Urban restaurants are raising the roof (literally) to put garden-fresh eats on your plate.
Folks used to say that all you need to grow a garden is a little patch of dirt to call your own. Turns out it’s even simpler: In the city, all you need is a rooftop. Taking advantage of unused space and maximum sunlight, Chicago restaurants are moving their mini-farming operations a story or two above ground. Here’s what’s sprouting up on four local rooftops, plus a look at what else each restaurant does to complement green growing practices.
Browntrout
Chef Sean Sanders opened Browntrout, his 2-week-old North Center restaurant, with lofty ambitions. “I have a goal, five years from now, of being the greenest restaurant in Chicago,” he says. And he’s not just talking the talk. Sanders, who studied botany at the College of DuPage before becoming a chef, opened the restaurant with a rooftop garden already underway. Come winter, he has designs on hydroponic growing in the basement.
In the ground: Lots of herbs, arugula, early girl and heirloom tomatoes (growing now); grapes, gooseberries, raspberries, blueberries, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers and a fig tree (coming soon).
On your plate: Parsley, thyme and chervil from the garden get tossed with morels, ramps and a mix of crimini and oyster mushrooms and Le Petit Dejeuner cheese in a napoleon ($10) layered with potato gaufrettes.
More green practices: During construction, the restaurant relied on existing elements whenever possible instead of gutting the place. Sanders also used low-VOC paint and installed energy efficient dryers in the bathrooms. He’s phasing in green cleaning products too.
Tallulah
Raised in Iowa with sweet corn swaying in the backyard breeze, Tallulah chef Troy Graves has vegetable gardening in his blood. Since last spring, he’s been continuing the family tradition (albeit on a much smaller scale) on this Lincoln Square eatery’s sunny rooftop. “Bringing in tomatoes when they’re still warm from the sun, there’s something really beautiful about that,” he says.
In the ground: Heirloom tomatoes such as green zebras and Cherokee purples (growing now); yellow squash and baby root vegetables such as carrots, beets and turnips (to be harvested and replanted throughout the summer).
On your plate: Baby beets ($8), served with the greens intact and sauteed with shallots, garlic, bacon and blue cheese, will hit tables in mid-July. When it’s heirloom time in July and August, look for a simple tomato salad with balsamic glaze ($10).
More green practices: Graves and his staff tend a plot in the Chicago Avenue Community Garden and donate veggies grown there to the surrounding community. Tallulah’s sister restaurant, Eve, also has signed up to work with Growing Power, a Milwaukee-based company that picks up organic food scraps for composting.
Uncommon Ground on Devon
The 640 square feet of soil atop Uncommon Ground’s roof are more than a garden. According to the Midwest Organic Services Association, Inc., it’s a certified organic rooftop farm—the first in the city. “Farm” in this case simply means food-growing, and UG farm director Natalie Pfister has been growing veggies there since the garden opened in July.
In the ground: Tomatoes, arugula, radishes, carrots, onions and lots and lots of peas. Looking ahead, expect cucumbers and beans (mid-summer), melons and eggplant (late August) and squash and pumpkins (October).
On your plate: Look for garden-grown sprouts and arugula in the restaurant’s sunshine salad ($7) and spring salad ($8) and fresh radishes in a grilled asparagus appetizer ($9). Later this summer, preparations of trout and pork loin will incorporate cucumbers and green beans.
More green practices: Five solar panels heat 75 percent of the restaurant’s hot water, and the winged residents of four rooftop beehives supply the restaurant with honey (and pollinate the garden). Many of the restaurant’s paper goods, including toilet paper, paper towels and to-go containers, are recyclable.
Carnivale
Chef Mark Mendez estimates the kitchen at this 35,000-square-foot Warehouse District Nuevo Latino spot uses 500 pounds of heirloom tomatoes a week, so it's unlikely Carnivale's garden, which takes up about a quarter of the building's roof, will ever contribute a significant amount of tomatoes to the kitchen. That hasn't stopped him and sous chef David Dworshak (the green thumb behind the operation, Mendez says) from planting a garden for the second year in a row.
In the ground: Pineapple sage, oregano, basil, mint, arugula, red romaine lettuce, Peruvian chili peppers and heirloom tomatoes.
On your plate: Last weekend, Mendez featured a salad of arugula from the rooftop garden with strawberries from Michigan’s Mick Klug Farms, radishes from Indian’s Green Acres Farm and goat cheese from Capriole, also in Indiana.
More green practices: The restaurant has stopped serving bottled water, recycles a fair amount of paper and plastic, and is looking into starting a compost heap.
Lisa Arnett, Lisa Balde, Matt McGuire and M. Kathleen Pratt, Metromix producers.
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