October 16th, 2006
Our menu is a la carte, piece-meal, (Peace Meal) by design. We desire our customers to order what they want to eat and not have to pay for extras that they don’t want. This way we can keep our prices low and minimize the amount of uneaten food that ends up in the compost.
However, we’ve recently had some feedback that our portions are skimpy and that people aren’t getting filled up. This week we added some tasty garnishes to all of our “sandwich” orders. In addition to lettuce, tomato, and green onion, all of our sandwich options now also come with a flax chip and carrot, bok choy, and celery sticks with a freshly-prepared sesame-tahini dip. We are doing our best to enable everyone to leave happy and satisfied. Please let us know if you like these garnish additions, or if you would prefer them to be a separately priced option.
Thanks for the feedback that is helping us improve our service. Please let us know how we’re doing!
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October 16th, 2006
Today we powered up the juicer and started serving fresh juice! We have a stash of local apples and we’re offering a special introductory price for apple - ginger juice of $2.00 for an 8oz glass. Yummy! We also make a green juice with carrots, bok choy, apple, and ginger ($4.00). You can also have a juice made to order from any produce we have available.
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October 14th, 2006
Only a few months ago, the space that Peace Meal now occupies was an empty garage. We have been busy at work transforming the space into its current form. In the process, we have been very conscious of the materials going into the construction. Our floor, ceiling, walls, and table-tops were painted and sealed using BioShield low volatile organic compound (VOC) paints and sealers. These paints had virtually no odor, and we were delighted to be able to beautify our space without compromizing our health or the environment through noxious chemicals! The BioShield products come from Santa Fe and are distributed locally by Mattie Johnson’s Material Good shop located in the lobby of the Syzygy tile factory.
As the construction is complete and we are now serving food, our concern for minimizing the use of petro-chemicals continues. We use biodegradable dishwashing soap. In lieu of bleach or other chemicals, we sanitize our dishes in a custom heated sink basin that keeps the water above 171 deg F. The hot water sanitization enables us to get the dishes very clean without the use of chemicals that other restaurants use that remain on the dishes. We clean our prep surfaces and tables with diluted hydrogen peroxide solution.
We occasionally do need to use some “chemy” materials during our deep cleaning on the Tuesday when the deli is closed, but we keep the deli well ventilated so that the vapors are gone by the time we open for business on Wednesday.
Our experience with earth-friendly products so far has been very positive. Some of us who normally get headaches from paint were able to spend hours painting without any adverse affects. We are also finding that the earth-conscious biodegradable cleaners for dishes and surfaces work well.
Peace Meal is committed to a healthy environment, healthy workers, and healthy customers!
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October 11th, 2006
Written by Asher Gelbart
Something Different, something New, something utterly Delicious and full of Life – Peace Meal Cooperative, a vegetarian deli now open on Bullard Street in downtown Silver City, NM, has all this to offer and more! Peace Meal specializes in dine-in and take-out vegetarian, vegan, and live raw foods prepared from organic and locally grown produce, nuts, seeds, and grains. The deli features a smoothie and juice bar, and a wide array of freshly prepared sandwiches, salads, snack foods, and soups that span the vegetarian, vegan, and live foods genres. With a mission toward local sustainability, Peace Meal is passionately committed to using only the best organic and locally grown produce available, something that no other restaurant in southwest NM offers. Every menu option is beyond tasty, but equally important, the intention behind the food is health, nutrition, and wholeness of mind, body, and spirit for all. Imagine the quality of product and service of a restaurant where every server, chef, and cashier is an owner of the establishment. This is what you can expect at Peace Meal. The deli is incorporated as a worker-cooperative, which means that the restaurant is owned by the people who work there; each worker-owner shares an equal portion of the responsibilities of running and operating the restaurant, with equal start-up investment, equal hourly wages, and equal profit-sharing benefits. For the customer, the worker-coop aspect of the restaurant translates to quality enthusiastic service, uncompromised integrity of the deli staff, and a creative and fun ambiance. Peace Meal largely fills the need in the community for a place to purchase a meal that is prepared entirely with organic ingredients (i.e., grown sustainably without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers), many of which come directly from local farmers. While Peace Meal is committed to serving organic vegetarian foods only, the menu features nutrient balanced juices, smoothies, and deli entrées that constitute a complete meal, with ample protein coming from nuts, seeds, legumes, sprouts, green leafy vegetables, and sea vegetables.
Peace Meal’s worker-owners are convinced that even staunch meat eaters will find Peace Meal’s vegetarian, vegan, and raw menu selections scrumptious, satisfying both the palate and the belly. Peace Meal’s menu is conducive to a growing population of people with special doctor-recommended or voluntary dietary restrictions to wheat/gluten, dairy, processed sugar, refined salt, red meat, and animal flesh. Those adhering to a strictly vegan diet (no dairy or eggs) will have plenty of entrée choices. Peace Meal also provides multiple menu options for those preferring raw live foods in which nothing is heated over 118oF, thus preserving all the inherent enzymes of the food that aid in digestion and nutrient assimilation. For those who prefer to cross the lines between organic vegetarian, vegan, and live foods, Peace Meal is the restaurant from heaven!In addition to healthy food, Peace Meal is committed to sustainable practices that are healthy to the people that work and eat there, to the environment, and to the entire Earth. The interior of the Peace Meal deli is painted with non-toxic solvent free paints and surface sealers. Environmentally friendly cleaners and cleansers don’t leave toxic chemical residues in the air or on eating surfaces. Rather than sanitizing dishes with a chemical cleanser such as chlorine that is both toxic to inhale and ingest, Peace Meal sanitizes with a pure water bath heated to 171oF. Take-out containers are selected to facilitate recycling that is currently available in Silver City. Peace Meal’s refrigerators are twice as energy-efficient as conventional commercial refrigeration. The restaurant is flooded with natural air and light from many windows. Excess heat from kitchen appliances is removed and air exchanged via an energy efficient exhaust fan. Furthermore, Peace Meal commits to minimize food waste by selling excess and 2nd –day items at discount.
Peace Meal was birthed by a group of six gourmet cooks and health food enthusiasts, each of whom was interested in opening their own restaurant but didn’t want to take on the financial risk and time burden of opening a conventional sole-proprietorship. The worker-cooperative business model enables each of the worker-owners to achieve the dream of running and owning their own restaurant, while feeling the support of their co-owners and the community as a whole; Peace Meal really belongs to the community that it will serve.
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October 9th, 2006
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