Ocean Beach People\u2019s Organic Food Market has added a new vegetarian caf\u00e9 to its growing mix.
\nThe only customer-owned grocer in San Diego, People\u2019s, a food cooperative with more than 14,000 members, recently opened OB Garden Caf\u00e9, formerly Tiny\u2019s Tavern, at 4741 Voltaire St. It is just down the street from its two-story grocery-deli parent at 4765 Voltaire St.
\nAlso two stories, the new cafe has an art-deco ambiance, sporting a giant peace sign covering an entire wall, with multi-level, outdoor pet-friendly dining space and a sun roof.
\nThe full-service organic vegetarian eatery currently serves lunch and dinner, but will be open soon for breakfast. The caf\u00e9 serves organic teas and coffees, fresh-pressed juices and healthful smoothies. The caf\u00e9 will also soon be serving organic beer on tap plus organic wine on its second floor, with outdoor seating on both floors.
\nJim Kase, People\u2019s general manager, said the OB co-op has been around some 45 years since the \u201970s.\u00a0
\n“It started in a garage,” said Kase of the grocery\u2019s genesis, noting it was begun by Obecians “who just wanted good healthy organic food for themselves and their families. They weren\u2019t happy with the way the commercial grocery business was going with use of a lot of herbicides and pesticides, etc.”
\nKase said the independent organic grocery went through several “iterations and little-bit bigger buildings” until the mid-\u201980s, when they went from a collective totally owned by the workers, to a consumer\u2019s cooperative, which is owned by the shoppers and workers.
\n“That brought a lot more capital into the business,” said Kase. “Our store, our business, is owned by the community. We give back to the community and this (cafe) is something our owners wanted.”
\nPeople\u2019s is run by a board of directors.
\n“Building the caf\u00e9 was a board decision,” said Kase, who is charge of operations at the collective.
\nWhy a caf\u00e9?
\n“It\u2019s something our owners have been asking for a long time, to have a fresh juice and smoothie bar,” said Kase. “We don\u2019t have room for it over at the store. When this property opened up, we thought this was a perfect opportunity to fulfill the wishes of all the owners who had wanted something like this for a long time. So everybody\u2019s excited about it.”
\nKase said a lot of the wood in the caf\u00e9 interior is “reclaimed wood from the previous building.”
\nKase noted the caf\u00e9 offers an alternative to its cafeteria-style grocery-deli up the street. “The caf\u00e9\u2019s more vegetarian-vegan and menu-driven,” Kase said. “They\u2019re really meant to complement each other.”
\nKase added People\u2019s just got a beer and wine license for the caf\u00e9.
\nOB Garden Caf\u00e9 had a soft opening the second week of December and plans are to have a grand opening sometime in February.
\n“Business is growing day by day in our community-based, family- and pet-friendly caf\u00e9,” Kase said. OB Garden Caf\u00e9
\nTwo-levels pet-friendly dining outdoors
\nWhere: 4741 Voltaire St.
\nHours: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily
\nInfo: 619-255-1193, obgardencafe.coop<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ocean Beach People\u2019s Organic Food Market has added a new vegetarian caf\u00e9 to its growing mix. The only customer-owned grocer in San Diego, People\u2019s, a food cooperative with more than 14,000 members, recently opened OB Garden Caf\u00e9, formerly Tiny\u2019s Tavern, at 4741 Voltaire St. It is just down the street from its two-story grocery-deli parent […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":277097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Organic coffee and vegetarian meals at new OB Garden Caf\u00e9","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277096","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\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}