62 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {food coloring} If there’s anything Adriana and Aaron Porter want you to do when you step into Tal Palo, their modern Mexican cafe in downtown Los Altos, it’s to slow down. This is not a grab and go joint and they won’t serve you your coffee in a paper cup. There is no rush when you come here. Stay a while. Sit. Enjoy. They understand that a proposition like this can be a hard sell in the Bay Area, home of Silicon Valley and all of its fastmoving, tech-loving parts. But that’s what makes this cafe different. Their focus is on family and community. “I feel like I always need to be in a rush for other people,” Adriana says. “I’m learning to just be present.” Aaron echoes that sentiment. “It doesn’t occur to people that they can come in and have a seat. I tell them that I can take their order and then bring it to them. Then, we can talk about having something to eat.” Both East Bay natives, the couple met while Adriana was working at her mother’s Mexican restaurant in Oakland, and Aaron owned and operated the specialty bar next door. But when they started a family, they decided to move to Guadalajara. “I had this dream of living in Mexico one day so I told Aaron, ‘What if we just did it?’” Adriana recounts. “I was done working crazy hours and I wanted to spend time raising our children
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