The much anticipated — and somewhat controversial for the neighborhood — new cocktail bar attached to Chez Panisse will open its doors Thursday, December 11, and they won't be taking reservations.

Legendary Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse, you would think, would have carte blanche to open whatever new businesses they like in Berkeley. But, true to form in the Bay Area — and especially in Berkeley — people got upset about things changing.

Bar Panisse, which has been in the planning stages for a number of years, is taking the place of César — itself a long-lived and beloved Berkeley institution, which opened at 1515 Shattuck, next door to Chez Panisse, in 1998. The two businesses were closely linked, with Chez Panisse holding the lease on the next-door space for decades, and subleasing to César, which was co-founded by Alice Waters's ex-husband and the father of her only child, Stephen Singer.

As Berkeleyside noted when news of Bar Panisse first came in early 2022, César was pioneering in its own right, serving Spanish tapas way ahead of the tapas curve in America, and it took its name from the same cinematic universe as Waters's restaurant — Panisse, César, and Fanny (the name of Waters's and Singer's daughter) are all characters in a trilogy of 1930s film from French director Marcel Pagnol.

Locals adored César as a casual spot for cocktails or dinner, and one that was always easier to get into and less of a commitment than its next-door neighbor.

So, when the news came that Chez Panisse was declining to renew César's lease after so many years, the restaurant was suddenly cast in the role of villain, at least among César's ardent fans.

Seven months after that first announcement, César closed. And perhaps true to the ethos of the Slow Food movement, it's taken two and a half years for Bar Panisse to be incubated and birthed.

But now it is coming alive, on Thursday, as the Chronicle was first to report, and will be keeping a five-night schedule every week, open from 4 pm to 10 pm, Thursday to Monday.

An Instagram announcement about the opening is very terse, saying only, "No reservations. Details to come."

The Chronicle noted only a couple of menu hints from some documents submitted to the city, like housemade potato chips, duck liver mousse, steak frites, and fritto misto with local vegetables. Otherwise the team has remained mum about what to expect in terms of cocktails or other dishes.

The new space was designed by Studio KDA, the firm behind SF's Lazy Bear and Lunette at the Ferry Building, as SFGate previously noted.

Chez Panisse has only said they wanted to open a "welcoming bar," open to the public and to Chez Panisse diners for before-dinner or after-dinner drinks — it's unclear if Bar Panisse will also provide cocktails on demand to those sitting in the next-door restaurant, which has always only served beer and wine.

Besides Café Fanny, the beloved Berkeley cafe that Waters opened in the 1980s and closed in 2012, and her museum restaurant in Los Angeles, Lulu at the Hammer Museum, Bar Panisse marks one of Waters's and her team's only expansions of the Chez Panisse brand.

Bar Panisse - 1515 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley - Opening Dec. 11, 4 pm to 10 pm, Thurs to Mon