"That first date led to a second and then a third. The couple fell in love and soon relocated to San Francisco, where Benji worked as a sous chef at Canteen. They soon moved to Chicago, where Jennie got her MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and then moved back to the Bay Area, to Berkeley, where Jennie grew up, and were soon married. But through it all, the idea of opening a restaurant stayed with them."
"The name Uqbar comes from the Jorge Luis Borges short story, Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, published in the Argentinian writer's collection Labyrinths. Uqbar is a made-up country, maybe somewhere in the Mediterranean or Asia Minor, it's ambiguous, said Jennie. The word, pronounced oook-bar, is also just fun to say. After reading the story, Benji would shout it out randomly around the couple's home. And one day it struck them as the perfect name for their Mediterranean restaurant."
Benji and Jennie Smith joked about opening a restaurant on their first date eight years ago while Benji worked as a prep cook at Momofuku in Washington, D.C., and Jennie bartended during college. Their relationship took them to San Francisco, where Benji became a sous chef at Canteen, then to Chicago while Jennie earned an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and finally back to Berkeley where they married. The couple is opening Uqbar Mediterranean Cafe in the former Tomate Cafe space on Fifth Street in West Berkeley, with a grand opening on Friday, Nov. 21. Uqbar takes its name from Jorge Luis Borges's short story and is pronounced oook-bar.
Read at www.berkeleyside.org
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