At the bottom of Fairmount Avenue, at Kearney Street across from El Cerrito Plaza, the café space at 6401 Fairmount has had two tenants in roughly 13 months. Near the top of the hill, 7525 Fairmount has held the same restaurant and bakery since 1984.
Both ends of the street got something new this fall. At the upper end, the new arrival set itself up as part of the block that grew around FatApple's: its maker shelves and its Small Business Saturday plans both lead back to the businesses next door.
A bakery picked the obscure corner
Berkeleyside's history of FatApple's describes the 1984 expansion this way: FatApple's moved "into a vacant market on an obscure corner at the top of Fairmont Avenue in El Cerrito." According to that account, owner Hildy Marshall was drawn by the empty store's high-beamed ceiling and by the room it offered for a larger bakery and office space for both restaurants.
That choice still shapes the business. The El Cerrito site produces all of FatApple's baked goods, so the cheese puffs sold in Berkeley come from Fairmount Avenue too. The same Berkeleyside piece calls the cheese puff, a puff pastry filled with sweet cream cheese, the restaurant's bestseller. When FatApple's turned 50, it ran a trivia contest asking how many had been sold since opening day. The answer was 2.5 million.
FatApple's dates its opening to November 1969 and describes itself as family-operated. Its menu leans on buttermilk waffles, pumpkin pancakes and scratch-made pies and pastries. According to its hours and locations page, the El Cerrito restaurant opens every day at 6:30 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m., with indoor dining from 7 a.m. Same-day pickup orders go through the site.
Over the following decades, a small commercial district grew up around it. The city's economic development site calls it Upper Fairmont, "anchored by the long-time" FatApple's and home to a florist, a ceramics studio, dry cleaners, salons and other small businesses.
Who is on the block now
From the florist up to the bakery, the businesses sit close together:
- Golden Poppy Florist 2, 7509 Fairmount Ave.
- El Cerrito Supply Co., 7523A Fairmount Ave., open since October
- FatApple's Restaurant & Bakery, 7525 Fairmount Ave.
- MudWorks Studio, the ceramics studio Supply Co. calls its next-door neighbor. It offers wheel-throwing, handbuilding and slip-casting classes, plus memberships for working ceramicists.
East Bay Nosh, writing for Richmondside, placed the new shop "near Sunset View Cemetery and Mortuary." For anyone who has driven up Fairmount toward the hills, that marks the top of the street.
The newcomer that leans on its neighbors
El Cerrito Supply Co. sells home goods, pantry goods and work by local makers. It also has an event and workshop space and a coffee bar, and Richmondside reports the owner plans to host food pop-ups. The shop's opening announcement on Instagram, as Richmondside quoted it, asked people to "check us out (quietly) in November, then come to our grand opening in December."
On its website, the shop calls itself "built by neighbors," and one section is headed "Keep the money within walking distance." The way the space is organized follows that idea.
The retail counter is curated by Hennai Modern Home + Garden, which the shop names as its anchor tenant. Hennai fills one corner with candles, soaps, plants, garden tools, cookbooks, cards, craft kits, linens and tableware, all from small makers and independent brands.
The maker shelves rent low-cost space to local artists. Makers from El Cerrito and the surrounding East Bay get priority, and submissions are reviewed in rounds a few times a year. Several of the makers already have ties to the area:
- Golden Sun Pottery is Lila Del Rosso, who makes boldly patterned functional tableware and, according to her shop bio, teaches wheel throwing at MudWorks next door.
- Erin McCluskey Wheeler is a third-generation Richmond resident and El Cerrito High graduate who makes painted-paper collage landscapes and jewelry.
- Lucy Ames makes layered botanical monoprints and teaches art camps and workshops in her El Cerrito studio.
The roster also includes Helene Cotton, Kristen Kong Illustration, Wilder June Glass, Rookie Ceramics, Sky Ceramics, Renner Screen Printing and Kristin Farr, among others.
The tool library lends tools for free, with no hourly meter. You borrow what a project needs and bring it back when you're done. The shop accepts donations of hand tools and crafting tools on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon.
The coffee bar belongs to Mirage Coffee for November, with other local roasters taking turns through the month. Food vendors pop up during the week, and the shop has opened its sidewalk to food and drink vendors who apply online.
The shop is still in its soft opening and has not set regular hours. It posts current hours on Google and Instagram.
The shop's calendar ties it to the block directly. For Small Business Saturday, the calendar listing reads, "Grab a coffee, buy from local makers, then head next door for Mudworks Studio's ceramics sale. Two small businesses, one stop on Fairmount."
Meanwhile, down at Kearney
The lower end of the street works differently. The 6401 Fairmount corner faces El Cerrito Plaza, and its recent history moves faster:
| When | What happened at 6401 Fairmount Ave. |
|---|---|
| August 2025 | Sweet Potatoes UpBeet Café opens, serving honey jasmine lattes with bee pollen and ube lattes dusted with rose petals |
| September 2026 | Sweet Potatoes UpBeet Café closes |
| Fall 2026 | Cafe Buenos Aires opens its El Cerrito branch in the same space |
Richmondside reported both the August 2025 opening and the September 2026 closure, and it noted that a new branch of Cafe Buenos Aires had already opened in the space.
Cafe Buenos Aires arrives with a track record. Diana Days founded it in 2018 to bring Argentine food to the Bay Area. The company is now part of Hermanos Cafes and runs a commercial kitchen in North Berkeley. Richmondside's opening roundup says it already had three shops, one in West Berkeley and two in San Francisco. The El Cerrito branch serves empanadas, two of them vegan, plus smoothies, coffee drinks, alfajores and other pastries.
The café's neighbor across the street keeps a holiday schedule too. The El Cerrito Chamber lists the El Cerrito Farmers Market at El Cerrito Plaza on nine December dates, starting Tuesday, December 1, and Saturday, December 5. The market runs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each time.
Two dates for the top of the hill
Nothing big is scheduled at Upper Fairmount this week. The next two dates fall over the holidays:
- Saturday, November 28: Small Business Saturday at El Cerrito Supply Co., listed alongside a MudWorks ceramics sale next door.
- Sunday, December 13, noon to 1 p.m.: Supply Co.'s grand opening, with makers on hand and the tool library open to browse.
FatApple's opens at 6:30 a.m. both days, so either morning can start with a cheese puff at 7525 Fairmount.
If you own a home near Fairmount Avenue and want to know what it's worth this season, KAI Real Estate is happy to talk it through over coffee at the top of the hill. Get your free home valuation.
