2011 Heart of Green Awards

Winner: Haven Restaurant, Houston, Texas
Southern favorites meet sustainability and sophistication at Haven. Outside the restaurant, owner and chef Randy Evans and his staff compost kitchen scraps and tend to a garden; inside, the restaurant serves its farm-to-table dishes in an eco-friendly setting with green touches like energy efficient lighting and recycled glass and paper products.

Learn more about our 2011 Heart of Green Award winners!

About the Nominees

ABC Kitchen, New York, N.Y.
Prolific restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten's ABC Kitchen boasts local, seasonal dishes, but the sustainability doesn't stop there. Those dishes are served on unique artisanal ceramic, by waitstaff wearing biodegradable sneakers, and set on compostable place mats. Does Jean-Georges manage to combine refined with recycled? Raving reviewers say, "Yes!"

Copperleaf Restaurant, Seattle, Wash.
The eco-friendly Cedarbrook Lodge is located minutes from the Sea-Tac Airport, but the intimate farm-to-table Cooperleaf Restaurant nestled inside manages to feel miles away from the hassle of traveling. Dishes like creamy chestnut soup with black truffles and Dungeness crab gnocchi will make you feel like you're on vacation, even if you're just stopping in for dinner.

Spoon, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Local farms take center stage at Spoon, where the menu declares, "We are proud to support western Pennsylvania's farmers and artisanal purveyors." Those farms, and the seasons, affect the ever-changing dishes that the restaurant calls "refined comfort food."

Ninety Acres, Peapack-Gladstone, N.J.
This restaurant proudly states, "Farm to table is one thing. Ninety Acres is a table at the farm." Dinning on the farm—how much more local can your food get? The farm, restaurant and agricultural endeavors that make up Ninety Acres Culinary Center were developed in part by Richard Branson, giving this delicious project some star power.

- Gloria Dawson