Step Into the GoodLife
Photo by Brittney Lucy Photography
A walk through the streets of downtown Mendocino isn’t just your typical foray into a coastal destination. There’s something about this place, settled peacefully on the cliffs above the sea, its coastal breezes meeting amiably with the historic buildings and homes as old friends would…
Thoughtfully crafted woodwork, local artistry, lush greenery thriving in the temperate climate… And, of course, there’s the breathtaking Mendocino coastline and the stunning presence of towering redwoods embracing the area to remind you that you are in a truly magical place.
What is an enchanted coastal settlement without its people, its community, though? Any time spent chatting in the shops, or even a simple visit to the local grocery store on Main Street gives you an immediate sense that Mendocino has its people, and in turn, they have it. There’s a sense of… investment here. Not financial, but of being rooted in the culture and fabric of this area. Of knowing one another, of knowing this place, and mostly, a reciprocal care and love for a home that provides so much.
How do you take this uncommonly beautiful setting and community and lovingly craft it into a truly immersive experience? There’s no recipe for this, but rather a serendipitous coming together of intention, time, love, and mostly, people.
Welcome to The GoodLife
Photo by Brittney Lucy Photography
Walking through the door of the GoodLife Cafe, serenely nestled on Lansing Street, means stepping into the unique comfort and style of Mendocino. It’s the extraordinary elements of this community woven into a setting that the locals consider their town living room, and for good reason.
Photo by Brittney Lucy Photography
Immediately upon entering, expect to be greeted with a true feast for the senses. Beautiful, unique, thoughtfully curated local artistry surrounds you. It’s clear that the craftsmanship in the cafe’s cabinetry and display cases come from a place of intention and care with reclaimed wood from the community and trees from the cafe owner Teddy’s local property.
And then, of course, there are the lovingly crafted pastry offerings on display and the immediate smells of savory comfort that greet you like a soothing hug from a friend.
But there’s more behind the sights and smells awaiting you in the GoodLife. There’s an energy here, and it comes from what Teddy unhesitatingly calls the family of people that make this place truly shine. These are not just employees of the cafe, they are the cafe, and it shows. There is ownership here, a feeling of belief and joy about what the staff are a part of. And, it comes through in not only the food but the entire GoodLife experience.
Roots
The loving craftswoman behind all of this magic is, as mentioned previously, the cafe’s founder and owner, Teddy Winslow. Her story is unique, and its threads are woven into the fabric of what the GoodLife is today.
Teddy was born and grew up in Israel on a kibbutz in the early 1970s. Her family moved to Northern California in 1979 where they lived on a commune, the Oz Farm, about 30 miles south of Mendocino in Manchester. As they had on the kibbutz, her mother oversaw the animals there and her father was the head gardener. And, according to Teddy, “Us kids just kind of ran wild – it was truly amazing and I feel so fortunate to have had that beginning.”
The Oz Farm’s communal tub
Teddy’s family found their perfect place to spread roots amongst the redwoods. They eventually settled on a property in Mendocino where she remains to this day with her son Simon and partner Daniel. Her mom Merry also lives a short, enchanted walk through the trees on the same land.
The journey from Teddy’s roots to the GoodLife you experience today hasn’t all been a ‘point A to point B’ scenario, though. A good story rarely is. She sojourned out into the world for about ten years to try and find her “sweet spot,” in her words, and realized it was right there in Mendocino all along.
Teddy waitressed and worked in hospitality for about 25 years prior to undertaking the GoodLife. She dipped her toes in various niches but was always called back to hospitality. “That’s where I shine, I love to feed and nourish people.”
At the start of Teddy’s journey with the GoodLife – the beginning of escrow – she learned she was expecting another very precious new adventure in her life. At the close of escrow and by the time she officially set foot into the bakery as its owner, she was seven months pregnant. With two labors of love underway, she took the “jump off the cliff” with the support of an initial partner in the cafe. Their partnership maintained for about the first year of the GoodLife’s launch, after which Teddy stepped into full ownership.
She knew the cafe was going to be her future and her life, and a place where she’d settle the roots she already had in this community even further into its soil. Teddy also knew that if she was going to raise a child and run a restaurant, it was non-negotiable that the food served there would be food she would feed her own child. “I had to make sure that it would be clean and healthy so I could stand behind feeding my own kid, and the community, what I was serving.”
