Leslie KurlandWith the recently rehabilitated City Storage building (Again, the most beautiful storage facility we have ever seen), the openings of Commonwealth Micropub and Scarlet City Espresso, Adeline Street is slowly coming to life. The most recent offerings, over a year in the making, are Baseline Produce and Basic Cafe by husband/wife proprietors Cara & George LaFrance of the LaFrance Restaurant Management Group. Located in the retail area of the Bakery Lofts, Baseline Produce and Basic Cafe offer a previously unprovided service: a neighborhood market and a cafe to find fresh, local ingredients and food. “We want this to be fun for the community. We want this to be their store.” noted George through a recent interview.
In addition to having an operations background, George is also a culinary-trained Chef and describes himself as a bit of a “Jack of all trades”. Cara’s background is more on the Public Relations/Social Media end of the spectrum. Together they make a pretty formidable business tandem that should help their businesses thrive in a tough climate to open a new food establishment. One of the unique challenges is the fact that Baseline is in Oakland and Basic is in Emeryville, so balancing the potentially drastically different wage scales of the adjacent businesses won’t be easy.
With an emphasis on supporting local farmers and sourcing high quality ingredients, Baseline Produce will have an assortment of fresh, organic and seasonal fruits and vegetables:
And various local dry goods (including Scarlet City Espresso beans!):
George and Cara are open to feedback from the community in terms of what to carry: “We want to keep our lines with the community open because they know what they like and we want to be here for them.” Basic Cafe will be drawing from the locally sourced ingredients from Baseline Produce to serve breakfast and lunch until 4pm and will include seating for about fifty people. The menu will be seasonal and is described as standard American cuisine.
Specialty items that they are teasing in a draft of their menu below include Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes, An item called “Ode’s mix” (which is a flatiron steak, poached eggs, red wine & hollandaise sauce … mmmm!) and various soup & sandwich combo’s. Basic will also serve gourmet coffee & espresso drinks.
Additional amenities include:
- Dog-friendly patio
- Breakfast (served all day) & lunch (evaluating Dinner feasibility)
- A selection of Craft Beers, Wine & Mimosa’s
Baseline Produce is already open and a launch date for Basic Cafe has been set to April 17th. Check out their Facebook page for any changes on the opening, additional details on hours of operation and register on their in-works website to receive a complimentary treat or drink with your first meal.
Baseline Produce:
5220 Adeline Street (Oakland)
Hours: Tues.-Sun: 10am – 7pm
BaselineProduce.com
Basic Cafe:
5000 Adeline Street (Emeryville)
Hours: TBD
BasicCafe5000.com
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Basic Cafe Breakfast Menu:
THE BEGINNING
SEASONAL FRUIT- YOGURT PARFAIT Honey-Granola with Toasted Nuts and Dried Fruit
STEEL CUT IRISH OATMEAL Fresh fruits, Brown Sugar
HOUSE-SMOKED SALMON Bagel, Gouda Cheese, Avocado, Heirloom Tomatoes and shaved Red Onions
THE LOFT BREAKFAST Ruby Red Organic Grapefruit, House made Granola, Fruit Yogurt, Pastries, or Toast with marmalade preserves
PAN BREADS
BELGIAN WAFFLES Seasonal Fruit with Grade A Maple Syrup
BUTTERMILK PANCAKES Basic Accompaniments
CHALLAH FRENCH TOAST Sweet spices with Whipped Cream and Shaved Almonds
EGGS, EGGS, EGGS…
TWO EGGS Apple-Wood Smoked Bacon or Chicken Apple Sausage, Crispy Fingerlings Potatoes, and Toast
BUILD IT YOURSELF OMELET Sweet Onions, Cremini Mushrooms, Roasted peppers, Tomatoes, Avocado, Ham, Tri-Tip, Smoked Gouda, Goat Cheese, Cheddar Cheese, Crispy Fingerling Potato
THE LOFT OMELET EGG Whites, Spinach and Garlic, Cremini Mushrooms, Goat Cheese, Crispy Tri-color Fingerling Potatoes
CLASSIC BENEDICT Ham, English muffin, Hollandaise, and Potatoes
HUEVOS RANCHEROS Two Fried Eggs, Salsa, Black Beans, Guacamole, Cheddar and Gouda Cheese on a fried Corn tortilla
EGGWICH Toasted Torta roll, green onions, apple-wood bacon, Gouda cheese
STEAK & EGGS 8oz Cut of Ribeye, Roasted Peppers, Sweet onions, Hash browns, and house made
SIDE KICKS
Apple-Wood Smoked Bacon
TURKEY BACON
Chicken Apple Sausage
Hashbrowns
Sliced Heirloom Tomatoes
Seasonal Fruits
Bagel & Toast
English Muffins
Muffin, Croissant, Danish
Steel Cut Oats
Cheddar Grits
MORNING BUZZ
Bloody Mary
Mimosa
Kir Royale
Thanks for this! I actually live in the Bakery Lofts but didn’t have time to go check out Basic Cafe’s opening day. 🙁 Now with the menu you posted here, I’m definitely happy to go give it a try this weekend.
Thanks again!
We stopped in Basic Cafe during the Christmas season. My daughter was visiting from college. I had great experiences in the past, so I decided to share my new found gem with my daughter. When we arrived there was no wait staff. We waited patiently and after NO ONE approached us. I began to look behind the counter and into the kitchen. I saw an man busy washing the dishes and no one else in sight. There were customers dining, but NO STAFF. I asked a woman standing right next to me, chatting up another woman if they were open? Her reply was “Yes we’re open”. My immediate thought was I’ve bee standing here the entire time with my daughter and you watched me looking for someone to help me, even let me look into the kitchen and never said a word, REALLY, WOW. Even after the woman said she worked there, she never said may I help you. She let my daughter and I proceed to the door and before I exited I asked “What is your name?” Her reply was “Cara”. I was dismayed needless to say. I guess my daughter,I, and our money wasn’t welcome at Basic Cafe. My daughter and I are African American. Cara the owner/employee is caucasian. She stood there chatting away with another caucasian woman and wouldn’t be bothered with us! Every time I have been to the Basic Cafe with the exception of this visit has been great. Do you know why? Cara wasn’t there. Here it says she is the owner of Basic Cafe. Interesting how cultural misappropriation is in play here. The menu serves up a majority of African American dishes, wait staff predominately African American and gives the impression it’s black owned, which by the way doesn’t matter to me. But what does matter to me is the ONE TIME the caucasian owner was here, we were relegated off as insignificant, so much so Cara couldn’t muster up a simple hello or may I help you. Instead she stood there and let us walk out the door. I will NEVER return and will tell EVERYONE who will listen DO NOT patronize this place as the OWNER/EMPLOYEE CARA does not like our kind, but she will put African American cuisine on the menu and African American waitstaff for window dressing in order to profit and expedite gentrification. We left and found Grato Deli on San Pablo Avenue, Emeryville where we were immediately greeted and served fresh smoothies and angus burgers! Don’t get me wrong I love all people and my immediate family ranges from Irish, Hispanic, Japanese, and African American. What I don’t like is BIGOTRY, RACISM, DISPARITY IN TREATMENT AND NOR WILL I EVER STAND FOR IT!!!
[…] Basic Cafe and Baseline Produce, that respectively straddled the Emeryville/Oakland border, both opened in April 2015. Baseline Produce unfortunately barely survived six months and Basic Cafe reportedly struggled as […]
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