Eat, Drink and Be Merry at Sustenance
by Judith Bernstein
As I discovered in my business traveling days, it’s hard to “eat, drink and be merry” when you are a “party of one.” But at Sustenance, merriment is what you, your fellow diners and owner/cook Seamus Finn Chandler create together. What is Sustenance? As Seamus was quick to tell me, “It’s a place to bring people together to share food and be with each other. It’s not a restaurant or a wine bar, it’s a community.”One drizzly day in February, I arrived early to see how Seamus prepares lunch for an unknown number of people. The menu – cream of asparagus soup, roasted chicken salad and toasted cheese rounds – had been announced on the website. I was particularly curious about the soup: If the food served at Sustenance is local, wasn’t asparagus out of season? So after introducing myself, I sat down at the counter surrounding the cooking area and posed this question while slurping the soup made earlier that morning. Seamus grinned conspiratorially. “Don’t broadcast this, but I picked the asparagus from a neighbor’s garden – with his permission; it doesn’t seem to be limited to any one season. A lot of our vegetables come from my garden and the gardens of ‘friends of sustenance.’”
Seamus assembled the salads as the lunch eaters watched, carefully selecting greens, red pepper strips, mushrooms, toasted walnuts and feta cheese and then topping this with chunks of roasted chicken. When I inquired about the produce, Seamus pointed to the man next to me. Turned out this was Dan Melton, owner of the Community Supported Agriculture program, “SLO Veg,” and his partner Rachel. Dan buys seasonal produce from a number of local farms and delivers it to Sustenance. Whatever else Seamus needs he purchases at local farmers’ markets. Organic, free-range eggs and chickens come from Lyle Brooks. Fish, from different local sources.
I stayed at the counter to eavesdrop on the far-ranging conversations that often came back to the lunch that Seamus was preparing. Thanks to his unobtrusive teaching methods, those gathered for lunch – as well as people taking classes at the cooking studio – learn about good nutrition, where to buy healthy ingredients and how to transform them into memorable meals.
By noon, the homey bungalow had filled up with regulars and a number of newcomers. June Krystoff-Jones had been there before and brought her mother Jeanette Krystoff to celebrate her birthday. At another table, Annette Amarel was working on her computer; she is a Cal Poly architecture graduate who designed the website and is a Sustenance member. She sits alone when she has work to do but said the outstanding ingredients and the chance to meet new people keeps luring her back.
Seamus teaches monthly cooking classes, along with guest chefs such as Shannon Hennings and Jennita Russo (who led classes in both Thai and Indian food). All use local ingredients. February’s class was “Valentine’s Aphrodisiac in the Kitchen.” The menu was crammed with sensuous, palate-pleasing ingredients: roasted asparagus flowers with prosciutto; artichoke and scallop kabobs; bruschetta with Brie, figs, almonds and honey; baked oysters in chardonnay; wilted salad with lemon pepper, grapes and strawberries; angel hair pasta with roasted pine nuts, rosemary, sundried tomato and basil; and strawberry stuffed empanadas drizzled with chocolate. Class members help prepare one or more of the dishes, munching on the appetizers as they chop. Later, they sit down at one big table to eat the main course family style. The evening class “so much fun; Seamus did everything right, from the food to the music, and he even accommodated my wheat and gluten-free diet,” said one participant.
Sustenance is only six months old, but already has over 50 members and many others who come for cooking classes and the thriceweekly lunches. People also come for fundraisers (Code Pink and Hospice Partners) and catered events such as wine pairings, birthday celebrations and even a family Thanksgiving dinner. In addition, members can drop in any day when the studio is open and meet with friends or business contacts over a cup of fresh brewed coffee from Joebella or SLO Roasted.
I hung around for more than three hours, peppering (pun intended) Seamus with questions and asking each new arrival what the word “sustenance” meant to them. Most felt that the concept went beyond nourishment in the physical sense to embrace the idea of soulful nourishment. Webster would agree with that, as the dictionary defines it as “something that gives support, endurance, or strength.” By the time I left, I knew it to be true. I was no longer “Judith, Party of One,” but a member of a welcoming community of locavores.
Sustenance is located at 2033 Santa Barbara St. in San Luis Obispo. For a monthly membership of $40, you can eat lunch (11:30-1:30) on Monday, Wednesday or Friday for $8 ($12 for non-members), and take one cooking class per month, valued at $65. Contact Seamus Finnchandler at 234-1691 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to cater an event or reserve space at a class. www.sustenance-studio.com.