By this point in time, Teddy was also intimately aware of what the community wanted through her extensive experience not only serving people, but listening to them – “They don’t want to put garbage in their bodies, and that matters.”
Through the years of its growth and development, the GoodLife has held fast to its ties to the community in meaningful, impactful ways. Aside from supporting local artists and farmers, this has also come about through things like supporting the local farms with compost, supplying nearby pig farmers with left-overs, and donating without hesitation. “Any school, community center, or local organization that asks, we donate. That’s how we ‘advertise.’”
And the “GoodLife?” The intention behind the cafe’s name was to express the community’s culture and values “…from the core outward, in every way. The food, the service, the experience, everything.”
The Source Matters
Like everything at the GoodLife, the food, which is entirely made in-house, is thoughtfully and lovingly crafted. And, what better place to start than with its ingredients. “Nothing is GMO, and we’re proud of that. We use all organic flour and grains and source our ingredients as locally as possible. Whenever a farm, local wildcrafter, or forager comes to our back door we try and buy whatever they have and incorporate it into our seasonal offerings.”
When Teddy took over the cafe in March 2012, she began by taking the previous bakery’s recipes one at a time and creating her own magic with them. She started by making changes to those existing recipes’ ingredients and evolved into making them entirely from scratch. From there, she began adding items to the menu based on what the community was asking for.
And she would know. Aside from her time in service and being a keen observer of what people were ordering and enjoying, Teddy has spent countless hours at the main counter of the GoodLife – taking orders, chatting with people, and mostly, listening to them. “Working at the front register for so many years and hearing what people were asking for – those were the things I knew I needed to have.”
Photo by Brittney Lucy Photography
Teddy’s attention to detail shows up in every aspect of what she brings to the GoodLife. The coffee, for example, comes from Black Oak Coffee and was sourced specifically for the woman-founded and run cafe. It comes from women-owned, women-run farms in El Salvador and is both organic and fair trade.
The intention is to not only provide food that is healthy, organic, and thoughtfully sourced but to also support and contribute in meaningful ways. It’s a way of supporting the health of the community, its visitors, and the people who dedicate their energies to providing healthful offerings.
Family Matters
While Teddy is the woman behind the GoodLife, she will be the first to tell you that this is by no means a one-woman show. “The whole team makes it happen. It’s not one person or even two. The entire energy of the place is this magical dance, and it’s always kind of blown my mind how much we can pull off with such small beginnings.”
Those small beginnings included a staff of about 10-12 people who had been employees of the previous bakery that occupied the space where the GoodLife exists today. Most of the original staff decided to stay on with Teddy and her new undertaking, even though the previous cafe had been struggling to survive. And, many of those original employees are still a part of the GoodLife, almost ten years later.
Today the cafe employs about 25 people and is the third-largest employer in Mendocino. What is it that has inspired that original team to not only stay on but to continue working in a fast-paced cafe setting and grow the GoodLife alongside Teddy?
She credits growing up on a kibbutz with having shaped the way she not only runs her business but in how she works in communion with her employees...
“It inspired me to create this community hub, particularly with the staff in mind. We run it almost like a commune of sorts and take care of one another. They feel seen, heard, and respected and they know I’ve got their backs… The health of our team dictates the health of our business, and happy staff make happy food and service happen.”
The sincere love and regard Teddy holds for her team translates into real, tangible opportunities to impact their lives. And, this shows up in several ways. The implementation of a service fee, for example, meant being able to provide a competitive wage amidst a tourism-driven economy.
The GoodLife employees also benefit from profit sharing each year, and Teddy’s current vision for 2022 is implementing health benefits and 401k plans for them. Forward-looking, she’s also exploring creative ways to turn the GoodLife into an employee-ownership model, similar to that of Trader Joe’s…
“I have people who have been with me for so long, I don’t want them to feel like they’re at the end of their growth at the GoodLife because they love it. I want people to feel like there’s a future for them here.”
But Teddy’s care for her staff members goes beyond financial, as well. Over the years, she’s helped team members in crisis with things like funeral costs for loved ones, help with personal financial emergencies, and even housing.
