Fatapple's: An El Cerrito Mainstay

It's a cinch to warm up to a restaurant that serves food like tall stacks of pumpkin pancakes drenched with butter and maple syrup, or two-fisted-huge chicken breast sandwiches smothered with cheese and green chiles on a plump multi-grain bun, or big wedges of flaky-crusted apple pie.

Generations of El Cerrito customers have given thumbs-up to Fatapple's Restaurant & Bakery, a spacious, light-drenched restaurant on the quietly busy commercial strip on Fairmount Avenue. The menu of this restaurant/bakery has the mainstays of American cooking — such as burgers, soups, sandwiches, chile, salads, and omelets, pastries — that tempt any serious eater. Burger aficionados can dig into a redoubtable hamburger steak platter (half pound of grilled chuck with potatoes, salad and roll).  Pastry lovers can dawdle over endless trays of pies, cakes and cookies showcased in the display cases near the entrance. And weekend late-risers have brunch dishes like corned beef hash crowned with two eggs any style to look forward to chase away hangovers.

Fatapple's, along with its Berkeley branch, has been a fixture in the East Bay culinary scene since the late 1960s and has a devoted following. P.S. Jue, who grew up in El Cerrito, talks of the restaurant as the hands-down favorite for families. "For lots of children, eating at Fatapple's was their first meal at a restaurant. Fatapple's is a family tradition for a lot of people in El Cerrito," says Jue.

Hildegard Marshall is a founder and owner of Fatapple's, and to her, the guiding principle is: The customer leads the way. "Our business goes from outside in, not inside out," she says, explaining that the menu takes its cues from what the customer wants to eat. For many years, that was burgers, says Marshall. And muffins were big sellers, too. Then, the muffins faded, shoved aside by pastries and croissants. "Now, we have only one muffin, the bran muffin," says Marshall. "I am always listening for what the customers want." That means that sometimes Marshall must deep-six menu items she loves. "I loved our blueberry coffeecake. I loved it.  But the customers didn't want it," she says.   That coffeecake? It was kicked off the menu.

As Marshall talks about her restaurant, it becomes clear that her two favorite words are "options" and "choices."  Marshall likes to say that Fatapple's is all about giving customers choices.  Vegetarians — Marshall is one herself — can feel right at home in a place that had an early reputation for   its big, meaty hamburgers.  Now, says Marshall, a spaghetti sauce is a big seller, and not a speck of meat is in it. There are salads galore, like a dinner-size spinach salad topped with fetal cheese, walnuts, black beans and red onions.   A Fatapple's crowd-pleaser, according to Marshall, is the Portobello mushroom burger, with slices of fungal goodness served on a plump bun. "People have become more knowledgeable about food," says Marshall, who has also seen the chicken sandwich overtake the burger in popularity.  She has noted an increase in demand for vegetarian options, like the vegetarian spaghetti sauce. "We sell lots of it," she says, with a note of pride in her voice.

Or if going off the diet wagon is your style, Fatapple's is also the place for a pig-out.  Extremely popular options are the fruit pies, such as apple and olallieberry, says Marshall. So, it's no surprise to overhear conversations like the one Sunday brunch at the Berkeley branch, where a woman was mulling over the pumpkin pancake option. She hemmed and hawed and finally, with a note of resignation in her voice, said this would be her last real meal before she went back on Weight Watchers.

 Marshall has come to El Cerrito by way of, among other places, northern Germany, Washington, D.C., and Vail, Colorado. She talks about her evolution from working for the German government to restaurant impresario almost as a series of ultimately happy accidents. A road trip by train from Washington, D.C., led Marshall and friend to Vail. Marshall liked it so much that she stayed on, working in restaurants — and the rest is history.  Marshall also has a background in business, which she sees as essential. "All business is difficult," she says. "You have to love what you're doing. And, when you're a merchant, you have to know the numbers." Art, it seems, meets commerce, and happily.

Fatapple's does betray hints of Marshall's German background. Menu cards on tables at the Berkeley branch one Sunday trumpeted in bold letters: "Apfelfannkuchen," with a drawing of a big, beaming smile with the words: sehr gut." Informal translation? "Hey, this is a very good apple cake." Or, take the pastries lined up in the display case in the El Cerrito restaurant. Ask for a slice of deep purple fruity pastry, labeled  "pflaumenkuchen," and you'll get a big square of plum cake, a seasonal bakery offering.

Another sign that Marshall doesn't leave origins behind is the homage to Jack London at the Berkeley Fatapple's.  Big, framed photos of the renowned author of classics like  "Call of the Wild" decorate the walls because the restaurant began life in Oakland's Jack London Square in the late 1960s  "We were on a shoestring then," Marshall says of herself and her then-husband and business partner. A friend donated the pictures, and they went along for the ride when the restaurant switched to its Berkeley location in the 1970s.

A sign of success, in Marshall's opinion, is when Fatapple's becomes known for a dish and customers make a trip to the restaurant just for that dish.   "When people ask for 'your' pumpkin pancakes' or  "your' apple pie, that's what you want to happen," Marshall says.

Fatapple's pumpkin pancakes are the stuff of dreams for long-time Berkeley resident Miki Mettinger. "They're the best!" she says. Her brother is a fan, too. Every time he breezes in from Los Angeles, Mettinger says, her brother insists on eating breakfast at Fatapple's everyday, often for weeks at a time.

Mettinger and her brother are among the many families who crowd into Fatapple's. In fact, family is a persistent theme in conversations with Marshall.  "Eighty percent of my customers are repeat customers. Many have been coming here for years. I knew their grandparents, now their children, " says Marshall.

Longevity extends beyond Fatapple's customers — there's little staff turnover.  Many of the cooks and bakers have worked at the restaurant for 25 years, says Marshall.  And longevity is in Fatapple's DNA: It's been around for 41 years. It began as a lunch place in the late 1960s in Jack London Square. It shifted to   Berkeley in the 1970s. It expanded in the mid-1980s to a second and now main 5,500-square-foot, 70-seat restaurant in what used to be an El Cerrito grocery store.  Fatapple's has survived economic ups and downs. "We've seen the Nixon price wage freeze, the 18 percent interest rates under Carter. All business is difficult, so you have to know how to navigate the ship." says Marshall.

 The El Cerrito restaurant is the production hub. All soups, chile, salads and pastries, for example, are made in the production area partially hidden from view well behind the counter and the pastry-filled display cases. The Berkeley branch, says Marshall, is mainly short order, with burgers grilled to order;  foods such as soups, chile and sauces  are shipped by the restaurant's  truck that's emblazoned with the Fatapple's name and a huge red apple logo. (No, Fatapple's does not do wholesale, nor does it cater, says Marshall.)

Marshall says she chose the El Cerrito location for Fatapple's because of the neighborhood's good vibes. And those vibes have never changed, she says. 

Fatapple's Restaurant & Bakery

7525 Fairmount Ave. (bet. Carmel & Ramona Aves.)

El Cerrito, CA 94530

510-528-3433

Fatapple's Restaurant & Bakery

1346 Martin Luther King Jr Way

Berkeley, CA 94709

(510) 526-2260

Hours: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. (daily; bakery opens earlier)