A new East Bay specialty market is redefining the meaning of the word bodega. Celia and Joe Catalino’s Of All Places in Berkeley has recently joined the ranks of small markets such as Preserved and Benchmark Portavia. Instead of a neon Miller High Life sign or a fading portrait of the Marlboro man, their customers are greeted by a framed poster of the late Italian actress Monica Vitti. During the 1960s, Vitti was the muse of filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni.
Growing up in New Hampshire, it took some time before Joe Catalino began to appreciate his Italian heritage. On his second visit to Italy a few years ago, he fell in love with Rome and the southern part of the country. In a phone interview with the couple, Joe Catalino explained that Vitti played a crucial part in connecting him with his roots. “After those Antonioni art house movies, she made comedies,” he explained. “She was goofy and weird, very Italian, and I love that about her.” Vitti is Of All Places’ patron saint, and her spirit presides behind the Catalinos’ front counter.
Joe Catalino’s restaurant career began at his father’s pizzeria in Portsmouth. He went on to work for Gordon Ramsay in West Hollywood, where he learned about wine from the sommelier team there. After moving to the Bay Area, he was a sommelier at Michael Mina’s RN74. More recently, he held the same job at The Slanted Door when it was in the San Francisco Ferry Building. But during the pandemic, the Catalinos decided to open an online wine club. “It turned into a big wine club and shop,” he explained. “We hand-delivered everything throughout the Bay Area. That was our first go at our own little shop.”
Although it was successful, running an online business involved a lot of data entry, and it began to feel impersonal. They came up with the idea to open a shop in their own neighborhood on Solano Avenue.
Celia Catalino’s professional background was similar. “My grandmother owned Mexican restaurants in the South Bay,” she said. She grew up cooking with her family before going to art school to study photography. In Los Angeles, where the couple met, Celia Catalino ran a catering business before pivoting to food photography, styling and marketing.
The shelves in Of All Places are stocked with a vast and diverse array of beautifully packaged foods and beverages. Most of them are sourced directly from the makers. They’re not big enough brands to have distributors, so they won’t appear in most grocery stores. Celia Catalino explained that many of the products have been developed by restaurant workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic. “We really wanted to have a place where we could support them and showcase those products by sharing them with the neighborhood,” she noted.
One of their favorite local products is the salsa from Emmanuel “Manny” Galvan’s Bolita Masa. Based in Berkeley, Of All Places carries his salsa macha and salsa Serrano. The Catalinos met Galvan because he signed up for the wine club. “We loved his products, and we definitely wanted to carry them,” Celia Catalino said.
Both brands of coffee for sale are roasted in Oakland—Mother Tongue and Proyecto Diaz. “They’re just two of our favorite East Bay coffee brands, and we wanted to support them as well,” she added.
Local beekeeper Kelly Knapp provides her honey to the store under the stellar moniker Miss Bee Haven. And from Bonjerk (no shortage of food puns in this market), Anica Wu makes Asian-spiced jerky. “She was a butcher for eight years before starting her Asian-inspired pork jerky company,” Celia Catalino pointed out. “It’s really cool to meet people like that, on their way up or just doing it because they love it.”
She also sang the praises of the Mill Valley Pasta Company, based in Marin County. “It’s handmade pasta with semolina flour that’s slow dried,” she explained. “It’s as close to homemade fresh pasta as you can get in a dried version.”
With its massive footprint, the Berkeley Organic Market and Deli on Ashby and College can accommodate a regular food counter. Recently, Casa do Petisco, home of Brazilian snack foods, moved in after Badan closed. Of All Places’s interior isn’t roomy enough to fit a food counter inside. But the market started hosting pop-ups this summer, including Bonjerk and Vanessa Balanon-Padilla’s (aka Baker V) Filipino-inspired baked goods. “They set up out front, which is actually really awesome because they get a ton of exposure,” Celia Catalino said.
The Catalinos also decided to start the wine club again after Of All Places moved out of its initial soft opening phase. This time around, the big difference is it’s pick-up only. Two bottles a month are $50. “We like to say that it’s for an open-minded drinker,” said Celia Catalino. “We don’t adhere to a red club or a white club.”
Added Joe Catalino, “It’s just two bottles that we really love. I try not to throw anything too weird in there that will scare anybody away.”
They’re all small production wines that happen to be organically farmed. While some of them are natural wines, it’s definitely not a natural wine program. “Our first two wine choices included a white and red blend, a sort of rosé but not, and then an orange wine from Sicily, which is just a stunning wine,” Joe Catalino said.
“What Joe found as a sommelier is that people want wine to be approachable,” Celia Catalino said. “They want it to be fun, and they don’t want to overthink it.” The Catalinos recommend “beautiful bottles of wine” from producers they stand behind.
With the holidays around the corner, Celia Catalino has started to design gift boxes in order to make shopping “easy, fun and approachable.” Some customers have come in to peruse the shelves, and they don’t know where to start. Others have requested explanations about the products, which they’re happy to do.
“We might even, eventually, transition the wine club into more of a dinner club,” Joe Catalino said, “where you get a bottle of wine and then a few things to put a meal together.”
Of All Places, Tue to Sun 11am–6pm. 1841 Solano Ave., Berkeley. OfAllPlacesmarket.com.
