Bay Area restaurateur Narsai David dies at 87

Narsai David, a Bay Area restaurateur and television personality who got his start at a legendary Berkeley restaurant and generously supported the arts in Berkeley, died June 20 after complications from a fall last year. He was 87.

David rose to culinary fame in the 1970s with his eponymous restaurant, which pioneered fresh food and fine dining. He spread the word about California cuisine with a Chronicle column and appeared on PBS’s “Over Easy,” and in recent years the Berkeley resident was the food and wine editor for KCBS radio.

“He’s irreplaceable,” said Roberta Klugman, an Oakland food and wine consultant and former executive director of the American Institute of Wine & Food. Klugman got her start at the market Narsai opened next door to the restaurant.

“Whenever we lose an icon and a force like that, there’s a void where they were,” Klugman said. “The space he filled can’t be replaced.”

A renowned Bay Area chef described David as a leader of the Berkeley culinary revolution.

“It used to be Chez Panisse and Narsai’s,” said Scott Miller, longtime chef at upscale grocery store Market Hall Foods. “It was ahead of its time.

“If you took the 1980s market and put it on College Avenue, it would be as relevant as anything up and down the block today,” Miller said. (Berkeley Fourth Street Market Hall recently closed, but the flagship Rockridge store is still open.)

David credited his mother with teaching him to appreciate fresh produce, especially after his Assyrian family moved to Turlock in the Central Valley.

“We had three-quarters of an acre in Turlock. It had a huge garden. I had two brothers, and we would sit around the kitchen table and compete to see who could peel tomatoes the fastest or pit peaches the fastest,” David told the Berkeley Historical Society in 2021.

After frying burgers in Turlock, David landed a job at Pot Luck Restaurant in the late 1950s, which has been described as a precursor to the Berkeley culinary revolution. He left in 1970 to open his own restaurant.

David described visiting the building on Colusa Circle in Kensington in an interview with the Historical Society.

“A doctor from Berkeley bought it as an investment. There was no way he could find anyone to open a grocery store, for God’s sake. It was too big,” David said, using one of his favorite expressions.

The newly minted restaurant owner rented the Kensington building and got to work, opening the restaurant in 1972. Chez Panisse had opened just six months earlier.

According to Miller, David could be short-tempered, but employees, colleagues and clients loved him for his dedication to perfection, and he was a mentor to many in the industry.

When Miller went to work at Narsai, “I was headed in the wrong direction. I didn’t know anything about food. I was just an 18-year-old getting into trouble in Berkeley,” Miller said. “A friend said, ‘You should get a job washing dishes.’”

From these humble beginnings, Miller eventually became a butcher. “I had my own room, my own equipment. They called me the Pig King, which was ironic because I’m Jewish,” Miller said.

“That experience changed the course of my life,” Miller said.

David also ran a successful catering business, Miller said, and the restaurant offered an extensive wine list.

The market and restaurant closed in the mid-1980s, but David continued to spread the word about food, writing a column for the San Francisco Chronicle and publishing cookbooks, including 1987’s “Monday Night at Narsai’s: An International Menu Cookbook from the Legendary Restaurant.”

For decades, he was the food and wine editor at KCBS, feeding rock royalty like the Rolling Stones and the real aristocracy of Britain, the radio station said in a tribute to David on its website. KCBS noted that the food expert was also deeply involved in philanthropy.

According to the managing director of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, David’s charitable work has had a profound impact on Berkeley.

“He was a passionate supporter of the arts in Berkeley. He and his wife, Venus, attended all of our open houses over the years,” said Managing Director Tom Parrish. David was a founding member of the Berkeley Rep board in 1968 and organized the Rep’s annual “Toast to the Arts” fundraiser.

“For decades, he was Berkeley Rep’s biggest cheerleader. He loved good food, good wine, good theater and good friends,” added former Rep executive director Susie Medak. “He exemplified what it meant to be a good citizen by supporting such a wide range of local organizations.”

David has served on the board of the Berkeley Community Fund and is listed as Chairman Emeritus of the Advisory Board on the organization’s website. He has organized Taste of the Mediterranean dinners that have raised over $1 million for the Assyrian Aid Society of America’s humanitarian projects in northern Iraq.

The average Berkeley resident may not know about David’s charitable work or his leadership in the industry, but it’s not unlikely that they enjoyed his restaurant or his products. In the early days, Narsai’s Market offered specialty foods, including baguettes, croissants and a line of chocolate creations.

“I never met Narsai, I never went to his restaurant. I don’t even know if he was a pioneer in the food industry. I just liked his chocolate sauce,” said Frako Loden, a 30-year-old Berkeley resident.

“I was always looking for it,” Loden said. “It was dark and rich and smooth, and I would eat it out of the jar with a spoon.”

Whether it was specialty food, the restaurant or charity work, “his wife Veni was always right there by his side,” Medak said. “Veni” is the nickname for David’s wife, Venus.

“Basically, when you got Narsai, you got the entire David family — Narsai, Veni and their son, Danny,” Medak said.

It’s clear that David left behind a legacy his family can be proud of, as California Restaurant Association CEO Joe Condie summed it up.

“Narsai represented the best of what our industry had to offer. Whether it was running his restaurant, making Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, writing his cooking column or catering to the Rolling Stones, he shared his passion for great food, great wine and the art of hospitality,” Condie said.

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