ANDERSONVILLE — The Taste of Andersonville Dinner Crawl is one of the neighborhood's most anticipated events, but one thing bugs the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce about the delectable affair: garbage cans on Clark Street overflowing with food scraps and disposable plates, forks and bowls in the aftermath.
Vincent Restaurant, Lady Gregory's, Kopi Cafe, M. Henry, Hamburger Marys, Svea Restaurant and Andies Restaurant are some of the restaurants participating in the dinner crawl on Wednesday, which (for a fee) lets attendees sample food from some of the neighborhood's most beloved dining destinations.
The chamber, organizer of the dinner crawl, is implementing a new composting and waste management program just for the event. It aims to "generate zero waste from the event," chamber associate director Jason Cox said.
Each participating dinner crawl restaurant will have a special receptacle outside to collect waste, and signs as well as roaming volunteers will encourage attendees to make full use of them. The waste will be collected by an organization call Collective Resource and taken to a commercial compost facility.
In past dinner crawls, Cox said, "We would have a really great event and it would go really well ... but then you would walk out on the street after the event was over and all of the trash cans that are part of the streetscape would be absolutely overflowing with trash."
That didn't fit in with the chamber's attempts to encourage an eco-friendly neighborhood.
"What people do," Cox said, "is a lot of times they get the food, and if there's not extra space in the restaurant they will eat outside and throw their plate away into the trash cans, which already get a lot of use during a nice summer day in Andersonville with lots of people out."
The waste management program is costing the chamber about $900, Cox said. The disposable kitchenware for the event is being provided by event sponsor Onyx Distribution & Servicing.
Noting Andersonville's residential composting program, Cox said, "This just hopefully fits into our goal of trying to be more sustainable and eco-friendly."
Here's a list of participating dinner crawl businesses and their offerings:
The Salt Route
- Andies Restaurant: Baba Ghanoush (smoked eggplant dip), organic falafel and vegetarian dolmades
- The Coffee Studio: Smoked salmon flatbread (vegetarian option available) and cold-brewed iced coffee
- Fireside Restaurant: Cajun meatloaf, jambalaya and vegetarian cajun garden pasta
- Jerry’s Sandwiches: Bruschetta of mushroom-kalamata olive, queso fresco, fried onion and barbecue aioli
- Kopi Cafe: Mini veggie sloppy joes
- M. Henry: Rustic quiche or veggie quiche with salad
- Noodle Zone: Pad Thai with tofu
- Ranalli’s: Original thin crust pizza with assorted toppings
- First Slice Pie Cafe: Streusel apple pie bites
- Swedish Bakery: Assortment of Swedish, butter and fancy cookies
The Pepper Route
- Andersonville Brewing Co.: Mini Burgers & mini black bean burgers
- JB’s Deli: Corned beef, brisket, pastrami pasta salad and coleslaw
- Johnny Brown Bag: Rotini Santa Lucia with Italian sausage, peas, mushrooms, onions, tomato cream sauce
- Konak: House specialty chicken chops with Bulgar rice
- Lady Gregory’s: Mac and cheese with bacon, Irish cheddar, tomatoes and caramelized onions
- Svea Restaurant: An assortment of seasoned pickled herring
- Vincent: Pork belly with kimchi puree
- The Wooden Spoon: Gourmet wood-fired thin crust pizza
- Terry’s Toffee: Assortment of gourmet toffee
- Swedish Bakery: Assortment of Swedish, butter and fancy cookies
To buy tickets, click here.
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