The King Trumpet Pesto Focaccia Pizza is another Cozy Plum staple.
food, it’s simply an alternative to meat. It is not something that somebody should be eating every day, the same as they shouldn't eat a hamburger every day. It's a treat that is very similar in taste and texture to a traditional animal hamburger—without the animal. And that's why it's there.” He says that although he migrated to a plant-based diet for health reasons, he has maintained that vegan diet for the animals. He describes adopting the diet as “an epiphany”—and knows others have experienced a similar awakening. “It’s that you kind of have this enormous, tangible relief— because, if you're like a lot of people, you carry a little bit of guilt because you love animals, but you're eating them. Once you do make the change, it all kind of lines up, and it's a tangible relief.” And that’s what keeps him on the vegan straight and narrow. “I could get away with eating a steak on New Year's, for example, but I just choose not to because the idea now is not appealing to me,” he says. Although many of his vegan guests are appreciative to find a good vegan restaurant, White says the best feedback he gets is from non-vegans. He says he truly enjoys the conversations he has with meat eaters when they come in. “I happen to be a pretty tall, large guy,” he says. “I'm 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds. When I'm able to talk to them and say, you know, look at me—I'm no pantywaist and I get plenty of protein.” He calls them “wonderful conversations about eating meat.”
“Some of the stuff we have in the restaurant is quite healthy, but most of it is comfort food, and that's the whole point,” he says. “That's what I'm trying to do.” Cozy Plum employs 16 people and is open daily. “Every day, local people say, ‘please don't close,’” says White. “They smell it—they smell doom in the future because of so many other restaurants that have closed, restaurants with decades-old reputations, lots of experience and lots of local reverence. “And yet here we are, so they're kind of thinking our days are numbered too.” White says he’s not taking any more loans out for operating capital. “Not going to happen,” he says. “I'm not getting myself further in debt. And if I have to put payroll on a credit card, then the doors are going to close. That's my marker.” In order to support himself, White has decided to open a business in the auto industry, which had been his career for many years. That and driving for Uber and Lyft will pay his personal bills while he cannot pay himself a salary from the restaurant. He moved to a small studio apartment in Sebastopol a quick walk away from the Cozy Plum. “You know, I walk into the restaurant very early most mornings, and I see our big, beautiful, expensive 5-foot logo that we brought from Santa Rosa mounted on the wall here,” White says. “For some reason that represents, like, the little engine that could. And I see that every morning when I walk in, and every time I look at it, I'm like: Don't close it. Don't close it.”
October 2024
NorthBaybiz 55
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