Name: Famed Berkeley restaurant Lalime's shuts its doors after 35 years
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Famed Berkeley restaurant Lalime's shuts its doors after 35 years

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ByImageCaptionCloseLalime's Restaurant on Gilman Ave in Berkeley.Lalime's Restaurant on Gilman Ave in Berkeley.Famed Berkeley restaurant Lalime's shuts its doors after 35 yearsBack to GalleryFor more coverage, visit our complete .Lalime’s, the acclaimed North Berkeley restaurant, announced last week that it was closing its doors after 35 years in business. In a , owners Haig and Cindy Krikorian broke the news, saying that, in the end, "Covid 19 has made the decision for us. We would have liked to bid you Adieu in person, but the masks and the gloves are in the way."Lalime’s opened on Solano Avenue in 1985 and later moved to its current Gilman Street location in 1988. With Haig as chef, later as executive chef, and Cindy running the operation, it quickly built a loyal following that kept people coming back for decades. Their farewell post was as much as anything a shout-out to many of these longtime patrons, thanking them individually, naming favorite tables, even recalling old jokes and a song his brother-in-law sung one night in "1986/7?"“We’ve built a strong bond with you our guests," they wrote. "Most of you became dear friends and extended family.”Haig liked to think of Lalime's as a "hangout," referring to its comfortable atmosphere as a place for lovers of "simple but classic cuisine." Its dishes were carefully prepared and received numerous accolades, among them several years on the Chronicle list of Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area. It was cuisine with Mediterranean influence, but, he explained to SFGATE, "We didn't necessarily have recipes. We cooked with what we had. We sourced locally, all organic ingredients from small farmers, foragers, even neighbors.""That was part of the fun," he recalled fondly. "I used to go to Bruce Aidell's&nbsp;backyard in Kensington where he smoked his sausage and bring it back to the restaurant." Since those days, Aidell's sausage operation has become a staple in supermarkets just about everywhere.READ ALSO:In 1994, he and Cindy began to open other restaurants and at one point were running nine places simultaneously as part of their K2 Restaurant Group. These included Jimmy Bean's cafe (3 locations), Fonda, Paisan, Sea Salt, T-Rex and partial ownership in César. Many of these places became popular destinations in their own right.But, he points out, "Lalime's was always the jewel." And, in 2012, when he became extremely ill and could not work, the Krikorians liquidated all of their assets except Lalime's. While it was partly because Lalime's was "the mother ship," he says he did have strong attachments to his other restaurants as well. But Lalime's was a size that could be run in his absence since he was unable to do any work for two years.If COVID-19 hadn't come along, he says, they had "no plans to close Lalime's." But with restrictions he envisions on restaurants in the near future, he sees "no way to make a sustainable business model."And so, having made an indelible mark on many patrons and the Bay Area food community over the past 35 years, the Krikorians decided it was time for Lalime's to call it a day. As they wrote in their farewell post: "FETA ccompli."David Curran is an online editor at SFGate. Email:MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus .

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateFor more coverage, visit our complete .Lalime’s, the acclaimed North Berkeley restaurant, announced last week that it was closing its doors after 35 years in business. In a , owners Haig and Cindy Krikorian broke the news, saying that, in the end, "Covid 19 has made the decision for us. We would have liked to bid you Adieu in person, but the masks and the gloves are in the way."Lalime’s opened on Solano Avenue in 1985 and later moved to its current Gilman Street location in 1988. With Haig as chef, later as executive chef, and...

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Famed Berkeley restaurant Lalime's shuts its doors after 35 years

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