More than four decades ago, Alice Waters, a pioneer of farm-fresh California cuisine, opened Chez Panisse in a jewel-box Craftsman-style building just north of downtown Berkeley. Other outstanding food purveyors followed, but this being a university town, Berkeley’s culinary landscape remained heavily colonized by frozen yogurt vendors and cheap burrito and ramen joints. But a recent spate of openings, from a shochu-focused Japanese tavern to a modern Mexican restaurant serving tlayuda and house-made sangrita al fresco, have filled in the gaps, expanding and elevating the dining options available in newly stylish pockets of downtown. They’re all worthy, grown-up stops to pepper a weekend spent exploring this vibrant college community, rich as ever with music, independent bookstores and cafe culture. Rest assured that the hippie spirit is alive and well in the barefoot buskers and longhaired denizens biking through town.

Friday

1. Canopy to Campanile | 4:15 p.m. ­

No visit to Berkeley is complete without an idyllic stroll under the canopy of old-growth oaks, redwoods and 200-foot eucalyptus trees on the beautiful University of California campus. It’s also an excellent place to survey notable buildings designed by the architects John Galen Howard, Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan. For a singular view of the famous Campanile — at 307 feet, it’s the third-tallest carillon and clock tower in the world — take a dip in the rooftop swimming pool in the Hearst Gymnasium. Designed by Maybeck and Morgan, the former women’s gym has three pools; the largest, North Pool, was once used for women’s lifesaving classes and is open to the public with $12 day pass. On the sun-warmed marble pool deck, decorated with cherubs and other ornate statuary, visitors are treated to a tree-level sight line punctuated by the Campanile and other university buildings.

2. Taste of Tokyo | 5:30 p.m.

A half-block from the eucalyptus grove, step off the student-clogged stretch of Center Street and through the black-and-white curtains at Ippuku, where a top-notch selection of sake, shochu and craft beer anchors the front bar, and a deep menu of Japanese small plates can keep you occupied for hours. The long, skinny dining room is a warren of intimate, curtained booths for two and larger, wood-screened tables, ideal for groups, where you remove your shoes. The warm staff is happy to introduce novices to the savory pleasures of casual izakaya-style dining: chicken gizzard skewers, bacon-wrapped mochi, corn fritters, soft-cooked eggs in dashi broth. Three preparations of fresh handmade soba are available on Monday and Tuesday nights. Try the refreshing shochu cocktails made with grapefruit and umeboshi plum.