THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Via Centro

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Via Centro Restaurant Review:

Sitting at the sidewalk tables under gloriously large umbrellas spreading baccala mantecato on crisp fennel bread feeds the rumors of a Tuscan-inspired culinary life in Berkeley. Many would expect such a scene a few blocks north in the Gourmet Ghetto, but not here where throngs of college students rule the street. Leave it to a former executive chef of Chez Panisse to bring dishes like dense roasted beets with soft Gorgonzola dolce, earthy arugula gnocchi matched with chanterelles or crisp brick roasted chicken with plump Romano beans. The wall of window, swung open on warm days to accept the passing breeze, offers plenty of people watching. Inside, the restaurant is filled with buttoned-up professors, families of tourists boisterously conversing in French or Italian, and in the know students who have graduated up a notch from the byrani and gyro storefronts.