Good Life Bakery

10483 Lansing St. * Mendocino CA 95460 * 707-937-0836 * www.goodlifecafemendo.com

 It took a long time for me to eat pie from Goodlife Cafe and Bakery, but not for their lack of awesomeness. Mendocino is one of my regular visit spots, and on each go ‘round I got too preoccupied eating through Goodlife’s bakery display. Scones, muffins, croissants, cooookiiiieeees.  They make everything from scratch, using, (direct quote), organic, local, and seasonal ingredients whenever possible. That’s how I kept buying their muffins and scones for breakfast. Organic means health food, right?

Goodlife Cafe also serves ‘real meals’, and that’s how I got addicted to their pumpkin curry. I order each time I go in, walking out with precious curry tucked under my arm like a bear guarding the honeypot. If you don’t sneak out like me, there’s plenty of places to sit – an outdoor patio ( dogs allowed! ) and their indoor space makes me want to plant myself there half the day reading books and um, eating.

You NEED Good Life Bakery in your life when you’re in Mendocino because there’s lots of outdoorsy stuff to exhaust yourself with. I highly recommend renting an outrigger canoe and paddling up Big River. It’s lovely, and there’s so many bends you’re just dying to know what vista is behind the next one so you just go on and on and on and…Don’t. Have a turnaround plan. Stick to it. It was a blast paddling the Big River with bff and Mendocino denizen Alex and two of her visiting German friends, but once we turned around I remembered we were going against the increasing onshore wind. Alex warned us about this, but I didn’t really see it as a big deal, until I was silently thanking gods there were two strapping German women in our boat. Took full-on teutonic muscle to haul ourselves back. I wondered how many river boats ‘didn’t make it’ while Alex was probably laughing at us from her vantage point on a paddle board.

 Roaming near misadventures is how one can eat through Goodlife Cafe and Bakery. Seriously, I’ve bought so much food from them, this sainted kitchen guy could be my personal chef. With apologies for photobombing myself in lieu of another employee.

Local hero

Finally I realized I’d sampled their entire bakery menu and at last bought a giganto slice of apple pie. Was it delicious?! Absolutely of course. I ate it indoors, I ate it outdoors, I ate it in my car. It was so large and yummy finishing it off was like  diving into a Dr. Seuss book. I promise I’ll return, Good Life Cafe, and when I do, it’s pie for breakfast!

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Surfing and Strolling near Good Life Cafe and Bakery

SURFING: There’s a rivermouth here which they SAY is a surf spot, but hmmmm. I paddled out with Alex, so that counts as a surf no matter what on earth we were doing floundering around. Honestly I can’t imagine this place breaking in wave like shapes unless there’s a proper alignment of the 7 year swell direction with the miracle no wind and it’s a Tuesday between 11 and 1.30. Won’t stop us from enjoying ourselves of course. And then there’s a surf spot north at a place I’ll call Tapioca Creek, where somebody stole Hooligan’s non-descript tupperware water bowl while I was in the water! Who does that! BOOOO!! Sic’ em Hoolie.

STROLLING: Yeah! Beaches and parks and nooks and crannies everywhere. Too many to list. Jughandle State Park. Van Damme Pygmy Forest. Big River Estuary…have fun and oh yeah – there’s bears.