The Greenest Restaurants You've Ever Seen - Energy Efficient Restaurants Across the Country

Energy Star appliances are a great start to designing an eco-friendly restaurant kitchen, but there are so many more ways a restaurant can go green. Here is a sampling of some of America’s greenest restaurants, and what they are doing to protect the environment, delight their customers, and boost their bottom line.

• Bell Book & Candle. Located in New York’s trendy West Village, Bell Book & Candle is New York’s first hydroponic rooftop-to-table restaurant. One of the best things a restaurant can do to reduce its overall energy consumption and carbon footprint is to use local ingredients, and BB&C’s rooftop farm does just that. According to food blogger Elizabeth Palmer, "The rooftop garden grows nearly 12 months out of the year, with heartier produce thriving in the colder months. Roughly 60 percent of the restaurant’s produce comes straight from the rooftop garden."
• Gather Restaurant. Serving meals made from locally sourced, sustainably produced ingredients, Gather Restaurant is located on the ground floor of the David Brower Center, a certified LEED Platinum building in Berkeley, California. The restaurant is decorated with recycled and reclaimed materials, including lights crafted from old wine bottles, and tables made from repurposed wood. Gather is also actively involved in supporting educational events promoting sustainable food production, such as Farm to Fork.
• Uncommon Ground. Hailed as the “World’s Greenest Restaurant” for two years running by the Green Restaurant Association, this popular Chicago eatery features food from their own on-site rooftop and sidewalk farms. Once diners are finished, the restaurant uses recycling and composting to divert 95 percent of its waste away from landfills. Uncommon Ground also scores top marks in energy efficiency, including a solar hot water heater. Much of the restaurant’s design infrastructure includes recycled and reclaimed materials, and the owners support other local businesses in their purchasing decisions whenever possible.
• Red Eye Brewing Company. Green restaurants aren’t just for big city dwellers. You can find stellar examples in smaller towns as well, as this Wausau, Wisconsin microbrewery and eatery proves. Since opening in 2008, Red Eye has implemented an impressive number of green initiatives, including a solar thermal array that heats much of the hot water they use to brew their regional craft beers. The brewpub uses solar electric panels, Energy Star appliances, a wood-fired pizza oven fueled with local hardwood, and locally sourced ingredients. Their waste reduction program includes recycling and sending spent grain to local cattle farmers as feed rather than to the landfill.
• Chipotle. No list of American restaurants would be complete without at least one fast food option. Chipotle tops the list for quick eats that also score high on the green scale. Featuring fast Mexican food, the popular chain serves local and organic food whenever feasible, and supports family farms when they can.

Chipotle is also making impressive strides in green design. Their Gurnee, Illinois location qualified as the country’s first ever LEED platinum restaurant, and many Chipotle locations feature rooftop solar panels.

If you are a restaurant owner, we hope you will be inspired by these forward-thinking restaurants and consider making green changes to your own restaurant. Green measures from improved energy efficiency to fresh, locally sourced food can save you money and help make your restaurant the buzz of the town!