Imagine entering a restaurant where the food is 100 percent organic and plant-based and its sources are all from local farmers who support sustainable agriculture, and they only use environmentally friendly products.<\/p>\n
Then imagine the staff at that place metaphorically sweeping you off your feet the moment you walk in the door; you\u2019re greeted tenderly and asked how you are feeling and are really listened to; each item on the menu is referenced as an affirmation that is then replied back to you when you order; its serving dishes ask you to reflect; a place where each member of the staff meditate and \u201cclear\u201d their thoughts just minutes after clocking in to ensure they in are in the right mindset to interact with customers; where the management tells you the food is made with love and their goal is to have you leave feeling nourished and more grateful and appreciative and overall in a much better place than the moment you walked in.<\/p>\n
Sounds all too unfamiliar, like some futuristic utopian society, right?<\/p>\n
Caf\u00e9 Gratitude \u2014 which just opened its doors July 29 in the Broadstone mixed-use building in Little Italy \u2014 is indeed that place.<\/p>\n Husband and wife team Matthew and Terces Engelhart opened the first Caf\u00e9 Gratitude in San Francisco in 2004 and although that location has since closed, the new 4,000-square-foot location San Diego location is one of many, including those in Santa Cruz, Berkeley, West Hollywood, Downtown Los Angeles (Arts District), Venice Beach and Kansas City.<\/p>\n Chief Inspiration Officer Ryland Engelhart described how the business got started and said his parents \u2014 his father Matthew and stepmother Terces \u2014 were looking forward at the second half of their lives and wanted to do something positive that had an impact outside of themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had a continuous impulse to give people the simple practice of gratitude,\u201d Engelhart said. \u201cActually practicing being grateful is one of the most amazing, rewarding transformative tools that we have within in our own psychology \u2014 mostly we looking at what\u2019s wrong or what is missing.<\/p>\n \u201cCaf\u00e9 Gratitude is a place that from its inception was designed to be a space where the public could come in for the practical reason of not only their hunger, but the intention was bring them into an environment where we can plant seeds of gratitude in their hearts through our service and our food and our kindness and our presence,\u201d Engelhart continued. \u201cThat we could create a little ripple effect that would have them spend the rest of the day saying, \u2018wow, what am I grateful for?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The concept sounds daunting but this family, which also includes Engelhart\u2019s stepbrother Cary Mosier, a San Diego resident who lives near the new restaurant, is undeterred and \u201call in.\u201d<\/p>\n Since 2004 the senior Engelharts have branched off into various other projects, including a business model they call Sacred Commerce, books on living well, cookbooks, a game, their own farm and some that show their activist nature, like their Kissing the Ground project where they work with musician Jason Mraz to lobby for funding to enhance California\u2019s agricultural soil.<\/p>\n And Mraz, a resident of North San Diego County, was instrumental in getting Caf\u00e9 Gratitude to migrate south to San Diego, Engelhart said.<\/p>\n But despite some naysayers who question their motives or try to connect the culture at Caf\u00e9 Gratitude with Scientology or other cults, Engelhart emphasizes that their true intention is merely spreading gratefulness, love and positive thinking.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is an environment where not only do the staff have to learn how to do their job, they have to learn how to be the presence of gratitude as they are serving,\u201d Engelhart said. \u201cIf the customer is a prickly pear, and very demanding \u2014 they see it as an opportunity not to react, but to offer love \u2014 it is easy to love the lovable, but the real work is can we actually love and be present and serve people who are challenged or having a hard time?\u201d<\/p>\n The menus are a wealth of knowledge should you wish to know more about the culture of Caf\u00e9 Gratitude before the staff exudes it by example.<\/p>\n Information about their sprouted grains, great detail about the contents of every food and drink item \u2014 including organic beers and wines \u2014 notes about the type of farmers they deal with and even some words of wisdom: \u201cWe invite you to step inside and enjoy being someone who chooses: loving your life, adoring yourself, accepting the world, being generous and grateful for every day, and experiencing being provided for. Have fun and enjoy being nourished.\u201d<\/p>\n Staff are instructed to ask each guest a \u201cquestion of the day,\u201d but the standard mantra, no surprise, is \u201cWhat are you grateful for?\u201d which is emblazoned on many of their plates to remind you while you are eating to consider your choices.<\/p>\n With an ambitious plant-based menu with Executive Chef Dreux Ellis at the helm and containing items named things such as Glorious, Liberated, Warm Hearted, Fulfilled, Dazzling, Comforted, Vivacious and dozens more, it\u2019s hard not to get caught up in the lighthearted feeling of it all and leave feeling just a little bit differently.<\/p>\n Caf\u00e9 Gratitude is located at 1980 Kettner Blvd., #20, in Little Italy. It is open for breakfast at starting at 8 a.m., lunch starting at 11 a.m. (Saturday and Sunday breakfast overlaps until 1 p.m.), and the lights turn down at 5 p.m. for dinner, with standard fare or a prix fixe Chef\u2019s tasting menu. \u2014Morgan M. Hurley puede ser contactado en morgan@sdcnn.com.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Por Morgan M. Hurley | Editor<\/p>","protected":false},"author":753,"featured_media":237890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"\u2018I Am Enchanted\u2019","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/753"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\u2018I](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/DSCN4503-UPDATEDweb.jpg\")
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\nObtenga m\u00e1s informaci\u00f3n en cafegratitude.com<\/a>, follow them on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter @CafeGratitudeSD<\/a>, or Instagram @CafeGratitude<\/a>.<\/p>\n