Acclaimed Indonesian-Inspired Café Will Reopen This Fall as BAMPFA’s In-House Café With an Expanded Menu

BAMPFA and Chef Nora Haron announced today that Haron’s acclaimed Kopi Bar and Bakery will reopen as the café in residence at BAMPFA. Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “one of the best coffee shops in the San Francisco Bay Area,” Kopi Bar and Bakery (formerly Kopi Bar) is relocating to BAMPFA from its previous location next to Haron’s sister restaurant SanDai in Walnut Creek, bringing an Indonesian-inspired café with a distinctively Californian sensibility to Downtown Berkeley. Its relaunch at BAMPFA will add a major new fixture to Berkeley’s vibrant culinary scene, one block away from the Downtown Berkeley BART Station.

In its new space at BAMPFA, Kopi Bar and Bakery will advance Haron’s longstanding practice of providing guests with a sophisticated culinary experience that blends the flavors of Indonesia and Singapore with California café culture and its very open dialogue about ingredient sourcing, how foods are produced, and culinary traditions and experimentation. The menu at BAMPFA will include a range of sustainably sourced espresso and cold brew coffee drinks—including Kopi Bar’s signature Avocado Coffee, acclaimed by Eater SF as one of the Bay Area’s most notable coffees and brewed with specialty locally oak wood roasted Indonesian-grown Arabica beans from Mr. Espresso—as well as sandwiches, salads, soups, handmade pastries, and snacks. In Chef Nora’s signature style, many of her pastries will begin with her ten-year sourdough starter, for depth of flavor. Items may include a Calamansi Olive Oil Cake; Klepon Swirls; Kaya Toast; Mushroom Melt Sandwich with House Sambal; Corn and Lemongrass Chowder with coconut milk, ginger, and cilantro oil; and Urab Salad (popular at SanDai), a Balinese-inspired salad of vegetables and toasted coconut. In partnership with BAMPFA, Haron plans to introduce artistically inspired seasonal offerings that correspond to specific exhibitions and film programs at the museum. 

“We’re thrilled to welcome Chef Nora Haron and Kopi Bar and Bakery to BAMPFA. Nora’s deeply personal approach to food—rooted in heritage, hospitality, and bold creativity—resonates with our mission to present art that expands perspectives and sparks connection. This partnership brings new energy to our museum and contributes to the rich cultural and culinary fabric of Downtown Berkeley,” said BAMPFA’s Executive Director Julie Rodrigues Widholm. 

“Kopi Bar and Bakery at BAMPFA is meant to be more than just a café. It’s a continuation of the museum experience,” said Haron. “I want people to feel like they can come to the café space to slow down, take it all in, and enjoy something delicious that also sparks curiosity and reflection. The menu is about flavors I love from Indonesia and Singapore, interpreted through a California lens, celebrating regional abundance from local food producers. We’ll be creating drinks and dishes inspired by current installations, so there’s always something new to discover. With coffee after a film, or dish or pastry that connects to the art on view, I hope it adds something meaningful to each visit.”

When it opens at BAMPFA this fall, Kopi Bar and Bakery will activate the café space on the museum’s second floor for the first time since 2021, reversing a recent trend of commercial vacancies in downtown Berkeley’s Center Street corridor.  Haron and her team will oversee a full refurbishment of the space, supported in part by a generous donation from the Bay Area philanthropists Margarita Gandia and Diana Campoamor.

The café will be open to all, accessible without museum admission, and is anticipated to operate on a Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule. BAMPFA members will receive 10% off café purchases. More information about Kopi Bar and Bakery’s partnership with BAMPFA, including an opening date for the new location, will be announced in the coming weeks.

About Chef Nora Haron

Chef Nora's passion for multiplicity-in-influences-cooking ignited while helping her mom prep meals in their Singaporean home. Haron attended the San Francisco Baking Institute and honed her skill set as Head Kitchen Manager and Culinary Operations Manager for Blue Bottle Coffee, Director of Food Operations for Farley’s, and Executive Chef at Monkey Forest Road and Crema. 

Advocating for super-local, sustainable, organic, and distinctly culturally representative ingredients, Haron is a vanguard in the kitchen, always creating new destination-worthy savory dishes, and a revered baker of artisanal, housemade breads and pastries. She was Executive Chef at Drip Line Oakland, a café and gathering place in the heart of West Oakland, and Executive Chef and Partner at Local Kitchen in SoMa SF, Rincon Hill. Chef Nora was the Founder and Executive Chef of the popular pandemic-era Pop Up IndoMex, in Oakland, CA. Most recently, Chef Nora was Director of Culinary for Killiney Kopitiam, USA and SanDai Restaurant + Kopi Bar in Walnut Creek. As a Chef, she has worked with Mr. Espresso coffee roasts since her Crema days in 2007, and today she partners with Mr. Espresso as a Chef Ambassador, making the most of her specialty coffee drink expertise and creativity.