Leland Jung (the chef and owner) along with 3 full-time and 5 part-time employees

Alive! specializes in raw, vegan cuisine with an Asian flair. They do not use any animal products and never heat their foods to above 118 degrees. Alive! also focuses on using local, seasonal, and ecologically grown food. Leland grew up in the restaurant business working at his family's dim sum tea house. After working for 20 years in the computer field, he received a raw food associated chef and trainer certificate from a raw culinary school called Living Light Culinary Arts Institute. He took over the family business by opening Alive! (located on Lombard Street) in 2004.

More than 90% of Alive!'s ingredients are certified organic. Between 30% and 90% of the products used in their items (depending on the item) are sourced from farms that sell at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market. They source other ingredients from San Francisco-based distributors.