AMERICA’S BEST : Gourmet Granola

Cafe Fanny

1619 5th St. , Berkeley, Calif. 94710 . (415) 526-7664

Tax , Add $2.68 postage and handling on 5 pounds

There are two kinds of breakfast cereals. There’s the light, fluffy kind favored by those who hate breakfast but feel they must have a little something to get them going in the morning. Then there are the dense, chewy, flavorful ones that are reserved for breakfast lovers who relish every last spoonful.

In Northern California, people who care about breakfast line up at Berkeley’s Cafe Fanny to eat the very best of the dense chewy cereals. Alice Waters adapted her mother’s recipe to make a delicious blend of oats, honey, canola oil, sunflower seeds, almonds, wheat germ, sesame seeds and raisins. What she ended up with is a granola so good you forget it’s good for you.

“Customers would come into the restaurant, order five bowls of granola and ask us to hold the milk,” says Waters. So Waters decided to make the lines less long and pack her granola to go. That’s good news for those of us who don’t live in Berkeley: We can now order Cafe Fanny cereal by mail. Real breakfast lovers will find that a bowl of this granola is the perfect way to start the day.

Cafe Fanny granola sells for $3.75 a pound. A minimum order of five pounds is required for mail order.