For chefs and restaurateurs, green continues to be the new black. Organically raised, locally sourced ingredients grace plates, menus and servers’ nightly recitals of specials. Nose-to-tail cooking ensures that little of any humanely raised animal is wasted. When Jonathon Sawyer and his wife Amelia returned to Cleveland to open a restaurant, Sawyer decided to take green a step further. The Greenhouse Tavern is Ohio’s first nationally certified green restaurant.
Sustainable food is one part of green restaurant certification, but only one. Sustainable furnishings and building materials, waste reduction and recycling, water and energy efficiency and pollution reduction all are measured. And all represented big challenges. Sawyer and his partners worked with interior designer Jonathan Sin-Jin Satayathum to make it happen. A firm believer in the adage “The greenest building is the one you don’t build,” Satayathum made extensive, imaginative use of recycled materials throughout the restaurant. And he combined them with innovative new materials and fixtures to meet green certification standards.
For Sawyer and his wife Amelia Zatik-Sawyer (Chef’s Widow), having children—son Catcher and daughter Louisiana—is the driving force behind their green push. As Sawyer told the Nature Conservancy, “Having two kids who I’m handing the world over to has changed my sense of responsibility.” To find out more about about the greening of The Greenhouse Tavern—and what Bon Appétit and Food & Wine think of the restaurant and Chef Sawyer—check out my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog.
Wow, as if owning a restaurant isn’t daunting enough. Good for him!
Altadenahiker—I know, right? And to have that restaurant be named one of the best in the nation besides. Wow.