The Best (Sustainable!) Meals in Town
Sara Brito is rarely hungry. As the co-founder and president of the Good Food Media Network, she spends her days visiting, speaking, and, of course, eating with chefs to encourage their participation in a new national rating system called the Good Food 100 Restaurants. (Disclosure: 5280 contributing editor Amanda M. Faison is the Good Food Media Network’s editorial director.) Here’s the scoop: Chefs and food-service providers take a survey detailing their purchasing practices to show how much of their spending goes to sustainable purveyors. Instead of stars, they are ranked with two to five links (for the links in the food chain); five-link restaurants are those making the most beneficial impacts on their communities through their purchases. The rankings will be updated annually, starting with the inaugural list that comes out on June 15.
What does it mean for diners? Your next restaurant pick can be based not on Yelp reviews or best-of lists but by which chefs do the most good for our planet, our farms, and you. Colorado chefs were some of the first participants, so we asked Boulder-based Brito to take us on a tour of local spots to see what she’d order…if only she had an appetite.