Set to open April, 1 in the first floor The Link Apartments is Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe which calls itself "Washington's First Certified Organic Vegetarian Café and Restaurant." They are only the 2nd restaurant in Seattle to make that claim.

The company began in the University District in 2003, quickly outgrowing its first location and now operates at the corner of 15th N.E, and N.E. 50th street moving there in 2007.

Owned by Chris Maykut the company is not a "church" for specialized eating. Even Maykut himself is not a vegetarian, so he does not try to convert people.
"If there's anything more polarizing than religion, it's food," he said.

"One of the proudest things about our culture here is that were the most "non-zealotus" place you could find (…)We put things out there and people can make decisions for themselves. While we are a haven for people who are ovo-vegetarians, and raw foodists and gluten free people, over half the people who eat here don't have any kind of specialized diet."

Some of the company philosophy is driven by the deep research Maykut has done on food and eating. He's found that most of the studies end up contradicting each other. "Every one of them says, 'Our science is perfect, this is the way you should eat,' " Maykut said. In fact if you look at any of their advertising or in-store signage they don't include the word "healthy" on anything. "We can't make that claim," said Maykut, " You could come in here and have wheat grass and carrot juice every day for a year and fall over dead."

That's not to say the food choices at Chaco Canyon are bad for you. They are organic, made from ingredients as close to the source as possible with minimal processing but, for example "You'll see while it is vegan and organic a big frosting covered cake. I won't say that's good for you," Maykut said chuckling.

Chaco Canyon Cafe is however driven by an awareness of how food production and consumption has changed.
"If you look at the history of food in this nation over the last 100 years, we went from sustenance farming to the "miracle" of mega-agriculture (…) that truly was a miracle but what it became through farming practices, hybridization and other practices, what came out of the black box of mega-agriculture in my opinion is not the best food in the world," said Maykut.

This philosophy extends into how they run the business. "Every business decision that comes down the pike we take our people our planet and our profitability all into balance because you have to," said Maykut. They state on a blackboard some of their practices, noting that they compost and recycle over 80% of their waste, use recyclable to-go boxes, use biodegradable cleaning local products, buy local and support local farmers and much more.

The food choices range from just a bowl of raw vegetables to their likely most processed items, their baked goods. Those however are not made with butter. They use a product called 'Earth Balance,' instead. Aside from very few ingredients they make almost everything from scratch.

Lois Blanford is the head chef but her background is as chemist, (she has a degree from Cornell) so she understands a great deal about how foods combine and how they hit your palate.

The foods prepared for West Seattle will be made in a "Commissary Kitchen model" said Maykut. "We'll be producing all the base ingredients here (in the U Dist)," and be transported to West Seattle daily.

The West Seattle location is 2800 square feet, and will seat 80 people. They are working with the Huling Bros. and Cycle U across the street to secure the necessary parking. 12 to 15 full time employees are expected. It will feature a "kid zone" a play area with soft seating around it.

Chaco Canyon will be open from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm Monday through Friday, 9:00 am to 9:00 pm Saturday and 10:00 am to 9:00 Sunday. Speaking of Sunday Maykut said, "Watch out West Seattle. We serve a really good brunch."

You can be part of the cafe by buying a tile for $75 to $250 on their Built By The Community with "tiles that will permanently revere the community of people who came together to make it happen," as it states on their website. There are 250 available.

The name comes from a location in New Mexico and the Mesa Verde national park. The cliff dwellings, built by the Anasazi are there. It's a pretty special place," said Maykut," I happened upon it in my travels many years ago (...) If you look at the main symbol of their culture, the man in the maze (...) it represents their search for their place in the universe and Chaco Canyon was a spiritual center. What that symbol represents to me is my personal search for my place in the world. I'm ten years into my thirty year search for the right diet so you could see the symbol as people's search for their perfect diet."

Maykut sees the new cafe as offering a unique alternative. He's not trying to replace any other restaurant or duplicate any one else's effort. He said,
"Chaco has always been about bringing something different to the table."