The Acme Bread Co — Restaurant in Berkeley

Overall, I’m giving Acme 5/5 regular stars for quality and also 5/5 “green” stars for social and environmental impact. First of all, the regular stars: Yesterday I had one of their goat cheese puffs ($1.50) which was great – a dollop of tart goat cheese and a few olive slices on top of flaky puff pastry – and surprisingly filling. I also had a sandwich next door at Bartavelle Café made on an Acme (sweet) baguette and it was a great testament to Acme’s bread (and Bartavelle’s cooking). I’d also highly recommend Acme’s walnut and olive breads and their herb focaccia slab is outstanding. There’s usually a line out the door, but it shouldn’t take more than 5 min to get through it.

I think Acme deserve 5/5 “green stars” for social and environmental impact. Their bread has been made with organic flour for 17 years – sourced from Giusto’s. It’s worth looking up Guisto’s – they are the foundation of Acme’s breads (most of which are made purely from flour, salt and yeast – you can find ingredients for each loaf on Acme’s website). They also source organic raisins, pumpkin seeds and flax seeds from Giusto and organic California sweet cream butter from the Rumiano Cheese Co. They use mostly solar power for their Berkeley bakery and now fuel all of their diesel trucks and diesel generators with renewable diesel from Golden Gate Petroleum. They make an effort to donate all leftover bread to charitable organizations, schools, and non-profits, with the remainder going into organic livestock feed. They also encourage paper waste reduction by offering a 5 cent discount if you do without a paper bag...

Pros: the croissant is top notch, as was the cheese twist and dark chocolate raspberry mini puff. Their prices are really good and I appreciate a no fluff bakery counter that just pumps it out. There was a line of about 20 when I showed up right at opening, but the line does move fast.

Cons: the cheddar jalapeño fold over was way too greasy and had too much filling to party ratio. I didn’t even eat all of it. Also, you really don’t get much time at the counter to see what they have and decide on your order. It’s a harried scene once you get to the front of the line so it’s best if you know what you want ahead of time.

All in all, really, really good bakery...

I have never been to your bakery ,but would like to someday .I did try your bread at Casa Orinda and asked the waitress where they ordered their bread from. I thought it was fantastic the best sourdough bread I've had in a long long time...