My husband and I went to San Francisco this weekend for our wedding anniversary and we hung out with customers/ friends of ours who showed us the "real" San Francisco. We went to Pizzetta 211 which uses organic ingredients when possible. The restaurant was half the size of our cafe but it was the best pizza I have ever had, including the pizza we had in venice, italy. The place had 4 tiny tables and was busy all the time, I was getting stressed that people had to wait. I wondered when they would move to a bigger location and the guy said he'd been working there for 6 years. They had no intention of expanding, instead they maximized what they already had. There was many similarities to our cafe with the care they took in preparing innovative fresh food for their clients. Difference is nobody tells them to get a new location or get a bigger place. They aren't stressed when people have to wait and the people understand they need to wait for good food. What other striking differences did I notice about San Francisco and Fresno?
1) The people there are generally much thinner than residents of Fresno. They walk a lot more and they bike. Even when we drove somewhere, we had to park so far away that we got a good walk to our destination.
2) They support the local food movement. There are mom and pop fruit and veggie neigborhood stores that people preferred to shop at instead of large Save Marts etc.
3) There wasn't a McDonalds, Taco Bell or Carl's Jr. etc. at every major intersection, instead there was innovative neighborhood restaurants. The food is prepared by people who own the restaurant and make buying decisions with respect to their ingredients. Their food is not all high fat and low nutrition. The coffee restaurant served organic coffee and the organic bakery served a different organic vegetarian pizza every day.
4) Although San Francisco is much bigger than Fresno, people's homes are smaller and the city is split into small communities where people know each other and support the local businesses. They don't have mega fever, they've learned contentment and maximize what they have.
What did I learn from my experience? I don't have to have mega fever, I can maximize what I have. Like San Franciscans, I can promote a community neighborhood feel by personalizing my cafe to be a personal expression of my beliefs and convictions in an artistic way. After all, we are in the mural district. I want to promote the little neighborhood I work in, I don't have to change all of Fresno, I just have to believe that I can affect change in my neighborhood and in the lives of the people I come into contact with.
Let's reject Mega Fever and embrance the contentment that come with maximizing what we have like Europeans and San Franciscans. Let's reject mega chain commercialized junk food and shop at neighborhood markets selling locally grown fruits and veggies. May we maximize our money and make our voice count with every dollar we lay down. Never give up believing that we can be a community and that we can connect with each other. I look forward to the day that we can walk in Fresno at 11:00 p.m. at night with hundreds of others without fear of violence because we care about each other and the place we live. I'm planning to change the whole decor of our cafe, so look forward to a more artistic atmoshpere in the next few weeks.
Yours in community and Health,
Tara Hamilton
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