October 22, 2024 – The trip from San Juan Bautista’s newest restaurant to the farm that fuels it tracks little more than 3 miles.
The voyage to get there for chef Maria Gonzales and farmer Rudy Jimenez is predictably longer—and birthed in part by their shared parenthood.
Back to the human birth in a minute.
The restaurant coming into the world is Cultiva Artistic Cuisine, opening this weekend, starting 11am Friday, Oct. 25.
The modest spot with maybe 12 seats indoors and another 15 on the back deck occupies the former Natural Wonders deli and health food store, at 215 Third St., in the heart of the town of 2,089.
Cultiva is entirely plant-based, as was its predecessor. That operation was creative hot dog startup Cali Dawg, Gonzales’ fun and flavorful project pre-kid. She launched that after culinary school and a range of restaurant, catering and upscale hotel work in San Francisco, with support and kitchen space from El Pájaro CDC, in her native Watsonville.
Cultiva’s introductory menu does breakfast and lunch in the $5-$17 range, and keeps it short and thoughtful. (Hours are 7am-3:30pm Tuesday-Saturday and 7am-12:30pm Sunday.)
Daybreak items include things like roasted breakfast potatoes; Brokaw avocado toast with radish, cherry tomato and herbs; breakfast sandwiches with vegan cheddar “cheeze,” house mayo, arugula and the standout house sausage from the Cali Dawg era.
Gonzales will make many of the pastries herself, but also pull from Sweet Bean Bakery in Santa Cruz and Hole Foods Vegan Donuts in Salinas.
The lunch slate rolls out mushroom tortas, delicata squash salads, fall harvest bowls, rotating soups like kabocha squash curry soup with pumpkin seed crema and chili oil, and alma sandwiches with avocado and Gonzales’ own creamy cheezy spread with carrots, celery and onions.
The most important thing on the menu: local abundance.
“It’s surprising there aren’t more people doing something like this, especially being so close to the fields,” Gonzales says. “We see chefs every week [at the farmers markets] who are all working toward that type of concept. We have all the ingredients here, why not use it?!”
The farm is Green Thumb Farm, which tends more than 40 varieties of vegetables annually and appears at five San Francisco area farmers markets each week.
Cultiva came to be after a series of life-changing and humble plot twists, with some serendipity sprinkled in.
The first came when Gonzales learned she was pregnant, and she felt it was time to put the Dawg on a leash to focus on motherhood (and supporting Green Thumb).
That meant even more time around fresh vegetables and their home kitchen.
“I dug more deeply into helping my partner with his farm business,” says Gonzales, who is also Green Thumb’s operations manager. “There’s so much produce, I couldn’t get out of the kitchen, creating items (like sauces and teas) and playing around on how to better them. I can’t help it!”
The couple started selling juices—which will resurface at Cultiva—using recipes Jimenez has honed across eight years of Green Thumb, including the best-selling Green Glow with celery, cucumber, lemon, ginger and apple.
Meanwhile, they continued to frequent Natural Wonders for its vegan and vegetarian inventory, and its owner-operator Alma Paulk shared that she was retiring, and conversations ensued. (Bonus point if you guessed the Alma sandwich is named for Paulk, who still owns the building with her husband.)
“We asked a couple of questions, and it ended up being a good fit,” Gonzales says. “It wasn’t part of the plan at this point, but doors opened up.”
She plans on “infusing” a little of what she did with Cali Dawg, but focusing on the seasonal outputs from the field, which has farmer Jimenez stoked.
“I am excited to see Maria dive back into something she’s passionate about [and] I feel it’s always been a dream of ours to collaborate our work and share it with our community,” he says. “Cultiva will be just that: a collaboration of our work.”
It will also be, carrots crossed, a beacon for the family’s newest foodie—and beyond.
“We hope to keep sharing with our son our passion and hard work,” Jimenez says, “and embed in him just how important it is to eat the best quality food available.”
More at Cultiva Artistic Cuisine’s Instagram page.
About the author
Mark C. Anderson, EMB's managing editor and "Found Treasures" columnist, welcomes responsible and irresponsible feedback. Correspond via mark@ediblemontereybay.com.
