As I mentioned when I got you all caught up on life here lately, Cheryl and I had the pleasure of visiting Alissa Bell at her studio last week.  Alissa runs a letterpress business, printing everything from corporate stationery to wedding invitations on her century-old Chandler & Price Co. letterpress machine.  She produced the holiday and business cards for our office, and we are all madly in love with her work.  I have an obsession with letterpress cards, so meeting Alissa and seeing her studio was such a dream!

She had kindly set out a spread of cheese and lemonade for us to nibble on while we chatted… I can’t remember what that cheese was called, but it was delish!I loved seeing pictures and hearing the whole history of how she quit her day job to pursue a passion, learned the trade and art of letterpress by attending workshops at the San Francisco Center for the Book, and finally started her own business after purchasing her letterpress machine from a kind elderly man who collects them in an old barn up in Napa.  The press is a really gorgeous machine… I would love to learn to operate one someday!She showed us her collection of antique letters for some manually cast work she occasionally does……and also showed us the newer plates that are used nowadays.  This little plate is a small part of our business cards

Hop on over to her online store - she has some really cute stuff for sale!  A big thank you to Alissa for opening the studio to us for the afternoon… this won’t be the last you’ll see of her on my blog, I’m sure of it.  

While I am glad there are plenty of delicious Mexican restaurants in San Juan Bautista, I was a little bummed that there are not many places in town with a variety of healthier options.  However, a little market and cafe recently opened in SJB just a block or two from our office called the Natural Wonders Cafe.  It is a little health food market that also has a small kitchen and serves a good variety of fresh, organic meals.

The owner, Alma, is a very sweet middle-aged woman with a thick accent originally from Mexico City.  She is quite possibly the most hospitable person I have ever met, and also loves to chat me up when I’m there to eat lunch.

“I’ve done a little bit of everything and lived in a lot of different places,” she explained to me on my very first visit.  She has a background in marketing, advertising, and finance but her true passion is cooking healthy, healing foods and she always wanted to run her own business to share her cooking with others.  She loves to use spices from all over the world which gives all of her dishes a unique flavor, although I have noticed that all of them have a bit of a spicy kick to them!

It is so nice to have a guilt-free place to eat if I don’t pack my lunch for work, and it is also great that she has quite a few shelves with the essentials I normally have to make a separate trip to New Leaf to pick up.

Eating there is like enjoying a meal at home – she makes everything fresh in the morning, and she’s so kind and friendly that I always leave feeling warm inside with a very full belly.  My favorite dish so far is her curried chicken on a bed of baby spinach….

I know people don’t often find themselves in San Juan Bautista since it’s just a small mission town without much around it, but if you are ever in the area… please stop in and have lunch there.  She could use the support, and I want to make sure she stays in business so I don’t lose my healthy lunch spot!