James K
Google
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 for your loaf.