More likely to eat green?
Tomorrow’s Front Burner column is about two local restaurants that have made an effort to be more environmentally friendly.
Fork in the Alley in South Roanoke has joined the Green Restaurant Association. They started recycling, cut out Styrofoam containers, installed air dryers in the bathroom and switched some lights to motion-sensored lights.
Hotel Roanoke is talking about composting its veggie and fruit scraps. This after they’ve already been addressing water and electrical usage and other issues for several years.
The Green Restaurant Association and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality say they think some diners are more likely to choose a green restaurant over a non-green restaurant.
What do you say? Would that make any impact on you?
To see a list of restaurants that have joined the GRA, go here.
March 11, 2008 - 2:37 PM
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Consistency of quality, service, and preparation make me eat where and what I eat…not what the restaurant chooses to have hanging on the wall of their restrooms or what they do with their trash.
Whether a restaurant is ‘green’ or not has no bearing on whether or not I will go there. As long as the food is prepared well, the restaurant is clean according to health department requirements and standards, and the staff is courteous and tuned in to my needs, I will go there.
I would definitely go to a Green Restaurant – I love Fork in the Alley and their cardboard boxes. I saw on the news that they are recyling, too. Every little bit helps!
I heard there was a restaurant near Emory that only serves food grown within so many miles of the restaurant to encourage eating locally. Has anyone been there?
I don’t know the restaurant, Michelle, but more and more restaurants are trying to source local producers. That place in Grandin that I wrote about, Local Roots Cafe, is doing that.
Thanks for your honesty, everyone. I kinda figured that most of you would say you didn’t use “green” as a criteria when choosing restaurants. Hopefully more of them will do it because it’s the right thing to do and not just because they think it will look good to their customers.
I’d go out on a limb and suggest that any restauranteur willing to take on the effort and cost of “going green” is already paying close attention to quality and service. Each of these is an investment based on what the customers demand which raises the cost of doing business, but hopefully also pays off in more business. It adds a fourth dimension to the Cost/Quality/Service equation the we all evaluate (even if we don’t realize we are doing it.) While every good restaurant tries to maximize the quality and service while still keeping cost in check, the “green” moniker might just give a restaurant the edge to some of its potential clientele. If it doesn’t throw the other factors out of whack, then it certainly shouldn’t hurt business with the rest either.
“You can lead a horse to water…but…” well, I would LIKE to go to green restaurant over an “ungreen” one, but at the end of the day, it IS about the food first. If I want a REALLY nice steak, I will go to a place that will serve me a REALLY nice steak. If there are environmentally friendly perks, then I am happy to help aid in erasing a toxic footprint. I have heard wonderful things about “Fork in the Alley” and plan to eat there. The green-thing is just icing on the cake.
Michelle is referring to
The Harvest Table Restaurant, which is owned (partially or wholly; I’m not sure) by Steven Hopp, Barbara Kingsolver’s husband. I haven’t had a chance to eat there yet, but hope to very soon–I’ll report back!
Has anyone tried the cheese plate at the Local Roots Cafe? I had the cheese appetizer at 202 last weekend and it was DELICIOUS! Now I am craving cheese dishes!
Michelle,If you’re craving cheese, you need to go to Pop’s Ice Cream. They have amazing panini sandwiches! The owners are the most unpretentious pair I’ve ever met and they just call them “grilled cheese sandwiches” but you are in for a real treat. Try the Sharply Sweet…mmmmm.
Their ice cream is from Homestead Creamery, their produce is from Good Food for Good People in Floyd and when I get their DELICIOUS soup to go, it is in a cardboard carton not that nasty styrofoam. Pop’s is green, local supporting local, I think it’s the only vegetarian restaurant in Roanoke and yummmmmmmy.