Sustainable Happy Hours

Posted on by Sacha Cohen

We love the idea of  supporting local restaurants that offer tasty sustainable cuisine and cheap happy hour deals. Here are our top picks:

CommonWealth Gastropub
It’s bloody cold out. Shake off the icicles and get yourself over to the happy hour (4-7) at CommonWealth which includes a selection of local beer, 1/2 price selections of wine, and 1/2 off grassfed burgers (Wednesdays) that are out of this world. For a complete rundown of what’s available, check out the review written by our friends over at Sustainable in the City.

Dino
A menu planned around weekly finds at the Dupont Farmer’s Market and meats and seafood from all natural and sustainable sources. Those are just a few reasons to love Dino in Cleveland Park. Want more? How about an amazing happy hour from 5:30-7 (Sunday-Fridays) featuring free antipasti and 25% off drinks. Oh, and bartender Scott is a master mixologist and will help you find the perfect glass to accompany your meal.

Poste Brasserie
We’ve written about Poste’s sustainable practices before. This time, we’re all about the deal. Next time you find yourself killing time before an event at the Verizon Center, stop by from 4 to 7 (Monday-Friday) and enjoy $5 glasses of red and white wine, $5 beer, and truffled frites for just $5.

Radius Pizza
This Mount Pleasant eatery was recently bought by former Poste Brasserie employees Todd and Nicole Wiss. Although they still serve pizza, the menu now focuses on local and organic ingredients and more upscale fare. Happy hour is 5-7 and on Wednesdays you get a free bottle of vino with the purchase of a large pizza and appetizer or two entrees and an appetizer.

Redwood
Tucked away in Bethesda Row, Redwood serves a seasonal menu that showcases the best mid-Atlantic ingredients. Meats, cheeses, produce, and seafood are naturally-raised, organic, or sustainable whenever possible and are sourced from local growers. A thoughtful wine list features some organic wines and small production vintners who practice sustainable viticulture. Belly up to the 75-seat white-marble bar and treat yourself to $4-$5 food and drink specials Monday – Friday from 4 to 7:00pm.

What did we miss? Feel free to post your favorite sustainable happy hour spots in the comments section.

DC Dirt with Chef Rob Weland

Posted on by Sacha Cohen
Photograph courtesy of Michael Harlan Turkell
Photograph courtesy of Michael Harlan Turkell

Poste Brasserie, part of the Kimpton Hotel family, is well-known for its environmentally sound practices and for its equally eco-minded star chef Rob Weland who has been at the helm since 2004.

Chef Weland is committed to using fresh, sustainable, and organic ingredients, some of which come from Poste’s own organic vegetable and herb garden.

In addition to overseeing the kitchen, he hosts the hugely popular market-to-market dinners and helped create the new farm-to-table ‘Poste Roasts.’

These farm-to-table dinners take place outside at the Chef’s table and feature spit-roasted meat sourced from local farmers and summer-inspired sides, all served family-style.

In this inaugural issue of DC Dirt, a new Q&A column with DC’s green movers and shakers, we sat down with Chef Weland who dishes on his favorite local green business, must-have organic staples, and more.

Favorite vegetable that you grow in the Poste Brasserie garden:

Heirloom tomatoes……But that’s considered a fruit….so garlic then!

Your cooking philosophy, in three words:

Simple, local, sustainable

Three ingredients you can’t live without:

Eggs, sea salt, good olive oil

Guilty pleasure:

Eggplant parmesan

Favorite local green business:

FRESHFARM Markets

Biggest eco sin:

Using too many paper towels at home,……according to my wife!

Organic “musts” for the home cook:

Shopping at their local market for eggs, dairy, and produce.

Your foodie heros:

Alice Waters, Larry Forgione, Marco Pierre White and Gray Kunz

Brave Food World

Posted on by Sacha Cohen
Joel Palentin of Polyface Farms courtesy of Food, Inc.
Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms courtesy of Food, Inc.

Eat something organic before you head to see Food, Inc., the provocative new documentary from filmmaker Robert Kenner, featuring authors Michael Pollan (An Omnivore’s Dilemma) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) because you surely won’t want to eat after watching it.

The film serves up a stomach-churning look inside the highly mechanized world of food production, from chickens that never see daylight to cows forced to stand all day in their own feces. Even seemingly innocent soybeans are revealed to be “patented” by chemical giant Monsanto in their effort to control seed production and independent farmers.

Perhaps even more disturbing than the shocking reality of modern food production gone awry is that the agencies (FDA, USDA) that are supposedly there to protect us are in cahoots with the handful of corporations that put profit ahead of our health, the livelihood of the American farmer, and the safety of workers and our own environment.

Interspersed among the food borne illnesses and soul-less, window-less factories are interviews with colorful social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin. Says local hero Salatin,“Imagine what it would be if, as a national policy, we said we would be only successful if we had fewer people going to the hospital next year than last year? The idea then would be to have such nutritionally dense, unadulterated food that people who ate it actually felt better, had more energy and weren’t sick as much…  now, see, that’s a noble goal.”

Besides strengthening my resolve to not eat processed food and to support local producers whenever possible, the take-away for me was that we must pay even closer attention to what we are eating and why. Vote with your wallet by choosing locally grown food and organics, eschew mass-produced meats, corn syrup laden snacks and genetically modified produce. We can’t afford not to.

Organic Donuts. No, Really.

Posted on by Sacha Cohen

Mmmm….organic donuts. Perhaps an oxymoron, but I’m a fan. You can get your hands on these little bundles of fried doughy goodness at the Carpe Donut mobile in Charlottesville, VA. Owners Matt Rohdie and Jen Downey dreamed up the divine fried dough creations as a way to combine their restaurant and entrepreneurial experience into the perfect food-on-wheels business. And to this, I say “Bravo”!

The donuts are made from organic apple cider, eggs, flour, and non-hydrogenated soybean oil. Simple. Organic. And addictive. From personal experience at a recent Smashing Pumpkins concert, I can attest to their crispy-on-the-outside, tender and cakey on the inside deliciousness.

You’ll find the Carpe Donut mobile (aka Gypsy) doling out apple cider donuts, organic coffee, fresh mulled hot cider and cioccolata at Charlottesville’s downtown mall on Friday mornings, at the mall’s pavilion during concerts and events, and at regional festivals.

Funnel cake, watch your back.

8 Green Ideas for Enjoying the Last Days of Summer

Posted on by Sacha Cohen

Make the most of summer before Old Man Winter comes a knockin’. Here’s how:

  1. Pack a picnic with organic goodies from newly opened Sub-urban Trading Co., in Kensington, MD or stock up at one of the many farmer’s markets in the area.
  2. Fire up the grill one last time with free-range chicken and home-made sausages from Let’s Meat on the Avenue in Del Ray.
  3. Stroll through Rock Creek Park or the National Arboretum.
  4. Take a free walking tour, see the sites by bike, or even hop on a Segway.
  5. Check out a green roof.
  6. Build one of your own.
  7. Pick your own fruit at a nearby orchard.
  8. Get an au natural faux tan (well, you can do this anytime, but it’s great for Labor-day getaways)

Now, pile on the SPF and get out there while the going’s good.