Quick Bites: Café calls out harassment, new sandwich shop and pot v. beer.

The hospitality industry hasn't been immune to the reckoning of the #MeToo movement. Far from it.

The ongoing revelations provide good (if trying) news for a sector where unchecked conditions, long-running inequalities and predatory habits have helped stir up all sorts of abuses.

Popular progressive Pacific Grove cafe Happy Girl Kitchen (373-4475) joined the effort against harassment today on in response to news from San Francisco Chronicle that a popular coffee wholesaler is wrestling with potentially criminal behavior ("Four Barrel Coffee founder Jeremy Tooker accused of sexual assault and harassment").

Here are some thoughts from the open letter to Four Barrel written by HGK owner-operators Jordan and Todd  Champagne: 

Your coffee that I have so loved over the years is starting to taste bitter. Real bitter. No longer do I detect the fresh berry flavor that a careful roast protects.

After reading the reports of sexual harassment and allegations filed against Jeremy Tucker I started to investigate to uncover the truth. We are living in a different time now spawned by the #MeToo movement and women now have a platform to raise their voices against such abuse.

What I found disturbing was that it appears that [co-owners] Tal Mor and Jodi Geren were aware of the inappropriate behavior and chose to try and sweep it under the rug. Some employees were fired after bringing issues to their attention.

Just because Jeremy is now no longer part of the company I cannot support this gross oversight of the current owners. With no acting HR department you were all they had to go to. Your open letter did not address this at all.

Being a small business owner myself, I understand that it is my responsibility to make sure everyone feels respected and safe. If there are problems then it is my duty to solve them and report them so that everyone feels heard. As owners we have the ability to create the change we want to see in the world.

To quote Oprah  Winfrey in her acceptance speech last night, “She lived as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by brutally powerful men. For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up."

If this is where Happy Girl Kitchen story intersects with the #MeToo movement in 2018 then your time is up! In solidarity with the woman who were threatened and abused, we are finding another roaster who fits with our values and beliefs as we once thought you did. 

More food news noshes appear here:

• Chef/owner Terry Teplizky reports Boardwalk Sub Shop will open its second location in the former Red's Burger Joint on Main Street in Salinas Monday, Jan. 22. 

• Brewbound took the occasion of cannabis becoming legal in California to ask craft brewers if that would affect them. Survey says: The industry is not worried. “I am not concerned whatsoever,” Jacob McKean, the founder and CEO of Modern Times Beer, told Brewbound. “The macro brewers are always freaking about ‘threats’ from wine and cocktails and whatever else, but all the craft brewers I know love the diversity of the drinks world and are just as accepting of cannabis.”

• Big Sur Foragers Festival is here this weekend (Jan. 12-14), with a new slate of in-town dinners before the climactic Fungus Face-Off at Ventana Big Sur's new oceanview lawn (1-4pm Saturday, Jan. 13), bigsurforagersfest.org.

• ACF  Monterey  Bay chapter (chefischef@gmail.com) is holding its State of the Chef brunch 10am-noon Saturday, Jan. 20, at Lafayette Kitchen & Cafe (238-6010) to highlight 2017 accomplishments and look at the future (free/members, $25, montereybaychefs.org).

• The eighth annual John “Spud” Spadaro Hospitality Award is now in its judging stages. Another worthy crop of finalists includes Anna Vindiola, Gaspare Aliotti and Jeano Brucia-Abraham, with the presentation party happening Friday, Jan. 19, at Elks Lodge in Monterey ($30 for Sicilian steak and more, 521-1884).

• The Food Bank for Monterey County is about to break ground for their new $10 million 50,000-square-foot facility in Salinas. It is the organization's first permanent facility and is solar-powered with cold-storage capacity sitting at 20,000 square feet. Their new Rossi Street location is slated to open in June (758-1523, foodbankformontereycounty.org).

Charles Montesa contributed to this report.