Rainbow Natural Grocery on Capitol Hill's 15th Avenue East closed May 1, after over 20 years in business. Sad. Anyone who shopped at Rainbow during the last year had to have suspected that the end was near: Products sold out, never to appear again. Inventory steadily dwindled; the shelves started to look like a ghost town. It was all a little disconcerting, depressing, and frustrating.

Actually, Rainbow was always a bit slow when it came to restocking cans and boxed items, but their produce was always fresh and lovely. When I lived down the street, I used to stop in every day just to check in on the vegetables, often building dinners around whatever looked most delicious. The best thing about Rainbow, though, was their wonderful little juice bar. Besides my very favorite fresh-squeezed juice, called, appropriately, the Rainbow—a tangy, dreamy jewel-colored mix of beet, carrot, apple, lemon, and ginger—the juice bar offered daily rotating soups and sauces served over brown rice. I couldn't even begin to count how many times Rainbow's fresh soups and rice came through for me with the perfect comforting lunch, the tastiest quick bite on the go, or the snack I didn't realize I needed until it hit my tongue. My sense-memory can still immediately recall the flavor of beloved lemon red lentil and tamale pie soups, and lemon tahini sauce—and I imagine it always will. R.I.P. Rainbow; I will miss you.