Strawberry leaves, carrot tops and cauliflower stems are never thrown away at Heirloom, an American restaurant in Lewes, Del., owned by entrepreneur Meghan Lee.
In fact, the restaurant tries to avoid the more common seafood like tuna, salmon, halibut and mahi mahi for reasons of overfishing or unsustainable practices, instead opting for options like striped bass and steelhead trout.
“We don’t want to start to develop menus that have an over dependence of certain species like tuna,” Jennifer Bushman, director of seafood sustainability at Pacific Catch said.
Instead of using a premium fish like mahi mahi, which is not available locally, they might use a rockfish on the menu instead.
Another trend restaurants are leaning into is creating individual zero-waste, carbon-neutral menu items from leftover scraps in their kitchen.
Fields Good Chicken CEO Field Failing got the idea to create the menu item after trying to brainstorm a way to utilize their leftover rotisserie chicken that does not get used by the end of the day.
Although this is just one menu item that they’ve changed, Failing said it’s okay to start small in creating a sustainable menu.