Buffalo & Bergen - Capitol HIll

How D.C. Restaurants Source Local and Reduce Food Waste

"A deli and all-day breakfast operation with three D.C. locations that emphasizes reusing ingredients and hyper-local sourcing. Staff are taught to find multiple uses for every product—lemons become zest for curing gravlax, strained juice for beverages, then dehydrated into lemon salt; leftover salmon skins are repurposed into jerky by a friend; and unused bagels are dried, sliced and baked into bagel chips served with soups and salads. Roughly 60% of food is sourced within a 50-mile radius, supported by a proprietary farm purchased five years ago that grows strawberries, lavender, tomatoes and most herbs, plans an orchard, and feeds a flock of 64 chickens with kitchen byproducts to produce restaurant eggs. The owner, Gina Chersevani, frames sustainability as a prioritized, scalable practice—start with one change and expand—toward an ongoing push for zero-waste operations." - Julekha Dash