Monday, April 19, 2010

Otarian! This vegetarian fast food chain has me bursting with excitement

Otarian!! A new veggie fast food restaurant opened by Radhika Oswal. "Almost everything in our restaurants ..... is made from recycled materials. Our Zulu chairs use an ancient southern African technique to weave recycled plastic onto recycled aluminum steel frames. Even the ceiling decoration is made from recycled aluminium, and pendant lights are made from formerly broken pieces of glass." Its corporate office is aiming to have a 98% recycling and composting rate. People are calling it the most sustainable restaurant chain in the world.

The menu is getting me OH so excited. Every item has the savings in carbon footprints listed on the menu. I'm already dreaming of my order.... perhaps the vegan chocolate cake and portobello mushroom burgers.

"Recycling, composting, sustainable building materials and no ingredients that are shipped by air are the rules here. The carbon footprints were calculated according to standards set by the World Resources Institute, an environmental organization based in Washington." NYTimes Article

"Every menu item at Otarian has a whole string of numbers after it beyond the price. The carbon content of the item, the amount saved versus a similar meat dish, and the carbon footprint of that meat dish. Planet Green Article


NY Locations:
154 Bleecker Street (open now)
New York, NY 10012
T: 212 614 6834


947 Eighth Ave (opening soon)
New York, NY 10019
T: 212 489 3270

2 comments:

  1. I am not a veggie but have trying to eat less meat lately. Portobello burgers sound just gorgeous, they are really one of my faves. - aoife

    ReplyDelete
  2. I LOVE the concept of this place. Makes me want to live in NYC! Hopefully Chicago will soon be influenced :) The main reason why its so hard to stay vegan in Chicago is because you really need to have the time to prepare meals and we don't have many options for takeout :-/

    ReplyDelete