smilingdogcafe

There’s a new vegetarian restaurant coming to San Luis Obispo, California – The Smiling Dog Café! Located behind the Smiling Dog Yoga Studio at 1227 Archer Street in SLO town where Higuera intersects Marsh, — we’re easy to find when you know where to look….If you’re traveling on Highway 101, we’re only a block and a half off the freeway and easy to get to.

Just take the Marsh exit off of the 101, stay on Marsh through the Higuera intersection (but get in that right-hand lane), then take a quick right onto Archer. There! You’ve found us…

Enter into the sun-drenched courtyard, find yourself a cozy table and get ready for something tasty to eat that your body and soul will thank you for…

You’ll find everything is vegetarian, and most items are completely vegan. We also offer smoothies and several raw food dishes (no, not like sushi!).

Our philosophy is to prepare delectable, mouth-watering dishes using organic, locally-grown ingredients that nourish the body and soul. From our assortment of salads, sandwiches, home-made soups and entrees, to our smoothies, green tea and mate lattes, raw and vegan desserts, you’re sure to find that perfect serving of life-promoting, energy-giving food blessing from Mother Earth.

So why would we go to the bother and expense of using organic and locally-grown ingredients?

Actually there are a couple of reasons, which I think are best told by a story…

First, I truly believe that my health depends on it.

After all, it was somewhere back in time, between 460 and 359 BC, that Hippocrates said, “Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food“.

And when I was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer around 2500 years later – back in February of 2007 – I stopped and took a good, long, hard look at the way I had been living my life.

My thought process was that if I could figure out what caused the cancer, maybe I could beat it.

It was so strange to me that I even had cancer – I mean, it didn’t run in my family, I thought I had a pretty healthy lifestyle, and I lived in one of the most pristine places on planet earth. So how is it that I was dying of cancer?

I researched everything I could find on the internet and came to the conclusion that I had to change my diet immediately. That’s when I became vegan.

Now, in all fairness, I didn’t just stop at changing my diet. My intuition told me that I also needed “the big guns”. So I went under the knife three different times, took a year-long course of chemotherapy and participated in a clinical trial at the Santa Barbara Cancer Clinic.

Oh, and I started including daily sun therapy, exercise, Chinese herbal medicine, and various supplements along with my strict low-fat vegan diet. (Let’s just say I wanted to cover all the bases).

Within 12 months’ time, I was in complete remission and actually healthier than I had been in years. Even my doctor said my recovery was “close to a miracle”.

And that’s when I got the idea that I needed to contribute to the health of my community by making really healthy and delicious food choices – that place a much lighter burden on our planet’s resources – more accessible.

Which, by the way, is the second reason why I will only serve the best ingredients available: to improve the world around me.

(After all, the thought of “checking out” before I’ve made a healthy contribution terrifies me!)

Luckily, I have a dear friend, business partner, and accomplished homeopathic healer, that shares my vision – Renee.

Renee and I first started discussing how we could serve our community through nutritious and delicious food earlier this year. We only had a couple of conversations, then shelved the idea for the time-being and went on with our lives.

But like the Universe often allows, the stars lined up and doors that we weren’t even aware of started opening, and here we are today…

On the verge of launching Smiling Dog Café….

So that’s a little back story. But trust me, there are more…many more stories to tell!

I hope that you drop by often – either in person at the café, or here at http://smilingdogcafe.today.com! You can hear our stories and the stories of all those beautiful souls that pass through our lives…stories of how being more aware of what we eat can change our health and the health of our planet.

Maybe you’ll even want to share a story of your own…

Until next time….Many Blessings to you and your loved ones!

Pam 2009-05-08

p.s.       You can also follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/theveggiemama

p.p.s.    If you have a story to tell how the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle has changed your life, I’d love to hear it!

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