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Us city folk tend to be crunched for space and nature-deprived. It's not that we're tree haters—urban development simply hasn't focused on ecological efficiency until recently. Fortunately, some of L.A.'s restaurants are taking advantage of their sun-soaked rooftops by planting gardens to provide fresh produce to their kitchens.
Bret Mosher, owner of the Flat apartment complex and its Blue Velvet restaurant near Downtown L.A., conceived an on-site garden, which executive chef Jonathan McDowell now tends to. The sweeping silver flatbed, designed by architect and SCI-Arc professor Alexis Rochas, looks strikingly similar to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Watering his kale as the sun sets on a pristine city skyline, McDowell said: "It's such a good outlet for me. This really gives me an incredible opportunity to see how things go from seed to the plate."
Although the garden doesn't provide enough produce to sustain the entire restaurant, McDowell does use the produce for tasting menus, amuse bouches and special holiday events. One dish that has gone over particularly well is a vegetarian Wellington with garden kale, house-made ricotta cheese and shitake mushrooms, all wrapped in puff pastry. "It's a great opportunity for people to see how things can be truly locally grown," McDowell said.
On the other side of town in Beverly Hills, Ryan Hoffman, restaurant manager and in-house green thumb at Blue on Blue at the Avalon Hotel, recently prepared his second season of rooftop crops. He's growing tomatoes, bell peppers and strawberries in EarthBoxes, self-contained gardening units that use less water than conventional gardening.
Hoffman doesn't want to keep the knowledge inside the restaurant. He has teamed with Darren Butler, a local permaculture design consultant, to implement a series of classes at Blue on Blue that will teach community members how to start home gardens. There will be admission-free seats allotted for low-income families, whose diets often rely on nutrient-bereft economy items and fast food. Butler is working to challenge the misconception that good food is more expensive. "Nature does a lot of things for free," he said, adding that "as energy prices continue to rise, sustainable methods will become more competitive and profitable."
Blue on Blue's first harvest reaped Thai basil (the plant grew four feet tall), lemon balm, arugula, bloom cress and mint. Executive chef Scott Garrett's kitchen has utilized these ingredients in an arugula pasta; a bright green pea soup infused with fresh mint, and a dish of scallops garnished with basil flowers, lemon balm oil, violet mustard and house-made pesto.
At Blvd 16 at the Hotel Palomar in Westwood, chef Simon Dolinky has set up a hydroponic rooftop garden, where he has grown basil, thyme, rosemary, chives, mint and micro-greens.
"As a kid in the Midwest, we always had a garden in the summer," he said. "I wanted to get a little taste of that here in the city. The high gas prices also fueled our efforts to lower our carbon footprint. Growing hydroponically is very efficient as far as water consumption is concerned."
Dolinky has just planted his second round of herbs and veggies, so not much is available right now aside from herbed French fries (with homegrown rosemary), the Sunset cocktail (with Cruzan pineapple rum, pineapple, mint from the garden and lime juice) and the Pacific Breeze cocktail (with basil-infused vodka, cucumber and lime juice). A few months from now, fresh ingredients are bound to be sprouting up on the menu.
Until then, keep looking up. You never know what you might find—it could be your next meal.
