We’ve seen the organic trend slowly happen – first Trader Joe’s, then Whole Foods, then your local chain grocery store integrated an organic section into the regular aisles. What’s next? I’d love to see your grocery store stocked with not just organic food but slow food.

All right, if you’re like me, you can’t remember anything and have no idea what slow food is or why it’s good. Here’s a friendly reminder. It is

“Good: Naturally delicious food created with care from healthy plants and animals
Clean: Grown and harvested with methods that have a positive impact on ecosystems and biodiversity
Fair: Produced by people who are treated with dignity and justly compensated for their labor” (www.slowfoodusa.org)

To see my imagination’s futuristic grocery store come to life, saunter down to Urban Rustic (www.urbanrusticnyc.com), a new market and café in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. Here, you will find a grocery store with modern ideas but a rustic feel – one made up almost entirely of locally sourced and organic foods, all carefully chosen from vendors who grow responsibly and sustainably. Handwritten tags tell the origin of each product. To top it off, the shelves, counters, and floors are built from Adirondack wood that owners Luis Illades, Aaron Woolf (director of documentary film King Corn), and Dan Cipriani harvested and milled themselves. Their electricity comes from wind power.

If you’re curious why it’s good to buy foods locally, read this link - http://www.foodroutes.org/whycare1.jsp

Basically, your food is fresher and tastes better; you help your local economy; you reduce carbon emissions; you’ll know where your food is coming from so you can be sure it isn’t treated with pesticides, hormones, chemicals – all that good stuff. When you speak to the owner of Urban Rustic, Luis, you realize how much thought and care has gone into this establishment. He knows where every yogurt, every carrot, every tea, etc. comes from and why he chose it. Urban Rustic features “bio-dynamic, organic and sustainably produced foods” whenever possible.

So this is a good start. My conscience feels good about Urban Rustic, but what does my stomach say? Well, the menu at Urban Rustic is mainly soups and sandwiches, along w

ith a wide selection of smoothies, fruit juices, and coffee. They also serve a special everyday, and offer brunch on Saturdays and Sundays. In addition to the stools and counters up front, you can find comfortable seating and tables in the back of the store.

For me, the highlight at Urban Rustic is their homemade bread. A few samples sit on the counter next to the cash register, and today the bread is garlic rosemary. It’s this really plush texture on the inside, and it’s not super crusty. It’s slightly sweet and has just enough rosemary flavor to make me want to go back for more. The vegan split pea soup is also tasty. It has just enough salt so as not to be bland (as split pea soups can often be without ham) and its texture is quite creamy. I’ve tried a few of their sandwiches. The Cliff & Nye (all are named after Adirondack peaks), which is tofu salad, gouda, avocado, and basil on spelt, is okay. It could have a more distinct, memorable flavor. The mission figs, goat, arugula, and balsamic reduction pressed sandwich is a better bet.

Overall impression? Good food that I can trust came from a good source. Come back for? The homemade bread. Pricepoint? Not cheap, not astronomical. About $4.50 to $9 for a sandwich, $4 smoothies.