The mother of all sandwiches. The Gregoire Experience.

Gregoire, a tiny French takeout place in Northside, houses many delights. Gregoire and his little hats are only the first. The menu changes monthly, with some staples sticking around for most of the year, perhaps with slight seasonal variations. Most hyped about are the potato puffs - golden, crispy pillows of starchy goodness, served with a yummy aioli for dipping. Each dish is prepared with exceptional ingredients, and each month's menu never fails to make us DROOL.

Ready to attack!

Layers of warm, comforting cheesy potato goodness! Do not attempt, as the creatures did, to scale the hills of Berkeley directly following this particular genre of food event. You will only be rewarded with pain, cruel pain. But then someday you'll get back to your dorm and rub your little painful tummy and think "Damn, those were some good potatoes."

From the September menu: Smoked shrimp in a creamy sauce. This was the first visit of the year at Gregoire. Twould be the beginning of a passionate, life-long relationship.

The Calm One took a leap of faith (despite the warnings of the Unbalanced One) and ordered the lamb patty on pantofolina. She especially loved the crunchy-on-the-outside-mushy-on-the-inside bread.

The Unbalanced One and the Calm One had to use every last ounce of their strength (not upper body of course, who are we kidding??) to resist dipping their paws into this boiling vat of heahhh-ven!

From the January menu, this was tempura-fried butternut squash and caramelized onion chutney in pantofolina. ($6.50). Crunchy, sweet, and creamy--It was as good as it sounds. This is the reason we will live in Berkeley's northside next year.

Would you dare resist it's powers?

Also from the January menu: Thinly sliced "fra'mani" Toscano salami with melted Manchego on open face ciabatta ($7.25). Delicious, just a tad messy. BTW. under that avalanche of meat is indeed, a colony of loose tomatoes.

The Crazy One shows us the half of her salami sandwich before she devours the other half. As you can tell, she's not such a fan of the tomatoes.

This rice pilaf side was a pleasant, but not memorable side for our rich sandwiches. Unfortunately it contained a special nut that the Crazy One did not appreciate.

Gregoire

2109 Cedar Street, Berkeley, CA

(510) 883-1893