“They’re like part of my family. When you get that tight with people and they have problems come up, you help. I’ve had three or four staff come and live with me at different points in time, that’s just what you do… The thought that any of my staff are suffering or don’t have what they need is something I can’t stand by and ignore. You do whatever you have to do.”
Editors note: The first time I met Teddy was about two days into the pandemic-driven lockdown. Her immediate, pressing focus was not the survival of her business, but rather how she was going to ensure that her staff would be able to survive financially and support their families. Her anxiety about this was palpable, and over the course of the following days, I watched her dedicate her complete energy to both this and how she could best serve the community in the face of the unknown of the coming weeks and months.
Beto
And then there’s Beto. You’ll hear more about him in an upcoming post, because his story deserves a place of its very own. The short but deeply sweet version is, though, is that he is one of the original employees who worked at the previous bakery as a dishwasher starting when he was 16. Prior to that, he worked at McDonald’s and didn’t speak any English.
Beto is one of those original employees who remained when Teddy took over. Through the years he moved on to become a cook for the GoodLife, then kitchen manager, then a baker. And today? Beto is now part-owner of the cafe alongside Teddy, and it’s a story she is proud to tell.
And, there is so much more to that tale. Aside from his journey with Teddy, Beto came from a “hard place in life” and has arrived in a beautiful one, including his marriage to a former GoodLife employee. To do it justice, though, the rest of that story is best saved for another day.
Looking Ahead With The GoodLife
The small beginnings of the GoodLife don’t only include the staff and menu, but the physical location as well. While the cafe has always existed in its current location, it has quadrupled in size over time. The GoodLife went from using a six-burner home cooktop, to a kitchen that could provide what the community was asking for with things like fresh breakfasts.
In the midst of the pandemic, the cafe was completely remodeled and expanded into the space behind it. Teddy’s partner Daniel, a profoundly talented craftsman and carpenter, created a new kitchen space to provide more room for its staff by expanding it. The result was the ability to work in the kitchen together with enough space so that the cafe could continue to serve the community.
Over time, the cafe has grown in the way that a true labor of love should. The outdoor seating area has been thoughtfully poured into to continue with the theme of a sanctuary-like gathering place for both locals and visitors. The constant hum of conversation over the cafe’s fresh and beautiful plates validates that this has been a success.
With future directions for growth for the cafe’s staff on the horizon, and the thoughtful evolution of the physical space, what’s next for the GoodLife?
If you spend some time with the cafe’s Yelp reviews, you’ll come across requests like, “Please open a GoodLife in my town!” While Teddy doesn’t foresee another physical location in the future, she does try and meet consistent demand to ship the cafe’s baked goods to customers, like its bread, cookies, and granola. She tries, that is. At this point, she’s turning away requests as the cafe simply can’t keep up…
Which shines a light on the next phase of the GoodLife – physical products in the marketplace. The cafe we know and love will remain the community hub that it is, but the people have spoken, and they want more of the GoodLife.
Teddy is already casting a vision for facilitating an on-site packaging center and exploring what it will look like to take the cafe’s offerings to the marketplace on a large scale. You can already find the GoodLife’s granola in a local health food store and a cafe in Ft. Bragg. Distribution on a larger scale is waiting in the wings, including nine gourmet supermarkets that are ready to sell at the word go.
But, as with everything that goes into the GoodLife, Teddy is taking careful and intentional steps. Her goal is not to grow for growth’s sake, but rather to preserve what started in a small space on Lansing Street, in downtown Mendocino. And, that means planning, thought, and care.
“Our reputation is on the line. We need to be ready to do it right and in keeping with the values of the GoodLife when the time comes. Otherwise, we just won’t do it.”
So, rest assured, you will always be able to step into the GoodLife. The magic that has been created at the cafe will continue, and Teddy’s steady presence there and her attention to detail ensure that. That, and the culture of thought, care, and intention that she has cultivated alongside the team she values so much…
“We just grow, grow, grow and people are right there saying, ‘Ok, let’s go, let’s keep growing’ and it’s kind of amazing. Everyone has made this happen all together – it’s so beautiful. I feel so fortunate to have this team. Almost all of our reviews mention the staff and I feel so proud that so many of them have been here for so long. Everyone feels so connected and tight, we really love each other.”
Welcome to the GoodLife, friend. We’ll see you at the cafe.
