RIP KK Cafe, Long Live Peanut Milk — The Bold Italic — San Francisco
By Tamara Palmer
KK Cafe is a tiny stop on Divisadero and Haight that has served sandwiches, burgers, and light bites since 1990, a blink-and-you’d-miss-it kind of place. I became almost obsessed with it after reading a 2002 article in SF Weekly about the extraordinary health claims people were making about owner Jack Chang’s homemade peanut milk, which he had begun making three years earlier.
Not only did Chang say that peanut milk healed his gums enough so that he could eat solid food again (he had tinkered with making the beverage when he was too sore to do so), customers said it helped with easing symptoms of HIV and various hair, skin, and internal diseases.
It wasn’t a total surprise to hear that KK Cafe will soon close (the last day is January 13, according to Hoodline). Greedy San Francisco landlords, blah blah blah. Also, when I stopped in for a bottle of peanut milk early last year and told Jack’s wife Margaret Chang how much I love it, she said that they were getting too old and tired to keep up the business for much longer. She also said that Jack’s peanut milk was both difficult and time consuming to make.
The Changs used to have distribution for their peanut milk (sold under the spiritually-inclined name of Signs and Wonders). It was pulled off the shelves several years ago — the public explanation at the time was that there was an issue with the plastic packaging, but the peanut milk never returned to stores after that.
Luckily, they’re going to try and build that part of their business back up. Hoodline reports that the Changs are working on getting peanut milk back on the shelves and will accept orders personally (call 845–6936 or email jonchangster@att.net). With a wave of media articles urging us all to eat more “good” fats, perhaps this product will be more marketable the second time around.
While I never drank quite enough peanut milk to proclaim the dramatic health boosts that so many of their customers have, I’ve always felt a noticeable energy boost from drinking it and I’d pick it up any time I saw it in a local grocery store. The plain version might be an acquired taste for some since it isn’t super sweet, but the chocolate and strawberry versions have more universal appeal. Peanut milk is delicious and satisfying in a way that almond milk can’t quite manage, and would probably be excellent in coffee, hot chocolate, and as a base for smoothies. I’m glad to hear the Changs version is sticking around.
[h/t Hoodline, photo from Thinkstock]
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