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Café Bolita

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It’s going to be toasty all week, so we’re highlighting a few favorites while we have them —early girl tomatoes and jimmy nardellos.

The Nardellos are in a starter on the dinner menu and tucked into the frittata during daytime. Jalapeños from @full_belly_farm in the frittata and salsas. @mariquitafarm early girls in the huevos con ejotes while we still have pole beans, also sneaking a few slices into the fish torta, and will be in the dinner salad.

As you may have noticed, corn has been out of season for a bit, and the quesadilla is currently one of our favorites— mushroom & Epazote. Here to stay through the fall.

Dinner reservations are live for Saturday. Come through! Make a reservation.

Next week we’re starting our Autumn Schedule- we’ll be open Wednesday through Saturday. This is outclass Sunday brunch for a while, come through!!

See you at the café! by @cafebolita

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2 days ago

Rising Star Chef Emmanuel Galvan (@em.manu.l) quit his corporate human resources job during the pandemic with nothing else lined up, just a conviction that something needed to change. He started making masa out of his home kitchen, posting on Instagram to gauge interest, and delivering pay-what-you-can orders himself as word spread. That grew into Café Bolita (@cafebolita) and Bolita Masa, where Galvan draws as much from Thai and Filipino cooking as he does from his own Mexican roots, layering char and bitterness into dishes most people expect to read purely sweet or savory. He's built a menu around that instinct, pushing traditional technique into unexpected territory while staying rooted in the informal, community-first spirit that got the whole thing started.⁠
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Visit Café Bolita during the San Francisco #StarChefsRisingStars Restaurant Week (September 30 to October 14) and help us celebrate! More details via the link in our bio. by @cafebolita

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12 days ago

Lots of new followers here, thanks for joining along.

We tend to post our menus for the week on Instagram. These aren’t the full menus, we always have more than is listed. Ex, masa biscuits 🤤, specials, etc.

Will be open again this Saturday for another one of our dinner previews. Think Mexican wine bar. You can definitely have a full dinner from the dishes, they’re small plates meant to either be shared or enjoyed on their own. We highly recommend ordering a glass of wine or Michelada with your dinner.

Can’t wait to see you at the café this week! And as a reminder, we are opening at 11 AM on Thursday because we’ve had a long week. by @cafebolita

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16 days ago

This is a great week to support your local bespoke, heirloom masa focused, Latinx owned/operated cafe / wine bar. We are a lot of things, but ultimately we are a business that relies on your patronage and we thank you for showing up. See you at the café this week.

Back with the beef Colorado burros this week, we may have them on Saturday too if we can make enough flour tortillas.

Ejotes con huevo are back, with a moisture of yellow wax and blue lake beans. The tomato toast is back, but this time with our whipped requeson— so delicious, @mariquitafarm early girls are peaking.

It’s been kinda fall, kinda chilly, so we’re bringing back the chicken caldo with chochoyotes— masa dumpling soup. Think matzoh ball soup but 🇲🇽. This late summer version has squash, corn, chayote, and carrots along with poached chicken, all in a gingery broth. A bit of salsa macha gets drizzled atop to add a bit of spice, and make sure you squeeze your lime wedge al over.

And all weekend, we’ll be having a special brunch torta with chorizo & papa, black beans, crema, Quesillo, salsa chipotle and fresh crunchy cabbage.

Let’s transition to dinner. I’m excited about the little gem wedgies— I love a wedge salad and Annabelle had a limited amount of little gems, so we’re going full Americana here. Classic blue cheese dressing, bacon, tomato, herbs.

The giant Al Pastor taco form our pop-up days will be here too. We make a pineapple pico de gallo, a salsa Serrano and a fermented Fresno chile hot sauce— it deserves 3 sauces.

Eggplant gets roasted and braised in a rich tomato sauce with capers and olives, and that is what we call Veracruzana. It eats like summer buts feels like a cozy sweater (speaking of which, if you’re dining with us on the later side, bring a sweater. We have heat lamps, we have indoor seating, we will make it cozy and cute, but it may get chilly)

Y in Volcan. Or vampire depending where you’re from. A tortilla de masa gets cooked until crunchy and crispy, we load it with Oaxacan Quesillo, let it get gooey and melty. Then goes our charred skirt steak, crunchy pork chicharron, salsa verde cruda and burnt chipotle salsa. So tasty.

Can’t wait to see you this week! taken in Bolita by @cafebolita

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24 days ago

Rising Star Chef Emmanuel Galvan (@em.manu.l) quit his job as a human resources manager during the pandemic with nothing lined up, just a conviction that he needed to do something that actually mattered to him. He started making masa out of his home kitchen on Instagram, pay-what-you-can, delivering it himself until the operation outgrew his space. That grew into Café Bolita (@cafebolita). Galvan's duck confit tamal starts with the bird cured in sour orange juice, avocado leaf, and dried chiles, then shredded and folded into masa carrying the confit's own jus. He tops it with xnipec, a Yucatecan salsa of habanero, lime, oregano, and Persian cucumber, alongside a burnt habanero salsa made by charring habanero and onion down to ash. "That bitter, burnt flavor makes the masa taste so much sweeter," Galvan says, describing a philosophy he traces back to Thai and Filipino cooking as much as Mexican—using char and bitterness to sharpen everything around it.⁠
⁠
Visit Café Bolita during the San Francisco #StarChefsRisingStars Restaurant Week (September 30 to October 14) and help us celebrate! More details via the link in our bio. by @cafebolita

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24 days ago

Extremely honored to be included in this list, along such talented and industry defining folx. What started as a pay-what-you-can pandemic masa business has become a café (@cafebolita) and company (@bolitamasa) where we strive to build a little community of masa heads. Thank you @starchefs!

