Restaurant Reformer

With the first batches arriving in 1980, the Sierra Nevada Brewery takes its brewing quite seriously, but has a major commitment to sustainable practices as well. What sort of sustainable practices? It’s a laundry list… here are some highlights:

A 1.4MW solar installation
Four 250kW fuel cells for heat and electricity
Almost 98% waste-diversion (recycling)
Fully integrated heat-recovery systems
CO₂ recovery from fermentation
50% reduction in water consumption compared to a typical brewing operation

They’ve made it a big enough deal to score a very detailed page at Wikipedia and a visit from Governor Schwarzenegger.

If you can get through all the beer and concert information, there are tidbits to find. Information on the fuel cell system [pdf] is available. There is also an on-topic interview with Ken Grossman.

The 130-ish room [self-proclaimed] “greenest hotel in the US, ” Gaia Nappa Valley by Wen-I Chang (Butterfly Effect Hotels / Atman Hospitality Group) includes a… restaurant. The menu emphasizes locally-grown food.

There are a good number of reviews, and many of them describe the big plans for the Gaia brand, but even with coverage in bohemian.com, cnet, and USA Today details on sustainability features of the food service operation at Gaia are pretty sparse.

The backstory on Gaia’s development apparently starts in a restaurant – where an effort to save water caught Mr. Chang’s attention. 8 years and $20 million later, a hotel was born – and now there are more (in Anderson, CA and soon, Merced, CA).

Incidentally, Gaia Nappa Valley won the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) 2007 award of excellence for commercial canopies for Rainier Industries. Congratulations.

A very limited-access venue, available only to members of the Tahoe Mountain Club (and “Friends of the Goose”), the Wild Goose Restaurant in Tahoe Vista, California scored LEED certification [pdf] for commercial interiors in December 2005 based primarily on lighting and local/recycled materials use.

Owned by Bill Foss and around since 2004, a new kitchen crew came to Fish in November 2005, led by Whitney Gaunte. The hook (ahem) is sustainable, fresh, local fish. A fixed menu is supplemented by specials. Nearly universally recognized as expensive, and they don’t take plastic, Fish is about fish – and there’s a fish market there too.

More on Fish from around the web: The Chronicle (twice), Foodhoe, Sausalitoeats, Yelp, Metroactive, Citysearch, Tripadvisor, Fork and Bottle , and Off the Meat Hook, which gives us our conclusion: “Delicious but crazy expensive”

A new 10, 170 square-foot straw bale welcome center and dining facility for the Presentation Center includes a kitchen and three dining areas with enough room to serve 200. The facility includes photovoltaics, solar thermal, straw-bale construction, a living roof, graywater use for landscaping, and extensive use of recycled construction materials.

Results include LEED-NC Gold [pdf], 50% reduction in energy consumption and 30% reduction in water consumption.

The list compiled at grist.org in July 2007 includes:

Alice Waters, Chez Panisse, Berkeley, Calif., U.S.
Dan Barber, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, N.Y., U.S.
Alain Passard, L’Arpège, Paris, France
Fergus Henderson, St. John Restaurant, London, U.K.
Chris Cosentino, Incanto, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.
Jamie Oliver, Fifteen, London, U.K.
Andrea Reusing, Lantern, Chapel Hill, N.C., U.S.
Corrado Assenza, Caffé Sicilia, Noto, Sicily, Italy
Tod Murphy, Farmers Diner, Quechee, Vt., U.S.
Ted Walter, Passion Fish, Pacific Grove, Calif., U.S.
Paulo Martins, Lá em Casa, Belém, Brazil
David Kinch, Manresa, Los Gatos, Calif., U.S.
Ferran Adrià, El Bulli, Roses, Spain
Peter Hoffman, Savoy, New York, N.Y., U.S.
Mari Fujii, Kamakura, Japan

Runners-up:
Frank Stitt, Highlands Bar & Grill, Birmingham, Ala., U.S.
Michel Nischan, Dressing Room, Westport, Conn., U.S.
Tory Miller, L’Etoile, Madison, Wis., U.S.
Christine Kim, Green Zebra, Chicago, Ill., U.S.
Michel Bras, Restaurant Bras, Laguiole, France

… and many, many more included in the comments there.