DocFest: Eat At Bill's: Life In The Monterey Market

Now this is why we love DocFest so much! Eat At Bill's is a completely charming love letter to the famed local organic Monterey Market in Berkeley and its perpetually-cheery (and perpetually-free-sample-eating) owner Bill Fujimoto.

The movie's set up in a series of small vignettes -- from the hotly-anticipated arrival of cherry season, to a tour of the back room where the chefs get first pick of the boysenberries and mesclun, to a tour of the Twin Girls Farms orchard that supplies stone fruit to the market, to the massive pumpkin mountain in the fall, to the Thanksgiving crowds, Eat At Bill's encapusulates everything that's great about the Bay Area local food scene (without any of the tedious parts of the philosophy that leads to so much enjoyable mockery on everyone else's part). While Monterey Market isn't the only place in the area that embraces fresh organic produce, it certainly seems like the one that's the most fun.

We left the screening in a great mood, and craving fresh fruit. Pluot, anyone?

Eat At Bill's screens again on Wednesday the 10th at 5 p.m.. There's a preview clip here.

Picture of the Monterey Market by eric haller, off flickr.