The music is loud, but not too loud for conversation between strangers. Often the folks behind the counter are singing along with Bob Marley: "The Babylon system is a vampire!" It's infectious, and soon the customers are singing along as well. Everyone has a plate of beautiful food, lovingly crafted in the slow food way, in front of them, and a steaming mug of homemade chai or fair-trade coffee. Vegan chocolate cake tempts those in the mood for dessert. There is no end to the people streaming in: little old couples, young people with their shining organic babies, neighbors, friends, employees of the nearby grocery co-op Other Avenues, beach combers; in short, everyone.

This is the scene at Feel Real Café, located at 4001 Judah (at 45 th Avenue), near the terminus of the N-Judah train at Ocean Beach. Open for just over one year, the café serves a 100% plant and grain-based, organic menu; everything from the salads and beverages to the main dishes and desserts are vegan, and they are delicious. Often a meal takes upwards of half an hour to make, in fine Slow Food tradition- on my first visit, shortly after the café opened on April 20, 2005, I ordered a salad called "Mystic Journey to the Center," and it showed up on my table 30 minutes later. This is a style choice, according to Feel Real's proprietors, Tim and June: "We talk to the people, find out what they like, what mood they are in, and we make their food especially for that." I came to find out that a Mystic Journey salad varies entirely from person to person, started from scratch and added to based on personal taste. And it was well worth the wait.

June, the chef often singing the loudest and dealing with cooked food- from potato pancakes and steamed greens to hand-made veggie burgers served with homemade mustard- talks about the Feel Real menu being soul food. How did Feel Real's food come to be this way? Slow Food means that time is taken to understand the food needs of the person eating, what they like or dislike, whether they are vegans or omnivores; additionally, the origins of the food are carefully taken into consideration, to ensure optimum health and taste; and of course, the food is prepared with care and attention to detail. As Carlo Petrini says in his book Slow Food: The Case for Taste (Columbia University Press, 2001), the making of slow food is a craft, and this craftsmanship gives pleasure, for the producers, the chefs, and the consumers. This process often means that a relationship is built between the food eater and the food maker, and between the food and people; hence the soulfulness of the Feel Real menu. As June says, "Food represents life."

Feel Real seems to operate largely on this premise. The structure of the business reflects the dedication of June and Tim to an egalitarian way of working with each other and providing nourishing food to their customers. According to Tim, "everybody works together to make it one. There's not an 'owner.' It takes these certain people to make this happen... It's not really a 'business' then, because we don't have ownership. Even calling ourselves a co-op is too structured. We are very loose and flexible; since we are in the early stages of development, we have to have lots of flexibility to work. It's going to be changing in the future- our business is growing, in baking, in this, in that- so we need to be able to change. Maybe in the future we'll settle into a system." Indeed, on my latest visit, to interview the boys, I ended up taking orders and answering the phone. They have had a changing cast of co-workers over the past year, people who have dropped in to help, or who accentuate the high quality of Feel Real's food, including their vegan pastry chef, Phoenix, who makes yummy cakes, cookies, and pies. The food, the atmosphere, and the camaraderie are part of what makes life soulful.

This view also extends to the way Feel Real charges its customers for the food they eat. When the cafe opened, there were no prices listed next to the dishes on the menu. People were asked to pay what they thought it was worth for the food. "After all, price is an arbitrary number," say June and Tim. Initially, this presented a problem for a few customers- they were unsure of how to handle the money situation. So a compromise has been struck: a price range. All dishes are now priced in a range, for example, from $7-$10 for steamed greens, grains, and grilled tempeh or tofu, and people pay what they feel the food is worth within that range. It usually works to an advantage for Feel Real, as people will often pay a good sum for the food, which is another indication of how much people enjoy its taste and preparation.

Most of the food that Feel Real purchases and uses in their cooking is provided by one of two Bay Area organic produce suppliers, Earl's Organics. (The other is Veritable Vegetable.) So why not buy directly from a small local farm? "One small local farm couldn't provide enough for the volume of food that a restaurant needs. So small farms go to distributors and sell. For one single farm to be able to supply restaurants, they go to Earl's in order to make sure they can make a profit." These distributors then do business with many Bay Area restaurants to provide a whole range of produce, fruit, and grains. On the other end of the spectrum, a large farm's costs are too high to provide produce to a small scale restaurant like Feel Real. Tim pointed out that a collaborative of local, organic restaurants could make it worth a large farm's time to provide produce directly, but until that happens, "a middleman is necessary." Feel Real also purchases food items such as herbs and spices from Mountain Peoples, and items that it doesn't need in bulk, such as a single cucumber for a Mystic Journey salad, from the nearby grocery co-op Other Avenues (located at Judah and 44 th Avenue). Often, they will also purchase items from Rainbow Grocery as well.

Coffee and tea are provided by Café Mam and Té Tea, respectively. According to Café Mam's website ( www.cafemam.com ), "Café Mam is grown by fair-trade cooperatives of native Mayan farmers living in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. The growers, primarily of the Mam, Tzetzal and Mochó peoples, are organized according to egalitarian democratic ideals that stress responsibility to the co-op, hard work and high standards. Their programs provide countless benefits to outlying native communities." Té Tea's website ( www.teteas.com ) states that "Té Teas offer an exclusive selection of unrivaled loose whole-leaf teas from the world's most privileged single tea growing estates." Additionally, chai tea is hand-made all day long at Feel Real.

What about Feel Real's place in the community? They have made their mark as a place to meet and greet; strangers will gather at the large front table, which seats up to ten people, and leave as friends. The beauty of the space, the bright minty-green floor, the murals and sculptures made of salvaged tree branches, the constant music (records only) and occasional spontaneous live shows by customers, make Feel Real as comfortable as your living room. Tim and June have worked out any number of deals that amount to bartering with people for food, time worked in the kitchen, and taking care of the food scraps produced, which end up in a neighbor's compost bin. With a twinkle in his eye, Tim says of the compost Feel Real produces, "It's organic. It's in demand."

On a typical cold, blustery day in San Francisco's Sunset District, I have stopped into Feel Real for some food and company. I have a cold. I have brought some rosemary from home and my droopy state of being. I sit at the front table, surrounded by people I haven't met before. I say to June, "I'm sick... What can you make for me?" and I give him the rosemary. Twenty minutes later, I have a potato pancake, steamed greens, and rosemary in front of me. I've already had several conversations with the people sitting around me, and by the time I'm done eating, I feel quite a bit better. I leave, full, healthy, and satisfied, knowing that I will return, as I have every week, for more of that soulful food and company.

Details:

Feel Real Café, 4001 Judah @ 45 th Avenue
Open Tuesday through Saturday, 11am - 3pm and 5pm - 9pm
Open Sunday 11am - 5pm
Cash only, Catering Available