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Sprouts & Shutters

Here’s your roundup of retail, restaurant and other business news in Berkeley, Albany and El Cerrito. Find out what's opening, closing and changing around town.

Wondering what new businesses are opening and changing in your town? Our “Sprouts & Shutters” column highlights restaurant, retail and other business news in Berkeley, Albany and El Cerrito.

Berkeley

Sliver Pizza is up and running at 2132 Center St., Berkeley, within a block of the Cal campus, according to the Oakland Tribune. The three owners are all veterans of Berkeley's Cheese Board Collective and emphasize fresh ingredients, with a topping of social justice — a pizzeria-based campaign against human trafficking. Sliver is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with a rotating menu that offers a different vegetarian pizza each day, plus salad. Check the daily menu at the Siver website.

Albany

A popular restaurant is expanding. Cafeina Organic Cafe is expected to open its annex on Tuesday afternoon. Owner Maria Myers said the cafe at 1389 Solano Ave. needed to expand because business is bustling. The annex will have 14 additional seats for diners. It's in the space next to the cafe that used to house a hair salon. The current restaurant opened in 2006.

Ross Stapleton-Gray January 28, 2013 at 12:48 pm
Well, that's good to hear about Cafeina... the current space is quite small.
Apparently Sea Salt, on San Pablo in Berkeley, is now gone, a part of the K2 folks' shrinking their empire (ditto sale of T Rex).
Robert Marshall January 28, 2013 at 01:23 pm
Don't forget Grazzy Burger, which is supposed to open mid-February! (Albany)
Dover January 28, 2013 at 01:35 pm
Congratulations to Maria on the well-deserved expansion!
A.B. January 28, 2013 at 01:49 pm
SalvaMex recently opened in El Cerrito (San Pablo Ave. near Potrero Ave.). Great al pastor tacos and burritos! I'm sure other items are great, but those are our favorites!
LJ January 28, 2013 at 02:50 pm
Sea Salt is now a business called EAT + Lounge. Passed by it recently. I loved brunch at Sea Salt.
Mike Duigou January 28, 2013 at 03:15 pm
Congratulations to Maria and Cafeina!
Ross Stapleton-Gray January 28, 2013 at 03:28 pm
Sea Salt had smelt from Lake Huron, which, as a native Michigander, I had sorely missed. Alas.
Nancy Jennings January 28, 2013 at 03:54 pm
We didn't realize T-Rex had changed hands before we last went there, in November. But it didn't take long at ALL to tell that things had changed. And not for the better. Sad.
Danny Chester January 28, 2013 at 10:30 pm
What's going in the old Raspberries space on San Pablo?
Michael Elder January 28, 2013 at 11:32 pm
Last week I saw a poster announcing Albany Taproom coming soon in the window next to where Grazzy Burger is opening soon. Can't come soon enough. OPEN, OPEN, OPEN. I will be fogging the doors hours before they open.
Toni Mayer January 29, 2013 at 02:29 am
T-Rex changed chefs a year or two ago and we noticed a change for the worse, predating the Krikorians spinning it off. It used to be a favorite of ours.
amy January 29, 2013 at 03:32 pm
We heard it is going to be a martial arts studio. My husband asking a man working on the place one weekend.

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Just a short thought to get the word out quickly about anything in your neighborhood.
Share something with your neighbors. Write a new post... What's up? Make an announcement, speak your mind, or sell something
ted friedman June 18, 2013 at 10:08 pm
The name is weirdly spelled, but not this weird. It's Caffe, not Caffee. I've only typed these wordsRead More a thousand times.
ted friedman June 19, 2013 at 11:06 am
Correction. Your Patch editor, Charles Burress is misspelled here.
ted friedman June 19, 2013 at 11:09 am
I could blame those cut-ups, typographers in the basement typing onto big circular steel plates