Restaurant Reviews + Sustainable Food

In my own personal quest to connect to the food we eat, I often feel like I'm on this journey alone. I know there a lot of people around the world that are on a similar journey - and I can read about them in books like Omnivore's Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or online at green info/news websites like Grist. But when it comes to what I encounter and interact with everyday (especially in the media), I don't necessarily see a mainstream consciousness.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I recently picked up a copy of the Metro Silicon Valley (free weekly paper where I live), and the featured restaurant review talked just as much about the externalities of cheap, fast food burgers and reasons to look for sustainably raised meat as it did about the restaurant (Slider Bar Cafe in Palo Alto). The review pointed out that the beef came from Niman Ranch and Masami Farms, and that dairy from Clover Stornetta Farms (and when I looked on their website, they have a page dedicated to their suppliers). I have been curious about Slider Bar Cafe, based on the recommendations of a couple friends, and now this bit of info bumps this restaurant on my list of new places to try.

This kind of restaurant review (by Stett Holbrook, food editor at the Metro) may be out of the norm, but much appreciated in these parts where understanding where our food comes from is just as important as how good it tastes.