The Perennial, Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz's about-to-debut, super-sustainable restaurant, has long made lots of promises on how it intends to deliver on that claim. Now that the opening is imminent, Eater has answers on exactly how The Perennial has been designed for sustainability from the ground up (literally). Here are eight ways that the interior of the restaurant is miles ahead of the rest:
1. The interior is the handiwork of Paul Discoe, a Zen priest and architect behind other Bay Area gems like Berkeley's Ippuku and San Francisco's Greens.
2. Discoe used reclaimed lumber to create the lengthy Douglas Fir bar out of one tree, as well as poplar chairs, cypress and black acacia tables and support beams from the Transbay Terminal; in turn, the woven wooden ceiling is made from the wood shavings from those Transbay beams.
3. The restaurant also answers the question: "what happens to the excessive amount of wine bottles that San Franciscans dutifully drag to the curb each week?" The tiles behind the bar are from SF's Fireclay Tiles, recycled from glass bottles, toilets and bathtubs and pre-consumer waste; Blendheim Glass produced the windows, which are made curbside-recycled bottles and jars.
4. The all-LED lighting system is designed to be energy-efficient as well, from local lighting designer Anna Kondolf Lighting Design and Neidhardt Inc.
5. Atop the reclaimed tables are are cotton napkins that go to a green laundry— when they're all used up, worms at the restaurant's aquaponic farm in Oakland eat them.
6. Silverware is second-hand, and the plates are produced by Atelier Dion in Oakland using clay from Mendocino.
7. Even the menus (and all the restaurant's paper, in fact) is printed on 100 percent recycled material paper by a green printer, and will eventually become worm-food as well. (See here for more information on how the restaurant's aquaponics system works)
8. And though the restaurant is not completely LEED certified, they're expecting to receive a Platinum certification. (No surprises there.)
The Perennial is officially open for dinner on Wednesday, January 20. Hours will be Monday through Thursday from 5:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
