All stories about "Greener Than Thou"

Feeling a wee bit left out of the Earth Day festivities, we thought it a prime time to share an email that came across the EaterWire regarding one V Restaurant. Wanting to be the greenest restaurant in the whole world (but still clearly more concept than reality), V Restaurant sends along word that it is planning on opening somewhere in the Mission in Fall 2008, and its official website is a work of beauty. And by "a work of beauty," we mean utterly, absolutely entertaining. There are loads of unforgettable nuggets to be had when sifting through the restaurant's very, very specific vision. Here are our faves, all straight from the website:

On the design: "Nearly everything is (the color) green. We will have spent 2 years scouting thrift stores, Craigslist, and garage sales; collecting used green plates, green coffee mugs, green bowls, green glasses - everything we'll need to operate a busy restaurant."

On the ambiance: "V plays only music performed by vegetarian artists."

More on the design: "You'll be surrounded by forest, emerald, pistachio, jade, hunter, chartreuse, kelly, avocado, moss, and olive greens just to name a few. Many of the elements that decorate our restaurant will have been found green. Some of them will be painted green."

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2008 will be a good year for lunch-seeking FiDi workers, with new options like Best-O-Burger and Pizza Orgasmica slated to arrive in the first half of the year. Also on tap is a third location of the eminently popular Mixt Greens coming soon to the southeast corner of the JP Morgan Chase Building's ground floor (560 Mission, between First and Second Streets). Not only should the new location provide a new option for workers south of Market, but it should alleviate the heavy lines at the other two locations up on Sansome.

Furthermore, "greenophiles" and design buffs alike might want to keep an eye on the developing interior space of the new salad joint. Mixt Greens—one of just five local restaurants to be certified as a green business—built its first two locations strictly abiding to the USGBC's standards for green building, and the William Duff design includes items like eco-timber flooring and benches entirely made from recycled fibers. It should be fun to behold the environment-friendly amenities that are sure to surface at Mixt Greens III.

From: [an eater]
Date: Tuesday, November 20, 2007
To: eater complaints dept.
Subject: Regarding Plastic Bags and Farmers Markets
______

I just had a comment and I'm not sure anyone but you and maybe your audience cares about it.

I noticed after going to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market recently and then to the Marin Civic Center Farmers Market this past Sunday that EVERY vendor and nearly EVERY shopper had huge bunches of plastic bags.

I'm thinking that if even Supermarkets are forced to stop using plastic bags, that the very first organizations that should have at least self imposed a plastic bag ban should have been these Farmers Markets. Rainbow does just fine only having paper bags.

Seriously, after a few weeks of going to the Farmers Markets and the vendors only providing the horrible no handle paper bags, I think everyone would get the point and remember to bring their own bags.

Thank you for visiting the Eater Complaints Department, your unedited platform for voicing poor dining experiences, gross restaurant trends, underhanded service issues and the like. Have grievances? Operators are standing by.

The outdoor garden at Foreign Cinema [Photo: Flickr/aleman]

· Thursday at Foreign Cinema: Special Indian Feast, Four Course Parsi Menu [SFCD]
· Big-Name Celebrities Make Waves at the Slanted Door [PH]
· Sens Hosts American Launch of Hotel Chocolat [SFist]
· GrubHub Gets $1.1 Million in First Round of Backing [CST]
· The San Francisco Green Festival, Recapped [Fake Plastic Fish]
· Looking Ahead to the Next Generation of Green [SFE]

Daytime Southern Hospitality Now Available, Christine Kesler, 10/16/07

· Which Celebrity Chefs Actually Still Cook in the Kitchen? [The Grinder]
· The Story of the Krikorians, Owners of T-Rex, Sea Salt Et Al [EBE]
· The Very First Lunch Customer at South Gets the VIP Treatment. Probably [South Blog]
· Hey, Some People Like Ghirardelli Square, OK? [BAB]
· The Impacts of Going Green Are Being Felt in NYC Restaurants [TONY]
· For the 16th Year in a Row, SF Tops Condé Nast Traveler Awards [dBN]
· San Francisco's Hidden Gem or Just Hidden? [BACB]

Greener Than Thou is a feature usually reserved for our sister site Curbed, where it's much more prevalent, but as any diner can attest, restaurants are no stranger to the arms race that is going green. Notice a new green trend? No paper waste needed.

Dozens upon dozens of San Francisco restaurants embrace—hell, boast—their environment-friendliness. Most make a point to highlight their organic/sustainable/biodynamic fare on the menu while some, like Mixt Greens (pictured, right) strictly abide by the "green building" standards set forth by the USGBC. Those floors at Mixt Greens? That's formaldehyde free plywood, baby.

And now, there's a new way for restaurants to help out the environment and the like:

Starting this week, the SFPUC [San Francisco Public Utilities Commission], along with BioSolar, will start collecting grease from the 40-plus restaurants that have already signed on to the program, SFPUC spokesperson Tony Winnicker said. The collected waste will then be converted into environmentally friendly bio-diesel fuel at Bay Area bio-diesel processing facilities.

And yes, this is strikingly similar to that Simpsons episode.
· S.F. grease-to-fuel plan gets cookin’ [Examiner]
· Greener Than Thou Archives [Curbed SF]

[Photo courtesy]