Go for the Green

Green has infiltrated the Los Angeles dining scene, creating what the Los Angeles Times refers to as an “eco-frenzy” among LA restaurants.

“These days, in food as in everything else, the buzzword is ‘sustainable.’ Every time you turn around, someone is claming to be ‘green’ or ‘eco-friendly,” the article states.

Eco-friendly dining can include everything from the food (organic) to the dishwashing (solar-heated) and the waste (composted).

Helping restaurants on their path to sustainability is the Green Restaurant Association, which provides green certification to restaurants that follow certain eco steps including eliminating Styrofoam containers, conserving water and power, using recycled and chlorine-free products, and utilizing sustainable food sources. Its members include the 500-outlet Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf franchise and the Le Pain Quotidien chain, among many other non-franchised establishments.

Additionally, the city of Los Angeles has initiated a pilot program to recycle restaurant food waste, which includes over 175 restaurants. As of July 2007, the program was composting 800 tons of waste a month.

Read on to find out more about green dining at O!Burger and Euphoria Loves Revolution.
















Diners eat lunch on O!Burger's patio.

Oburger, the brainchild of film producer Martha Chang and personal chef Andy Soboil, reconciles two food cultures that appear to be polar opposites – organic fast food.

The 5-month-old restaurant serves organic burgers and fries, in addition to other organic lunch and dinner items including turkey burgers, homemade veggie burgers, salads, shakes and beverages. Every ingredient used in the restaurant is organic, including the buns, sauce, vegetables, meat, ketchup, mustard, fries and salad dressing. As the website says, “If it’s edible, it’s organic.”

Oburger is eco-friendly in other aspects as well, including the lead-free paint on the walls, wooden panels reclaimed from a farm, green and non-toxic cleaning products, and biodegradable to-go packaging made from corn.

However, co-owner Chang noted that because corn is being used for biofuels and to-go packing, it is being eliminated from the food industry, which poses problems for people and cultures who depend on corn as a food staple.

“One of the most important things about being environmentally conscious and green is not to get stuck in ‘it has to be this way’, because resources are being regenerated or being depleted and you have to stay in part of that organic discourse,” said Chang. Rather than going back to plastic to-go containers, Chang and Soboil are exploring other green ways to package their food.

Chang and Soboil are also very concerned with controlling their waste output – another green component of their restaurant. They serve one container of ketchup with each order of fries in order to control the amount that is wasted and sent back to the kitchen.

“Believe me if you saw the amount of stuff that comes back here and gets thrown away it breaks your heart,” Chang said. “It’s not because we’re cheap or anything, we always say ‘I’m so happy if you love it please ask for more!’”

Chang and Soboil are currently developing a fall menu that will showcase seasonal ingredients such as cauliflower. Some ideas they have come up with are cauliflower soup and cauliflower frittatas, all in the spirit of “trying to be creative and keeping it affordable.”

“We are a part of the climate…if there are sweet potatoes and yams it’s that season and that means our bodies also need it,” said Chang.

Chang, an avid organic foodie herself, hopes that people will continue to eat “green” despite the current financial crisis.

“Right now where everyone is financially insecure I hope people continue to eat healthy, maybe find more economical ways to eat healthy but still eat healthy,” she said. “What you don’t want to do is retract that whole movement itself.”

O!Burger, 8593 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, 310-854-0234; www.oburger.net

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Euphoria Loves Revolution is located in Santa Monica on Main Street.

Euphoria Loves Rawvolution is one of many eco-dining options in Santa Monica, but its heavy reliance on exclusively eco products and entirely raw foods sets it apart from the other restaurants on Main Street.

The restaurant, which opened in Feburary 2006, was “a natural marriage of my beliefs, my background in foodservice, and my husband’s amazing recipes,” said co-owner Janabai Amsden.

The menu features raw food prepared in innovative ways, including cucumber watercress soup, curried coconut jerky sandwiches, and a “Big Matt with Cheese,” Chef Matt Amsden’s signature dish.

“Food is the fuel for life and we are passionately dedicated to creating and sharing the best food ever,” the menu states.

According to Janabai Amsden, there are many reasons to adopt a raw food diet including more energy, more mental clarity, weight loss and “realignment with our place in the natural world.”

“Not dying from the same three diseases that over 90% of people die from is another [reason],” she said.

Raw foods contain many nutrients and vitamins necessary in maintaining energy, said Amsden. The top three things compromising people’s health include dehydration, malnutrition, and a lack of enzymes, all of which can be averted by sticking to a raw foods diet.

“When you consume living, enzyme rich food, it practically digests itself. This leaves you with a surplus of energy to play harder, work more efficiently and do more of what you love,” said Amsden.

The restaurant strives to be green every way that they can, including composting the food waste, using biodegradable takeout ware made from potatoes, corn and sugarcane products, painting their walls with lead-free paint, and printing their company t-shirts on organic cotton.

“I believe that at this stage in the game, if you are not actively helping the planet you are choosing to destroy it,” Amsden said. “There is no Switzerland anymore.”

The restaurant is also currently phasing out all takeout ware produced in China, and constantly asks their staff for new ideas on how to reduce their environmental impact.

Amsden believes that the green food movement is growing and will continue to be popular in Los Angeles.

“Clearly what we have been doing as a culture, maybe we should call it the non-green movement, has not worked very well so far,” she said. “Of course we will catch on, once our eyes are opened, who would say I am going to choose the destructive movement?”

Euphoria Loves Rawvolution, 2301 Main Street, Santa Monica, 310-392-9501; www.euphorialovesrawvolution.com

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