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Cultiva Artistic Cuisine, the newly opened vegan restaurant in San Juan Bautista, promises to be the town’s key destination for a daily farm-to-table experience. With menu items created from vegetables and produce grown at Chef Maria Gonzales’ Green Thumb Farm, Cultiva offers a fresh take on San Benito County’s agricultural greatness.
“Cultiva is a place where we can showcase what we grow and create at the farm,” Gonzales said, “It kind of pulls everything together. We work with many Bay Area restaurants that do the farm-to-table concept. I thought, ‘Why can’t we have somewhere like that here?’”
Green Thumb, located off of Lucy Brown Road in San Juan, has already been selling regularly at farmers’ markets as distant as San Francisco. Working with her partner, co-owner Rudy Jimenez, Gonzales also participates in the Urban Arts Collaborative Food Justice and Wellness program, distributing farm goods to underserved families in Monterey County.
After attending culinary school and working in restaurants in San Francisco, Gonzales’ first attempt to create her own business was Cali Dawg, a vegan hot dog made from seitan, a meat alternative that dates back to Ancient China.
“You take wheat gluten and add spices to it,” she said. “I like to add mushrooms and garbanzo beans, and I use coconut oil for fat. When you get the texture you want, you cook it and process it.”
Seitan appears on the Cultiva menu as the meatless Turky’ Classic, served with vegan American cheese and lettuce on 9-grain bread. The patty has a good texture, is firm and toothy, and has a satisfying depth of flavor.
“One of the things that I try to do,” Gonzales said, “is to change people’s minds as far as their expectations. You can get textures, you can get flavors, you can get the same feel of what you’re eating just by using different ingredients.”
A few years ago, Gonzales and Jimenez had a son, and she put the faux hot dog business on hold. She hoped to return to food production when she learned Alma Paulk was selling her Natural Wonders store on Third Street. It seemed like an opportunity she could not pass up.
Gonzales had already been a customer at Natural Wonders and named one of her sandwiches “The Alma” in honor of the former owner.
“I feel like she was always very bright and welcoming,” Gonzales said. “So I wanted to make a colorful, veggie sandwich with radishes, cucumbers, sprouts and pickled onions.”
Cultiva’s menu has been intentionally kept small, with a handful of breakfast items, salads and sandwiches, and a soup of the day.
“A lot of people are always on the go,” she said. “So we wanted to make it accessible so that people could just come and grab their food, whether they want to eat here or not. But most importantly, we want to stay connected to the seasonal food we grow.”
Gonzales’ favorite dish on the current menu is the Harvest Bowl, which is made with tri-color quinoa, delicata squash, broccolini, kale and cherry tomatoes in a citrus tahini sauce. But the Mushroom Torta is an intriguing option as well.
“I make them in a fajita style,” she said. “We cook down the mushrooms as much as possible to remove all the water content, which gives them a nice texture. It took a lot of trial and error to get it right.”
With some soy sauce for color, the mushrooms become akin to brisket, with a nice chewiness and a deep, rich flavor that might satisfy any meat-eater. The chipotle sauce is a nice counterpoint to the caramel tones of the soy, and as a whole, it is a very filling sandwich.
Gonzales says that she has received a great reception from the locals and is grateful for their support as she gets her business off the ground.
“It’s one of those towns where people are going to wave at you and say, ‘Hey, how you been?,” she said. “There’s been a lot of curiosity about what’s happening with this place. It’s a special little town, and we’ve seen that since moving in.”
Cultiva Artistic Cuisine
215 Third St., San Juan Bautista
(831) 593-1016
Hours:
Tuesday-Friday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m
Saturday & Sunday 9 am – 5 p.m.
Closed Mondays
Cultiva is also a pickup station for Green Thumb Farms’ “Abundance Boxes.” These weekly offerings, which come in four sizes, can be ordered through the Green Thumb Farms website.
Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
BenitoLink thanks our underwriters, Hollister Super and Windmill Market, for helping to expand the Eat, Drink, Savor series and give our readers the stories that interest them. Hollister Super (two stores in Hollister) and Windmill Market (in San Juan Bautista) support reporting on the inspired and creative people behind the many delicious food and drink products made in San Benito County. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.
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