Local Businesses

After the death of owner Gary Gendel earlier this year, Sweet Dreams, where generations of Berkeley children spent their allowance, will be shutting down at the start of 2024.

Following an Oct. 13 strike, the Shattuck Starbucks location temporarily closed from Oct. 14 through 16 while management addressed some of workers’ strike demands.

From miso caramel to matcha-flavored ice cream, Uji Time Dessert on Telegraph Avenue offers a wide variety of Japanese desserts to the campus community and beyond.

Unionized Starbucks workers at the Shattuck Ave. location went on strike Friday, citing unsafe and unfair working conditions with demands allegedly unaddressed by management.

Berkeley’s beloved food scene is set to take on yet another familiar dish: cookies. Both Crumbl Cookies and Insomnia Cookies are opening their first stores in the East Bay neighborhood just a couple of hundred feet apart on Bancroft Way.

If not for the 50% sale stickers around the shop, you would hardly notice that Annapurna is awaiting eviction from its storied Telegraph Avenue location.

Berkeley’s Los Cilantros reopened its Shattuck Avenue location last Wednesday after a three-year closure.

Following the closure of several local theaters after the pandemic, remaining businesses are working to adapt to changes in customer habits and avoid “deep programmatic cuts.” Structural challenges have caused businesses to reduce programming, introduce emergency fundraising efforts or shut down altogether.

A former employee of Sliver Pizzeria filed suit against the company Aug. 30, alleging wrongful termination and discrimination based on physical disability, among other claims.

Workers unionizing at Peet’s Coffee’s Temescal, Piedmont and Telegraph & Dwight stores acquired formal legal recognition last Wednesday, according to Peet’s labor union’s Instagram post.