Last week, my parents and I went to California to drop off my brother at UCLA (god, they grow up fast). While I was there, I noticed that it seems like Californians don't really need a locavore challenge. For them, eating sustainably isn't part of a 30-day challenge or a slow food movement, it's just life.
On the way from SFO to Lake Tahoe, my parents decided to take a short pit stop in Napa. Last time I went to Napa to visit Simi, I had absolutely fallen in love with the place. I mean, come on - good food and good wine, what more could a girl ask for? This time we went to the Oxbow Public Market for lunch. It's basically a market place where local artisans and purveyors can sell their crops and/or specialties to the community. They also have a bunch of restaurants and food vendors that source sustainably/locally. The spirit of the market place rests on the fact that all of their tenants "actively support sustainable and organic farming practices, owner-operated businesses, local food producers, and the agricultural community of Napa Valley and surrounding regions." The food was phenomenal and so fresh. Even my dad, who always makes fun of me by saying things like "do you think these bathrooms are organic?" could not get over the sweetness of the tomatoes on his bruschetta. He admitted that they were out of this world.
Mahir and I love the SF food scene and convinced my parents to go into SF for lunch on the way back from Tahoe to SFO (even though we didn't really have time and almost missed our flight to LA). Since our parents are vegetarian, we decided to go to Greens Restaurant - an all vegetarian restaurant in the Fort Mason Center. Their space is very cool; it's a converted warehouse that looks out onto the Marina and has beautiful views of the Golden Gate Bridge. It would be the perfect space for a special event, like a rehearsal dinner or something like that. The food was delicious, and their menu was very innovative. The server said that the chef, Annie Somerville is always at the farmer's market and constantly changes the menu to match the seasonality of her ingredients. They partner very closely with the Zen Center's Green Gulch Farm and Bolina's Star Route Farms to source their ingredients.