Eat Green at Brooklyn’s Most Eco-Conscious Restaurants
If there’s an upside to fossil fuel flunkies and climate change deniers controlling environmental policy, it’s that a larger swath of people have begun to take responsibility for the size of their carbon footprints. These Brooklyn restaurants are doing their part to aid in ecologically sound eating: from Bun-Ker and its house-grown mushrooms (produced on hydroponic mini-farms), to 21 Greenpoint’s waste-free Sunday suppers, and Little Cupcake Bakeshop’s vegan sweets and committedly green interiors, these eight green-minded eateries deserve your Earth Day love.
9102 3rd Ave., Bay Ridge; (718) 680-4465
757 Fulton St., Fort Greene; (718) 858-9500
(Locations in Cobble Hill and Park Slope)
Bun-Ker: Not only do they eschew MSG and use local veggies and heritage meats, but next door neighbor, SmallHold, has supplied Bun-Ker with two of their very first Minifarms. The Viet eatery uses them to grow mushrooms for vegan summer rolls, vegan pho, and meat-free banh mi, producing 40 times the output per square foot of a traditional farm, with 96% less water usage.
99 Scott Ave., Bushwick; (718) 386-4282
21 Greenpoint: While reducing waste is the driving force behind each and every menu, a special Sunday Supper is entirely dedicated to discarded foods—think a $21, 5-course feast based on whatever they happen to still have on hand that week—from an East Asian hot pot with halibut collar, to bruised, baked apples topped with honeyed ricotta, to biscuits slathered with mozzarella butter and eggplant mash (formed from the tops and bottoms of the veggie, that had been hacked away to formed perfectly shaped fries).
21 Greenpoint Ave., Greenpoint; (718) 383-8833
317 Union Ave., Williamsburg; (929) 298-0626
606 Vanderbilt Ave., Prospect Heights; (718) 576-6120
Toad Style: Bed Stuy’s quirky, 100% vegan wonderland is also soy free, palm oil free, largely gluten free (except for locally-sourced bread) and non GMO, while somehow managing to avoid seeming especially wholesome, thanks to housemade cashew cheese fries, BBQ pulled jackfruit with grilled cabbage slaw, and battered cauliflower dipped in sweet chili mustard.
93 Ralph Ave., Bed-Stuy (347) 789-1589