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Everyone is going green these days—at least it can feel that way—and that means bars, clubs and restaurants too. What differs is in what ways and to what extent they're going green. Here are 5 eating/drinking destinations around the country (spoiler: more than one is in San Francisco) taking different, but often overlapping, approaches to eco-conscious customer demands and their own sense of environmental engagement.
- Elixir: San Francisco, Calif.: Its focus on organic, local juices, beers, wines and liquors has earned it the designation "green" from the city of San Francisco, making it the first in the city to receive such recognition. Proprietor Joseph Ehrmann favors liquor like Square One vodka which not only advertises itself as organic, but even prints its bottle's labels with soy ink! Plus, the vodka is clean and delicious.
- NOPA, San Francisco, Calif.: When it comes to a holistic approach to sustainability without the sanctimonious "I do everything perfect and you don't" attitude, NOPA immediately comes to mind. It's a large San Francisco restaurant with community tables, wood-fired food and an otherwise welcoming, pleasant atmosphere. Chef Laurence Jossel does things you might expect from a restaurant that cares about these things—serves local, organic food; composts food scraps—but he also considers things others might not. He reuses daily menus (printed on recycled paper) as coasters or underliners and tries to hire wait staff that live close by. To Jossel, it's the little things that make a big difference.
- Butterfly Social Club: Chicago, Ill.: Mark Klemen's Butterfly Social Club is the "eco-friendliest bar in Chicago" according to the Chicago Tribune. What does that mean? Well, they serve all the organic, local things you'd expect from an eco-friendly bar, but they've also incorporated sustainable design throughout. Whether it's the elemental fire, earth, air and water idea of the place or the sand/clay/straw materials that makeup much of it, (and keep temperatures and air conditioning bills down) The Butterfly Social Club has incorporated sustainable ideas throughout its menu and design.
- Casa Nueva, Athens, Ohio: A 23-year-old restaurant cooperative in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Casa Nueva has given much credence to the ideas of sustainability before it was cool to do so. The Casa menu is arranged by season focusing its specials on whatever is freshest at the time. While the bar and restaurant focus their culinary efforts on making the most of what's in season, it's the cooperative spirit of the restaurant that put the place in harmony: a staff that is worker owned meets for frequent workshops and group events—everyone is connected and invested (literally) in the sustainable mission.
- Five Seasons, Atlanta, Ga.: It's rare to find a brewery with really good food—not the hot wing sort but the sous vide hot wing sort—and really good beer. It's rarer still to find one with really good organic, local, sustainable food and beer. Five Seasons is such a place and as such it is very special. What makes the place sustainable? Well, most of the food is organic and local, but it's things like Wes the Fish Guy who arrives daily with fresh off the boat, local fish that make it special and homey. Leftover malt from in-house brewing is used as fertilizer at local farms. The beer is seasonal to go with the seasonal food. It's all thought out, cohesive and in harmony with itself and the planet.
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