You live in Berkeley and you’ve never been to La Note?! (4/5 green stars also) It seems kind of unnecessary to review La Note. The crowd gathered outside the door during brunch hours speaks for itself. It may take a while to get seated (especially if you want to sit on their beautiful patio out back) but they make the wait fairly painless by taking your phone number and contacting you when it’s your time. So you can nip into Pegasus and look at cookbooks to whet your appetite while you wait. I think a good combination for two people trying to decide on sweet versus savory is to share one of each. Lemon gingerbread pancakes topped with poached pears ($11 for a short stack – still very substantial) and the Cote Ouest (three egg omelette with ratatouille, served with homefries and choice of toast, $15.50) would be good choices. Their coffee is also good but unfortunately our waiter was unavailable when I wanted a refill – he was busy posing for photos with some ladies at a nearby table. Other than that, service was good – particularly the hostess, who was very welcoming and unsnobby.

I’m also giving them 4/5 “green stars” for social and environmental impact, based on these reasons: • On their home page they have a tiny logo indicating that they are a Bay Area Green Business (since 2009). • The restaurant's owner Dorothée Mitrani-Bell, a graduate from UC Berkeley's Environment design program, won an award in excellence in 1998 for "outstanding storefront improvements" and rehabilitation of their 1875 building. • Community: La Note was one of 8 restaurants to donate at least 15% of their April 20th sales to a Berkeley school gardens program. • They have a new policy on tips – a 20% service charge that’s distributed to everyone in the restaurant. I didn’t know about CA law forbidding sharing of tips to kitchen staff – the special service charge seems like a reasonable solution. • Pretty good selection of vegetarian options (for a French restaurant!) – vegans will be a bit limited but I recommend the ratatouille on couscous. • They serve free range eggs from Glaum farms. • They also list sources for some items (e.g. Niman ranch grass-fed beef) • Not sure if they source organic veggies though (or flour, etc.). • Coffee, as far as I can remember, is from McLaughlin in Emeryville. • Simple cardboard boxes for food to-go. Interested in writing green star reviews? If so, contact me!