Au Coquelet

Trendy. Well-reviewed. Talked-about. Not worth your money. At 2000 University Ave, it's an obvious landmark cafe, and if you need a morning pastry you could do worse, I suppose. Honestly, though--their egg salad sandwiches are $8 or something. Gourmet or not, that's just silly. There are lots of interesting places to eat in Berkeley. Au Coqulet is not one of them. Save your money and go somewhere with character instead of yuppies.

An old college friend of mine who recently moved to the Bay Area, tends to hang out at Au Coquelet when he feels lonely. His modus operandi is to sit down, reading a book of film reviews by Beat Takeshi and taking notes. He uses this tactic to start conversations along the lines of "Yes, I do read Japanese. I spent 3 years in Japan." He reports that Au Coquelet is a choice spot for the employ of this tactic, which, he says, works better here than the corresponding "Do you read English?" tactic e deployed at a Wendy's in Tokyo.