place, but which churns out great food. For dinner, gourmet French food (my first visit there I had seared duck breast… to die for… I will have to review dinner separately).And for lunch, sandwiches, salads and lavash wraps. Both the lunch and dinner menus change monthlyAlways offering a selection of various potato products (don’t miss the crispy potato puffs… little poofs of crispiness surrounding surprisingly light “mashed potato”), and a choice of desserts (anything with the word “fold” in it is heavenly for me… I’m a sucker for flaky pastry).
Anyway, as I was saying before I got distracted reminiscing about previous Gregoire meals, I went there today and enjoyed a lamb and baba ganoush sandwich sitting in the sun on the picnic tables on the street. Gregoire has limited seating both indoor and out (maybe 3 counter seats inside? 2 tables outside) but a day like today was perfect to sit there crunching through the lovely toasted ciabatta bread. As I was eating the sandwich, I thought, I have never had a bad lunch here. The menu changes every month, I’ve never had the same sandwich twice, and everything I’ve ever ordered at lunch has been great. And I thought, I have to review this place. I can’t believe I haven’t yet.
All lunch items yummy, and all under 10 bucks for the “main course”. Sandwiches come with a mini-side (today I think it was cous cous salad) so you don’t actually have to order any potato product (which are sized to share anyway). Today I actually had a side of fries with aioli, and they were good, but really I should have stuck with the old standby of my favorite crispy potato puffs. I could eat a whole meal of nothing but those. In fact, I think I have.
Gregoire Restaurant
2109 Cedar Street
Berkeley, CA
510.883.1893
(also in Oakland)