See you at the café! This is a great week to stop by! by @cafebolita

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a month ago

Quesadilla de Jimmy nardellos, torpedo onion sofrito, Hoja Santa 🇲🇽 the colors were fitting for today.

Tostada de pollo con achiote. @rancho_gordo midnight black beans, xni pek slaw, habanero aioli.

Both on the daytime menu all week. See you at the café. by @cafebolita

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a month ago

Ooh baby, so much lovely produce all over our menus this week. That’s right, I said “menus” because we’re doing another Evening preview. We had loads of fun last Saturday as we’re gearing up for a more formal dinner service. Until then, catch our wine bar nights and come by for a meal, a snack, a glass, all three.

Saturday 9.19. 5:30-9pm. We are making lots of food, come through! And, we’re deeply discounting all wines by the bottle to reward you for making it out to West Berkeley.

Daytime is full some Bolita classics and some new new. @raymondmmajoros knocked out the beef Colorado for your burros and all the beautiful Listada di Gandia eggplants from @suntrackerfarm!
Dayli was on tamal duty, steaming and mashing more carrots than we could count; she also roasted tons of @full_belly_farm Jimmy Nardellos for frittata and quesadillas.
J was on special and salsa duty— did you know that their Salsa de Tomato & Corno di Toro is only available for our Salsa Club this month? The special: Achiote chicken tostada, black beans, xni’pek slaw, habanero aioli! So good.
@queifrisito_diaz is the tostada and Agua Fresca whisperer, he did such a great job with the Full Belly melons. Using the ripest ones, he put together a maxxed out melon Agua with piel de sapo, canary and chanterais!
I answered a lot of emails and catering inquiries, while planing the Saturday menu. And I made the tomato sauce for the calabacitas.

Come see us at the café! taken in Berkeley, California by @cafebolita

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a month ago

The tuna tostada was Café Bolita's (@cafebolita) best-seller back when it was still just a pop-up, and it hasn't lost its momentum at the brick and mortar. Chef Emmanuel Galvan (@em.manu.l) builds the base from tuxpeño rojo, a firmer red masa chosen specifically because it holds up under the weight of everything piled on top without getting soggy. Local albacore gets layered with avocado and a smoky-fruity pasilla mixe mayonnaise, then finished with a salsa macha and more pasilla mixe, fried down with shallots, garlic, sesame, pumpkin seeds, seaweed, and whole anchovies for extra richness. A final squeeze of lime cuts through all of it. "It's a very simple, succulent bite," Galvan says. Though the corn varietals change by season and harvest, the tostada is part of a larger menu built around highlighting two or three ingredients at a time, corn chief among them. by @cafebolita

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2 months ago

Mandatory 4 drinks for these warm days. My dream rotation is an espresso tonic with @grandcoffee Pilas, Maracuya Black lime spritzer, hibiscus-ginger- canela Agua Fresca, and @partidacreus MUZ vermut with soda 🤤

Also this song is giving 🏖️ 🛗 nrg, kinda love it. Anyway, we’re open Wednesday through Saturday, 9am-1:30pm. Come through!

📸: @melati_citrawireja by @cafebolita

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4 months ago

Masa biscuits with salted butter and nectarine jam (all by @madge11). Biscuits available Thursday-Saturday. Jam changes with the season. by @cafebolita

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4 months ago

Account Highlight🌽☀️

Have you tried Café Bolita yet?

Located on Eighth street in Berkeley, Café Bolita is rooted in a deep love for Mexican landrace maíz and the ancestral process of preparing masa, also known as nixtamalization. Founded by Emmanuel Galvan back in 2020, Bolita began as a pop-up passion project, steadily growing into a beloved Bay Area staple.

Focused around fresh masa, Bolita offers a rotating seasonal menu of traditional Mexican classics with a modern twist. You can find tamales, tostadas, quesadillas, and baked goods all tied together by 100% nixtamal masa with no additives, preservatives, or stabilizers involved. We recommend the bean and cheese burrito and their carrot tamal – paired with an agua fresca or Grand cold brew to round out your meal.

Try Grand in their espresso and drip coffee drinks, or grab a retail bag from their grab-and-go shelf alongside a jar of their delicious salsa negra — the perfect duo to elevate any meal at home. Keep an eye out for their new menu items, there is always a reason to return!

We’re so happy to be a part of the Café Bolita community. Swing by Wednesday–Saturday starting at 9am — and if you can wait until 11, the full lunch menu is absolutely worth it. taken in Berkeley, California by @cafebolita

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5 months ago