A family between
two shores.
Café Parisien is the work of Ahcene "Ace" Mklat and his brother Hosine. They are a French-Algerian family raised between Algiers and Paris, with relatives in France and the U.S. Ace came up through years in food and beverage at the Fairmont in San Francisco, where he learned the rhythm of a hospitality kitchen.
He fell for Berkeley while studying at City College, and the family opened on Shattuck Avenue in June of 2024.
"We wanted to build a small French café in our neighborhood — the kind of place we'd want to walk into ourselves."
The menu is squarely French: croque monsieur, lox bagels, baguette sandwiches, café au lait, scratch breakfast on warm croissants. The people behind the counter are, more often than not, family.