Food for Thought (FFT) Antiques and Collectibles, Sebastopol

Kindness for Kindness Sake

Left: Cleopatra, by Hannah Rose I've always wanted to own an antique shop. There seems to be a need in all of us to anchor ourselves to something from the past. Many find their passion in restoring automobiles or in protecting family treasures passed down from ancestors. I find mine in visiting antique stores where items raise a sleepy eye to visitors and sometimes call to them. My place would be staffed with kind people who enjoyed caring for these memories until they could be cherish again. Mine would also be a friendly oasis, perhaps in an old house where chunks of chocolate or homemade brownies were there for visitors to enjoy. Everyone would feel welcome.

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Ideally, proceeds from my shop would go to a humanity-based charity, perhaps one for those who were trying to help others get back on their feet.

A little over a year ago, I stepped across the threshold of an old house on Gravenstein Highway in Sebastopol and into what I've always imagined. I had discovered Food for Thought Antiques.

Passing by a cheerful crew behind an old counter where broken chocolate was offered to all, I soon found myself at a doorway leading out to a garden where benches and lawn art were carefully placed. I returned inside and walked around for over an hour looking at adorable things once loved by someone else.

It had everything I could have wanted. Even the profits went to one of the kindest charities around, the Sonoma County HIV/AIDS Food Bank.

In the past 12 months or so, I have returned to FFT Antiques again and again. My place is filling up with things once loved and now loved again, like my clown-and-doggie-show coin bank and the footstool where I now rest my feet as I work. If I ever need anything, I'm the wiser when I look at FFT Antiques first.

Sometimes, when the price seems too low, I give them a little more than they are asking and there is no truth to the rumor that I am going back as often as I am because of the chocolates.

I do love FFT Antiques but I'll have to admit to some reluctance in revealing my secret spot to the world.

But then, who am I to stand in the way of someone else's dreams.

Food for Thought Antiques
2701 Gravenstein Hwy South
Sebastopol, CA 95472

Open everyday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
(707) 823-3101