Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacqueline & Jeanette Gaistman.
Hi Jacqueline & Jeanette, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
The idea behind Our Green Affair was planted with a diagnosis. In our family, we are major foodies. In fact, trying everything at least once was etched in our brains. That staple of who we were became a little more complicated when Jeanette, the youngest of the family was diagnosed with Crohn’s, an inflammatory bowel disease which causes severe abdominal pain and heavily regulates your food options. She was forced to change her eating habits entirely. It became clear that we were going through this together, and as a family we had to eat clean. But we weren’t willing to give up something that defined us: our love of food. With a change in lifestyle without compromising the taste in food sparked an idea in Jackie: to create something healthy and fun. A farm-to-table experience that would change the way people think about eating healthy. It’s easy. It’s affordable, and it’s authentically you.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As a business that opened 5 days before COVID began our road has been anything but smooth. None of our employees we initially hired wanted to work since they received more from unemployment than they would receive from a regular paycheck. Every day since then our challenge has been greater than ever. Minimum wage continuously on the rise, the price on our basic products, fresh quality produce, having increments on a weekly basis just adds to our burden. We are a small business, founded in 2020, fast-casual, and it has been extremely strenuous as our goal is to make our customers enjoy healthy, delicious food at a reasonable price.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At Our Green Affair, we aim to reimagine what healthy food is by making it sexy and eye-catching. We want our customers to be promiscuous with their pallets, to try things they’ve never even heard of, and watch as their taste buds bursts with flavors from experiencing what healthy food can taste like if you can find the right combination of ingredients. That’s why, when customers first come to OGA we give them a ton of samples, so they can truly experience how healthy food doesn’t have to be bland and that eating healthy doesn’t mean not eating; it means fueling yourself with clean ingredients.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
When we were little girls Jackie and I always said we cooked better than our older sister Miri. We decided to do a cook-off to settle the discussion. Stakes were high, we pulled our sleeves up and went at it. We made a creamy tomato basil bisque soup, seabass, and a maple glazed pull apart. It was no surprise that we came out victorious, or so we would like to believe, even though our parents would never admit it. Now, we have the joy of sharing that soup with all of our customers.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ourgreenaffair.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ourgreenaffair/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ourgreenaffair/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/our-green-affair-san-diego-2
- Other: https://www.yelp.com/biz/our-green-affair-san-diego-3
