Cafe Gratitude

I just found out that Cafe Gratitude is a chain, and it just about shocked the shit out of me. I thought it was a "This could only work in Berkeley" kind of place, but I guess it works in San Francisco, Oakland, Healdsburg, and San Raf too.

Anyway, Cafe Gratitude is a pretty expensive place to eat. I would say it's on the expensive side. All the foods have funny names. For example, Erik ordered I Am Graceful, and I ordered I Am Passionate. I almost ordered I Am Sensational, but it had hemp seeds in it, and I don't like hemp. Erik's food was a grain bowl, and mine was pizza. However, it was unlike any pizza I had ever encountered. The food is live, organic, and vegan. I think "live" is a subset of raw, but I could be wrong about that.

The waiter told us that the question of the day was, "Who can you reach out to and love today?" At the middle of each table is a stack of cards that we used to play a game. First we had to chose a special name. We had a pick a spirit word and an abundance word. I chose "mana" and "heaps," so my name was Mana Heaps Laura-Marie. Erik was All That Is Abounding Erik. Then we played the game. Each card had an inspirational quote on it and then some questions and River Guides. Questions are like, "How do you feel about being rich?" and "When is a time you didn't speak up for yourself?" It's a talking game. Erik was much better at this game than I was. I had a hard time coming up with examples and playing along. Erik is obviously much more attuned to abundance and accepting what life has to offer, etc.