Raise the Hammer

Dear Mayday Editor:

It's Karen from The Bread & Roses Cafe. I just happened to have been looking at this page when I noticed an article about some of Hamilton’s newest restaurants. Thanks, it's so nice to have been included! The article described our menu as being all organic, fair trade and local. Well, that's almost completely correct.

I just want to mention that although we strive to maintain an emphasis on organic, local, and fair trade certified ingredients, we should make it clear that not absolutely everything we sell falls into all of these splendid categories! We choose organic ingredients according to factors such as availability, reasonability of cost, and freshness while we make local choices a priority across the menu, as well. Certain items are definitely imports, such as our coffees, and the pineapples and bananas in our smoothies. These ingredients add variety to our menu, and cater to the tastes of our 'regulars'.

Our efforts to consider the triple bottom line when we created our menu has resulted in a menu that includes a wide selection of items with at least about 80% organically grown and/or raised ingredients. That’s really high for the restaurant business. Going 100% organic with every menu item and ingredient would result in restricted, unpredictable menu coupled with outrageously high menu prices. I probably could not afford to eat at my own café under those circumstances. Not good.

So… here’s a challenge for all of us enthusiastic natural food supporters: how about starting a “Local Food Only” Café here in the Hammer, or else a restaurant that is 100% organic? How about a raw food bar, or a purely organic juice bar? I probably wouldn’t be able to go to these places all the time, but I imagine each could be an interesting, unique, and soul-satisfying experience! …And what’s this I hear about something new getting cooked up for the kitchen at The Staircase?

Anyway, I’ve touched on some pretty big issues, so I should stop now or else I’ll never stop typing.

Yours truly,

Karen B

BTW: Want to know what's in your Bread & Roses soups, muffins, bowls and brownies? Just ask. We'll let you know about what you're eating, no problem... but we can't give out our actual recipes. Our grandmas would get pretty ticked-off.