Backyard Bowls

Backyard Bowls is the creation of two friends, Pete Heth and Dan Goddard. We met our first year in the dorms at Santa Barbara, and have been close friends ever since. After graduating college, both of us proceeded to get real jobs, and spent some time in the working world. Not satisfied with our direction, we each decided that some serious change was in order. Dan picked up and moved to the island of Oahu, Hawaii, where he spent his days surfing and working in local restaurants. Pete went on an extended voyage to a number of the far reaches of our globe, culminating in a few months living with Dan in Hawaii. Aside from surfing, one of our favorite things about living on Oahu was the acai bowls. For breakfast or lunch, before between or after surfing, there was absolutely nothing better than an acai bowl. It truly is an incredible meal- it fills you up, does not weigh you down, and gives you the energy and nutrition you need to flourish. At the same time we were becoming increasingly interested in food. A book called The Omnivores Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, instantly took the way we looked at food and turned it on its head. This opened our eyes to where our food actually comes from, how it is produced, and the effect it is having not only on our health but on our planet as well. The works of Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser and others cast an entirely new light on the western food systems, and ignited a passion in us to change how we eat. Backyards is the name of one of our favorite surfspots in Hawaii, where we surfed often while conceptualizing Backyard Bowls. Aside from that, we want our store to feel like you are in a backyard. Also, we want to treat you like you are a guest in our own backyard. And, we want as much of our food as possible to be from, well, our backyard. And we serve bowls. It was meant to be. We talked constantly about what to do with our lives. We agreed that we wanted to start a business. We wanted badly to work for ourselves, and t