One of my favorite Berkeley neighborhood jaunts has shown their true colors. Up until last week, Bartavelle was high on my list for take outs in the east bay…. Especially during COVID. But some untowards treatment by staff here has made me reconsider where I am spending my money. Yes, the food is excellent ~ it’s the reason I’ve kept coming back here. But the special form of table side racism that I experienced last week getting my take out was enough to change my mind. The Small cafe opens at 8am and serves food and hot drinks thru a walk up window. They don’t begin serving lunch items until 10am. I have been there a few times before 10am, and the counter person was nice enough to take my salad order while I walked around the neighborhood. I was told it was no stress to them on these occasions. Last Friday proved to be different. I arrived at 9:45am, and made my breakfast order. I inquired if I could put in my salad order a bit early since I had planned to walk around the block. I was served my sandwich and drink and told that it was way too early for me to order their salad. The server even went to ask a woman in the background and she said no too.

At this point I was the only customer in line and the only person sitting there waiting… to order. At 9:55am, still with no foot traffic in sight, I asked if I could place my order for the salad. Again. I was told no. I even asked ‘even though I’m a regular, and have been allowed the courtesy of ordering early when the place is not busy as it wasn’t that day. I was told that they needed more time to prep and that they were sorry they couldn’t take my ‘early’ request. At 9:55am, and Again he went to ask the woman in the back; she reinforced his no and he was skittish when he turned me away for the second time.

I had an event coming up and is planned to have my lunch (the salad) ahead of time – so I was patient and waited a few more minutes to order. At 10:02am, I was in my car, driving off with my sandwich. Drink and salad. It was at this point that I decided to blog about it. There was no reason at all why they could not accommodate my request for a salad before their 10am lunch time. They had done it before. What made today different?

So I went home feeling humiliated and left them a review online. I immediately got a response from the cafe owner offering to refund my salad and apologize for my experience earlier. He mentioned that some times they offer the early ordering as a courtesy to repeat customers and that there was no actual policy in place that said they couldn’t. Basically it is up to each person at the counter. Each team gets to decide who they’re going to be nice to and who is going to get the cold unhelpful treatment which is what I received last Friday – to my dismay. The email from the owner left me feeling as if he was more concerned about their reputation and me returning than rectifying the biases on his team. I didn’t need a refund and I was not complaining about their timing. I spoke up because I felt discriminated against at a place where up til now had not shown me that side of them. Bartavelle you can do better and I most likely will not be back after being humiliated in this way. To make matters worse – for both of my purchases – the sand which and the salad – I was asked about gratuity…. I alway tip above and beyond, but this time I tipped my bare minimum of 15% because I had been rubbed the wrong way. The Caucasity!