Malinda Lo

Last Saturday night I had dinner at Gather Restaurant in Berkeley with some friends. It bills itself as organic, local, sustainable, etc. — you know, green. It even has organic and biodynamic wines and spirits.

The menu is divided into small plates, salads, pizzas, and large plates. I thought the large plates lacked creativity (there were only four dishes, and one of them was barbecued chicken — not that exciting), but the dishes we ordered were pretty good.

We started off with two small plates to share, and a salad:

Grilled local squid with watermelon gazpacho, fried almond oil, mint, chili

The grilled squid was definitely one of my favorites. I don’t know why I love squid so much; it’s sort of a recent development.

Crispy pork belly with shaved summer squash, basils

The pork belly was good, but I felt like it was a little dry. The shaved summer squash around it was delicious, though, as was the sauce.

Linda's lettuces - roasted necatarine-lavender-thyme-black-pepper vinaigrette, grilled nectarines, almonds

The salad was good, but I thought the nectarines were a bit mealy, which I didn’t like. Luckily, the salad was followed by the standout dish of the night in terms of creativity: a vegan charcuterie plate.

Vegan charcuterie

From top left, going clockwise, we have:

- Eggplant “brandade,” braised Jimmy Nardello peppers, saffron braised olives
- Carpaccio of watermelon radish and turnip, horseradish salsa verde, grapes, grated almond
- Tartar of tomato and corn, roasted tomato polenta
- Bruschetta, crispy tofu skin, avocado, tomato, smoked garlic “aioli”
- Summer mushroom pate, grilled nebrodini mushrooms

The best by far was the summer mushroom pate with grilled nebrodini mushroom — this is the thing in the lower right corner that looks suspiciously like meat. It tasted like meat, too, which actually I found a little disturbing in a dish that was supposed to be vegan, but the mushroom pate was to die for. I could have eaten an entire bowl of it. I also really enjoyed the watermelon radish and turnip “carpaccio,” which was light, crisp, and tangy.

We also ordered one of the pizzas:

Knoll Farms fig pizza with pancetta, spadona, arugula, black pepper, rosemary

The crust on this pizza was perfect (very New York style! awesome!).

Dessert followed, but I forgot to take photos of them. I also tried their organic single-malt scotch, Benromach, which was very smooth; I’ll be keeping an eye out for it in the future.

Overall, I really enjoyed the meal at Gather. I think it’s especially good for vegetarians — and don’t miss that vegan charcuterie, which was fantastic.