Sample Sustainably Made Dishes During This Denver Food Crawl

With the costs of goods continuing to rise, Denver restaurants are always looking for new ways to utilize every scrap of food that comes through their kitchens. Sustainability practices aren’t just for the environment, they’re good for the bottom line as well.

Given that 40% of the U.S. food supply goes uneaten every year (that’s household groceries and restaurant inventory combined), maximizing the usefulness of food items in the kitchen seems like as good a place as any to find cost-saving opportunities. 

But what does that mean for diners? What does sustainability taste like? While there’s likely no shortage of customers who will be drawn to a restaurant in alignment with their sustainability philosophies, there remain plenty of diners driven by more base motivations: flavor and cost. 

Regardless of whether your concerns lean towards how your meal gets to your plate or more towards what’s actually on it, a handful of Denver establishments are hoping to help showcase the process and impact of their sustainability efforts during this week’s Denver Food Matters Food Crawl. The 10-day event is designed to showcase dishes and drinks created primarily with surplus ingredients. Think of it as a mini Denver Restaurant Week, but one focused on sustainability. 

The food crawl kicked off this past Friday and is continuing through May 17. Over the course of the event, diners can visit any of the eight participating restaurants and cafes to learn exactly what a sustainably created dish (or drink) actually tastes like. 

Here’s who’s participating, what dish they’re featuring, and why: 

Restaurant Olivia
Featuring their signature French onion ravioli, the Washington Park pasta masters are highlighting how using whole eggs to make their pasta (as opposed to only the egg whites) reduces waste and increases flavor.

Somebody People
The vegan-focused Mediterranean restaurant is highlighting its spring gnocchi, a zero-waste dish that uses every part of the plants, including pickling unused stems of the asparagus, and incorporating the pea pods and shoots in dishes (and not just the peas themselves).

Hello Darling
Turning to the more sippable sustainability efforts, this Highland cafe and cocktail lounge uses cucumber pulp and leftover ginger juice to create a concoction called the “Cute-cumber.”

Pit Fiend Barbecue
Over in RiNo, the pit smokers are showcasing a red lentil-and-lamb dish utilizing recovered lamb meat and fat, along with an un-cored cucumber salad. 

Others participating include the pay-what-you-can Same Cafe (featuring a locally sourced sampler plate), Chook Chicken (repurposing trim meat for a chicken noodle soup), Sesame Sandwiches (offering a bacon fried rice dish), and various locations of Blue Sparrow Coffee (showcasing a chai tea drink)

The food crawl is the culmination of a broader, longer initiative conducted by the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment called The Food Matters Restaurant Challenge. Over the course of the 12-week effort, the initiative shared learnings and strategies from other businesses on successful food waste-prevention practices. Several of the restaurants involved report saving thousands of dollars in the process. 

Diners interested in sampling the results can save money as well. Organizers are providing a digital punch card that anyone can use to check in at each participating restaurant. The more establishments visited, the more stamps gained, and the greater the odds of winning a drawing for a free multicourse meal at Somebody People, valued at $200.