I first came to Rainbow Bridge, many years ago when I lived in Los Angeles. I would come to get the 3-Salad Sampler and sit outside and marvel over the weather, people and vibe at Rainbow. It was so ahead of its time…health food…Diner within the Grocery Store…unusual products. Lucky me, years later in 2011, I started working here and began to understand the process of the kitchen and what it could produce…and it is a mighty kitchen-well equipped and staffed with talent on the level of any great restaurant. Our Chef, Oscar Delgadillo has 20 years experience in health foods and fine dining.
The challenge was, and is, to produce food that merits being truly healthy and wholesome…and of course, tasty. Here in Ojai, we are also feeding a diverse and discerning customer base. The challenge to hold their attention, year after year with creativity, and try and make it affordable…and interesting. It is not easy to make everyone happy. But we try.
In recent years, the call from customers was to go all Organic in our deli, when I did so on many of the favorite items, the costs went up significantly and unfortunately hurt some people, but made many others very happy. Ultimately the goal to be more organic is true to our values and the values of our customer base. It was not about the cost increases as importantly as giving the customer the healthiest choice.
When I took away a few of our dairy or meat Lasagnas here and there and opted for replacement Vegan fare, I was besieged with gratitude from the customers. Then it sunk in—I was able to give our customer more healthy choices and they were liking it. I was able to add organics, I was able to re-invent a few of our proven lasagnas and change them to Gluten-Free and Vegan. I added more Greens to dishes, replacing starches and/or cheese. All goals I had long wanted to try. And recently, we changed our delicious nightly roasted chicken to an Organic Smart Chicken—Rotisserie. This change enabled us to serve organic Smart chicken in all our chicken-based soups and our Chicken Teriyaki a definite improvement all over the deli.
I look forward to more experiments and healthy changes, I hope you do,
Albert Barosso, Deli Mgr. 