Food to Live By

If we are what we eat, the Mustard Seed Market and Café is the healthiest person around. The Mustard Seed is more than just a grocery store; it is a place where shoppers think about their diets. Providing fresh food options, the market has filled a longtime void in Highland Square.

The newest of three stores, the Highland Square location celebrated its opening day on May 16. Gabe Nabors and his brother Abe are the second generation to run the market, which their mother founded in 1981. The health foods store continues to focus on education and provides what Nabors calls “fast casual food.” “There are a lot of different options for you to get healthy, nutritious food really fast and then have a spot to eat it and be able to hang out.”

One spot to hang out in the new Highland Square store is the café. Featuring seating for 150 diners inside, a lounge, a fireplace, their business bar — full of outlets for the busy businessman or woman to work and dine — and an outside patio. “The outside patio is definitely one of the highlights. It has three different couch lounge areas, it seats about 100 and [the patio] wraps all the way around the front half of the building on The Market side.”

Unlike their larger Montrose location, the newest Mustard Seed is compacted into its Highland Square space.”We had to figure out where we could give and take on certain areas. [One] of the areas where we had to give up a little bit was the meat department,” says Nabors. Within the new store, the meat department is condensed, taking more of a self-serve feel than what is offered in other locations.

When discussing a health-food-specific grocery store, it is important to talk about the food itself. If you have any questions about what you are purchasing, the staff will have the answers ready for you. “We have them go over what the definition of what organic is and gluten-free labels and we go through all of the processes and all of the qualifications on how we identify our food,” says Nabors. Training each staff member to be knowledgeable about every section of the market is a challenge, but it is one that they believe is best for their customers. “We know that we need to educate the customer about why our products are different. That is the most important thing. They need to know how we handle our food. They need to know that all of our fruits and vegetables in the entire store get washed before they hit their plate.”

Needless to say, it is good for you to eat healthy foods. Nabors says that when you make the change in your diet, you feel it. “Most people eat for flavor when they need to be eating for nutrition. People are surprised to hear that we don’t abide by a certain diet; no, we’re not vegan. No, we’re not Paleo. As long as we take our supplements, eat our fruits and vegetables and exercise, we can cheat every once in a while,” says Nabors.  

Changing up your diet, adding in fresh nutritious foods, can improve your life in many ways. However this doesn’t happen overnight. “You have to identify a couple of things and you have to make a change,” says Nabors. “I don’t expect anyone to go from eating McDonald’s everyday to eating vegan home-cooked meals. [However,] once you understand what you can do, the most important thing is how [the food] makes you feel.”