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Former Google executive chef seeks ‘greener’ pastures with Calafía concept

Former Google executive chef seeks ‘greener’ pastures with Calafía concept

Charlie Ayers wants to create an “everyday place.”

Not that it will be ordinary. Ayers, the former executive chef at Google Inc.’s headquarters, who also cooked for The Grateful Dead, is planning a new concept in Palo Alto, Calif., that he feels will uniquely capture what people have long been looking for.

To be named Calafía Café and Market a Go-Go, the 4,900-square-foot restaurant will feature healthful, artisan-style, sustainable cuisine focusing mainly on vegetarian foods that will be created and produced locally.

It will be “slow food served fast,” Ayers says. Prices will range from $4.50 to $12.50, with specials up to $18—a bit higher than what is typical in the quick-service segment.

To Ayers, this is the future of restaurants.

“I’ve been in the area for almost 20 years,” he said. “I’ve worked in every sector and served all kinds of customers, and I’m always hearing people and families say that their needs aren’t being met. They want fast, healthy and creative meals that are sized the way they want and priced fairly. This is a concept that people have been dying for.”

Being that the restaurant is planned for the tech-savvy Bay Area, Calafía Café also will allow customers to place orders by PDA or cell phone.

Scheduled to open in early 2008, the location at the Town and Country Center, a busy shopping venue, will appeal to patrons looking for a place to grab a quick bite they can eat standing up after a long day of shopping or visiting the spa.

Ayers already has many fans in the area. For six years the chef headed a team that cooked about 4,000 lunches and dinners a day at Google’s headquarters in nearby Mountain View, Calif. He left the company in 2005.

However, Ayers is not alone in wanting to carve out a niche for artisanal foods within the quick-service segment. Chains such as O’Naturals in Falmouth, Maine, Organic To Go in Seattle, FreeFoods NYC in New York, and Evos in Tampa, Fla., are setting new standards for cuisine that diners can feel a little less guilty about enjoying when they’re in a hurry.

Restaurateurs that have been around the block once or twice may say this is yet another passing fad. Fifteen minutes ago, everyone cared about carbs. Now the buzz words are healthful, organic, sustainable and local.

Or, just maybe, it is the beginning of a trend that’s here to stay a while.

Calafia, sometimes spelled Califia, is the name of a legendary black Amazon warrior queen who in Spanish myth came from the imaginary island of California, where the only metal was gold. Many believe the state of California was named by Spanish explorers for this apparently beautiful, robust and strong queen—who I’m guessing dined only on foods that were healthful, organic, sustainable and local.

Long may she reign.

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