Article: Adoring Yourself and Your Appetizer

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Adoring Yourself and Your Appetizer

 

By Christine Muhlke

Published: April 18, 2007

 

San Francisco

 

I AM Luscious. Say it. Now try it on a stranger.

 

Unable to bring myself to say those three little words to the

waitress, I jabbed at the menu. A few minutes later, she presented me

with a smoothie made with hazelnut milk, figs, dates, vanilla and raw

cacao, making eye contact as she said: “You are luscious!”

 

And so it goes at Cafe Gratitude, a raw-food restaurant in San

Francisco, where every order is a self-affirmation — I Am Open, I Am

Beautiful, I Am Powerful — mirrored back to you by your server.

 

If it sounds like “The Secret: The Restaurant,” you might not be far

off: the positivity-preaching millionaire owners (“although there is

no solid evidence that his wealth is a result of his practice,” their

Web site says) have opened four Bay Area locations in three years,

and plan to expand.

 

“All of our food is local, sustainable, organic, vegan and raw,”

begin the well-programmed servers, “except for our rice and quinoa,

which are steamed. Quinoa is an ancient....” But that’s the tip of

the menu.

 

Full Story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/dining/18grat.html?_r=1 & oref=slogin