I craved something hearty and salty and green. So I went to the new Café Gratitude in Healdsburg during my lunch break and said, "I am accepting." (I am dead serious. This is actually how you order. All of the menu items are called "I am [insert hippie-speak adjective here].")
The woman behind the cash register replied, "You are accepting." She handed me a small brown box filled with Bhutanese red rice, kale, avocado, cucumber, scallions and nori. And yes, I did accept it.
While we waited for my credit card to go through, she asked me the Question of the Day. (Again, I am totally serious. They have a Question of the Day here. It is sort of weird. I am not used to telling total strangers personal things about my life. And yet I always answer the question because I feel like I have to do it in order to get the full Café Gratitude meal experience.)
Today's question: "What makes your life blessed?"
My answer (while trying not to cringe at the word blessed -- to me, almost as shudder-worthy as moist): "My cats."
This then led to a conversation about cats and cat names. The woman behind the cash register told me she has a cat named Porter, after the beer. I told her that my cats are Meep and Mari.
And as I was driving away, I realized I forgot to tell her that Mari is actually named after a video game. And that Meep really should have been called Fyodor Mudbutt.
1 comment
I find Cafe Gratitude to be an uncomfortable dining experience. I don't like being put on the spot or feeling like I have to come up with some non-cliched answer. But, I would still go back for the food. They make the concept of raw dining very appealing, which is saying a lot coming from a meat-loving and cooked-food-loving girl.
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