Berkeley Institution Café La Méditerranée Is For Sale After 36 Years

After 36 years of providing kebabs, chicken pomegranate, and baklava to Berkeley’s Elmwood neighborhood, Café La Méditerranée owner Garbis Baghdassarian wants to move on. He recently listed the storied restaurant for sale.

“I’m going to be 72 years old. How long can I go on? I need to retire,” he told Berkeleyside.

Baghdassarian does have two children but neither want to continue the family business. And his business partner who runs the two Café La Méditerranées and catering business in San Francisco doesn’t want to take over the Berkeley restaurant.

Café La Méditerranée, or Café La Med as it’s commonly known, has occupied a prime location on a strip of College Avenue that has seen tons of turnover in the past several years. Bedrossian hopes that he can find a buyer who will want to keep the space as a Middle Eastern or Mediterranean restaurant, as it’s the only one in the area. (While Bedrossian is selling the restaurant, he owns the building and is not selling that.)

Stay tuned for more.

• Berkeley’s Café La Méditerranée is for sale [Berkeleyside]