Editor's Note: This post is a companion piece to our September/October 2020 issue, featuring articles about living green in the region. You can read Layla Khoury-Hanold's feature, "Waste Not, Want Not" here to learn more about restaurants and their efforts in sustainability. See more in our digital guide here. Thank you for reading!
The farm-to-table eatery’s commitment to the land extends beyond the plate.
“We’re respecting what mother earth gives us,” says Diane Elliot, owner of Local Roots restaurant. “We walk our talk; it’s part of our mission.”
Kemper Mills Fant Photography
Diane Elliott, owner of Local Roots
With an ethos like that, it come as no surprise that Local Roots, the Grandin Village farm-to-table eatery, has been awarded the Virginia Green Travel Star award for Green Restaurant of the Year 2020. This is the third time that the restaurant, which recently celebrated its ten-year anniversary, is being recognized by the Virginia Green Travel Association. From the farm to kitchen to the dining room and back again, Elliot’s walking the walk by reducing the restaurant’s food waste and its overall footprint.
Like many restaurant owners, Elliot is a proponent of scrappy cooking. This is not only because restaurant margins are so thin, but because it’s the right thing to do, especially to honor the meticulously sourced local ingredients. Chard stems are pickled and served as an accompaniment to cheese and charcuterie plates, fruit and veggie scraps are turned into syrups and shrubs for cocktails, and veggie tops are saved for pestos or even dehydrated and pulverized for use as coloring or garnish. The restaurant’s signature bread pudding relies on day-old bread, all the better for soaking up the dessert’s sweet custard.
The restaurant also abides by a nose-to-tail principle, butchering half-animals in house and using everything possible. Executive chef Niall Coffey makes rich stocks from animal and fish bones; a tonkotsu ramen brunch special owed its deeply flavorful broth to a slow-simmered stock of pork neck and femur bones and pork fat back from Leaping Waters Farm. Animal parts that are typically tossed in the trash take a starring turn as entrees, like breaded-and-fried fish collars or brined-and-smoked cow tongue served pastrami-style.
Composting is another way the kitchen upholds its mission; produce scraps and trimmings, eggshells, coffee grounds, and the like are composted and used as fertilizer by local farmers. But the restaurant’s commitment to the land goes beyond the plate by employing creative recycling to reduce its overall footprint.
Once the frying oil is no longer usable, it’s filtered and disposed of in a bin provided by Darton Environmental, a Bedford-based company that recycles the oil into bio-diesel fuel, a cleaner, renewable energy source. Empty wine and liquor bottles are collected and then sent to a maker in Floyd who crafts them into the restaurant’s custom glassware. Elliot’s latest initiative is working with a local hog farmer to recycle plate scraps into hog feed, helping to reduce restaurant food waste caused by diner’s uneaten food.
As the pandemic necessitated a focus on takeout orders, Local Roots was well-poised to adapt without sacrificing the planet. To-go cartons are made from a heavy paper material, cups, lids, and napkins are made from recycled paper, the cutlery is biodegradable, and orders are packed up in paper bags. You’ll have to ask if you want a straw and plastic need not apply here either. Instead, you’ll get a Hay!Straw that’s made from wheat straw stems.
About the Writer:
Layla’s food obsession started early; growing up in cities like Paris, Aberdeen and Jakarta, Layla counts escargots, Haggis and beef rendang among her first memorable meals. She’s always looking for the next exciting bite—and relishes uncovering the story behind it. Her work has appeared on Saveur, Food Network and Refinery29 and in The Chicago Tribune, Drinks International and Our State. Follow her on Instagram @theglassofrose or on Twitter @glassofrose.