Green Restaurant Design

Some food spots are known for being all-out green, like The Kitchen in Boulder, Colorado, which we wrote about last year. In New York City, Will Goldfarb's sustainable-food kiosks, Picnick, on the Battery, use compostable and biodegradable take-out containers, cutlery, cups and labels. Maury Rubin's Bird Bath bakeries in Manhattan's East and West Villages use wheat for their walls, recycled paper for their countertop displays and shelves, and deliver their baked goods from one location to another by fuel-efficient rickshaw bicycle.  The other day, I talked to Parker Nichols of Vermont Wild Woods, which fashions flooring and woodwork from diseased trees—ones that would die soon anyway—and learned of other restaurants that have taken eco-concious steps, though not in blatantly obvious ways. The front door for Nobu in New York City is made out of diseased butternut wood, as is an 80 ft-long wall at Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City. In the works: a large host stand for the restaurant at Destination Resorts's Stowe Mountain Lodge, opening in Stowe, Vermont, next Spring.