{"id":15710,"date":"2013-06-18T09:50:04","date_gmt":"2013-06-18T15:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=15710"},"modified":"2013-06-18T09:50:04","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T15:50:04","slug":"oxnard-california-cafe-nefola-leading-the-green-lunch-brigade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/oxnard-california-cafe-nefola-leading-the-green-lunch-brigade\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxnard, California’s Caf\u00e9 Nefola: Leading the Green Lunch Brigade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fresh<\/a><\/p>\n

In celebration of its relaunch, Greenhome.com<\/a>, the original online ecostore, is sharing stories of some of its customers, and their motivations for buying green.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Her name is Cynthia Neftin, and she is the owner of Oxnard, California-based Caf\u00e9 Nefola<\/a>, whose motto is \u201chealthy, local, fresh and natural.\u201d An additional tag line \u2013 \u201cfrom fat to fit, this is it<\/i>\u201d \u2013 leaves returning customers and new visitors in no doubt as to the restaurant\u2019s orientation.<\/p>\n

If you need to mend your ways \u2013 and who in Oxnard, the franchise capital of California, doesn\u2019t? \u2013 you will appreciate Caf\u00e9 Nefola\u2019s menu, which focuses on comestibles that are so good for you, you might literally start to vibrate when you close the door behind you.<\/p>\n

When did Cynthia get her green on? After several false starts, as a manicurist and then a caterer, she moved to Oxnard, which was largely rural, and realized she wanted to own a restaurant. Or something.<\/p>\n

The first restaurant was an ice cream franchise. The relationship didn\u2019t last, but Cynthia was still stuck for the lease, so she looked around \u2013 at a rural village that was still in the formative stages \u2013 and made a vertical leap, right into a rural mindset that was already acquainted with local, fresh, and natural<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had everything right here, at the tips of my fingers, and it naturally got me to where I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now is a completely 21st\u00a0<\/sup>century realization that things have to change, whether it\u2019s eating or manufacturing products<\/a>. Cynthia quickly found her go-to green source with Greenhome.com, which has an entire subsection devoted to green food service supplies like compostable smoothie cups and bagasse takeout containers. There is no other way to make things work. And it works for Cynthia on a very personal level as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving this restaurant, being green, changes the way I think when I\u2019m out and about. It also changes the way I think about other peoples\u2019 businesses. Personally, I\u2019m hoping I can teach other people a little bit of awareness: that\u2019s my personal ideal. And judging by the way the business is slowly improving, I\u2019m sure I get through to some.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding a caveat, she admits she doesn\u2019t always see who she has gotten through to, or how it has affected them, but she is trying to become more aware of that, too, and capitalize on teaching tools she doesn\u2019t always realize she has.<\/p>\n

Part of her green is local sourcing. This means arugula and spinach greens, but not water chestnuts or bean sprouts. Many of her customers don\u2019t mind the fact that some things which aren\u2019t locally grown don\u2019t appear on the menu. Others do. To please both factions, Cynthia occasionally brings in some non-local items like Valencia oranges from Florida to rival the region\u2019s navel oranges. But she makes such concessions knowing that, in time, her desired clientele will accept the idea of fresh and local, which is how I started and how I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest problem in running a fresh, local, \u201cgreen\u201d restaurant \u2013 double focus on the green (as a meme and <\/i>as the color of healthy vegetables) \u2013 is getting what she needs when she needs it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut even in that area, I\u2019ve noticed that store owners are becoming more receptive to the green theme and more responsive in stocking environmentally-friendly products. For example, one local store is beginning to carry compostable products. Not recyclable, but compostable!\u201d<\/p>\n

The difference?<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 25 years! Recyclable means it can be repurposed, but uses energy to become so. If not recycled, it persists in a landfill for a quarter century. Compostable, on the other hand has a waste stream lifecycle of about 30 to 90 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, people think recyclable is going to save us. It is not. A good example would be plastic bags in a supermarket, which are no longer supplied (in California, at least). I think people are going to notice that, learn more about it, and ultimately realize that we (humans) don\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cynthia must be doing something right! Even her growing group of vegan advocates hasn\u2019t outed her for her food choices, food service items, or her food ideology. And professional that she is, she never \u2018settles\u2019 for second-best.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they\u2019re a tough group. They really care about the green food philosophy, and about their bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future for Caf\u00e9 Nefola is a move in about two weeks, to what Cynthia calls a \u201cbetter location\u201d. Is there one? After all, the restaurant is relocating from a front-row view of the Channel Islands Harbor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s closer in, and I\u2019m hoping to get a couple of bicycles out front to encourage bike commuting instead of driving. The caf\u00e9 is also going to get into the delivery business.<\/p>\n

On a final note, Cynthia shared with me one of her \u2018greener\u2019 ventures. The company is\u00a0LifeSource<\/a>. With one water filtration unit at her restaurant and another at her home, she is probably as much an expert as company salespersons, assuming there are any.<\/p>\n

According to Cynthia, not only is it the best-tasting water she has ever had, but when used to wash produce it makes fruits and vegetables last longer without any chemicals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wash my lettuce, and it lasts a week to a week and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Try that with your city water, or even your shallow urban well water. LifeSource water systems are also easily movable, in case you decide to head for a better climate. Better than Southern California. You\u2019ve got to be joking, dude!<\/p>\n

Written by Jeanne Roberts<\/em><\/p>\n

Image credit:<\/strong> thebittenword.com<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Her name is Cynthia Neftin, and she is the owner of Oxnard, California-based Caf\u00e9 Nefola, whose motto is \u201chealthy, local, fresh and natural.\u201d An additional tag line \u2013 \u201cfrom fat to fit, this is it\u201d \u2013 leaves returning customers and new visitors in no doubt as to the restaurant\u2019s orientation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":15711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,79],"tags":[6486,370,19,6487,6488,6489,1808],"yoast_head":"\nOxnard, California Restaurant Does Fresh, Local, Natural<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The owner of Oxnard, California's Caf\u00e9 Nefola shares her tactics for staying true to her restaurant's focus on fresh, local and natural ingredients.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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