Eco-leftovers from Woodberry Kitchen
We had dinner last night at the new Woodberry Kitchen in Clipper Mill. No, this isn't going to be an early review.
As many of you know, this is Spike and Amy Gjerde's "green" restaurant, where not only is the food for the most part local and/or organic, but the space was renovated with recycled materials whenever possible.
So I was a little surprised when our leftovers were brought in what looked like Styrofoam in the candlelight. ...
My daughter told us that many restaurants in LA, where she lives, now use cornstarch leftover containers, but that this one wasn't cornstarch.
It looked like eco-Styrofoam because it had almost the right texture but the pleasant light brown color of raw sugar. It turned out to be made of sugarcane. I remember Gjerde telling me when I interviewed him over the phone that the hard thing about opening this restaurant was taking care of all the "green" details. Now I see what he meant.
I looked up cornstarch containers on the Web first, and came up with a site that sells them. They are impressive: microwave and oven safe, from a renewable resource and biodegradable (within 180 days). They have a shelf life of at least 18 months. And if you need to thicken a sauce, you just melt one by putting it over a burner turned on high.
No, no, that last was a joke.
The sugarcane containers were interesting in their own right. The one thing I don't understand is that the site selling them said they had to be biodegraded (is that a word?) in a composting system. It would take 30 days in a commercial system and 90 days in a home composting system.
I'm assuming they will still biodegrade quicker than Styrofoam if you just throw them away, and you're avoiding the pollution that occurs with the normal burning of the sugarcane pulp after juice extraction. Besides, you can grow corn and sugarcane a lot quicker than a tree or a Styrofoam plant.
(Kenneth K. Lam/Sun photographer)
Comments
I understand its a two-for: many Styrofoam farms also raise and market free-range gummy worms. The gummy worms seem to sweeten acid rain imbued soil. Who knew?
Posted by: Robert | December 21, 2007 9:35 AM
Elizabeth... is Woodberry Kitchen loud? It looks like all hard surfaces to bounce the noise around.
It could be, but given the clientele last night, it wasn't. We all commented on it.
Posted by: Fairfax | December 21, 2007 2:50 PM
We were their last weekend with friends. It was not loud and it was packed. I have commented all week to friends how the food was good but the atmosphere was great. Try it
Posted by: sus | December 21, 2007 8:37 PM
Are those holiday lighting incandescent light bulbs?? Someone needs to call the green police..
Posted by: Eric | December 21, 2007 10:18 PM
I second the confusion about biodegradable take-out containers. Atwater's now puts their cold drinks in cups make out of corn, but they don't compost them there themselves, and I don't compost in my apartment. Is it acceptable to trash them? If Woodberry composts, could you save your take-out container and bring it back to them? :]
Posted by: Dancing Monkey | December 24, 2007 8:11 PM