Thirsty Camel Cafe (Nanaimo): The Thirsty Camel was opened in July 2004, by cousins and friends Ilan Goldenblatt and Yadin Shaikovitz. The two grew up in the same neighbourhood in Haifa, Israel. In 2007 Yadin left the restaurant to pursue other interests leaving Ilan as sole proprietor. The Camel sprung out of Ilan and Yadin’s love for good food and community, and their shared goal to create a healthy restaurant in Nanaimo. It was founded with a conscious effort to bring people together in a restaurant experience that goes beyond the ordinary, in an environment that encourages interaction, discussion and inspiration, and helps foster a vibrant community.All the food we serve is prepared at the restaurant preservative and filler free. We start with the bare ingredients and produce small batches to maintain optimal freshness.We make our own hot sauce from eight ingredients. We make our own Persian Spice mix from eighteen ingredients. We make our own Jerusalem mix spice mix from seven ingredients.Our Chicken is free range, veggie fed, non-medicated., from Nanaimo’s award winning butchers, Piper’s Meats.Our magazine rack is stocked with thought provoking magazines, such as: AdBusters, Harper’s, This Magazine, The Permaculture Activist, The Fifth Estate, The New Internationalist, EnlightenNext magazine and more.We aspire to be an independent, innovative, community fostering part of downtown Nanaimo.As we grow our aim is to use as many locally produced and organic ingredients as we can. So far we have purchased and used ingredients from Dirk Becker’s Compassion Farm, from Providence farm in Duncan, and from Adrian’s market farm.Thank you, our customers, employees and supporters, for supporting an alternative to mainstream fast food culture.We put a lot of energy and love into our food, drink and space. If you enjoy the experience, please tell your friends, family, and co-workers about us.