HomeEggsAdditions to Real Food Restaurants

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Additions to Real Food Restaurants — 6 Comments

  1. Burger Guys I’m not sure about… Elevation you at least know the beef is 100% grass fed and organic – and the founder seems to have truly started the chain for sustainability purposes. I agree on the fries. I have also never ordered cheese there since I haven’t gotten an answer about rBGH (need to email them…), but I have had the organic bacon. I’m looking into Ziggy’s (just renamed to Grafiti) who claims some of their burgers are also grass-fed and eggs pastured AND Boheme Cafe’s burgers across the street in Montrose that also claim to have “clean livin’ grass chewin’ black angus cows” – no hormones or antibiotics. Any word on those??

    • Elevation does seem to be the healthier of the two burger restaurants. I’m glad to hear they have organic bacon. Let me know if you learn anything about their cheese. I love bacon cheese burgers.

      I looked up Ziggy’s, now gratifi kitchen + bar, and found one item labeled grassfed–the buffalo burger. There was no other mention of grassfed beef or organic food. They did say they made everything from scratch, usually a sign of better quality. Their fries are not frozen–also a plus; however, they said they used canola oil, which is not a healthy oil for any food use. Although they said there were no trans fats per serving, that doesn’t mean no trans fats at all. The extreme processing of oils like canola produces trans fats.

      Boheme Cafe’s website does say they use beef from grassfed angus cows with no hormones or antibiotics. They also say their kimchi is fermented. If so, it could be a good choice. I couldn’t find a mention of organic produce or any other health claims. If you read their About page, Boheme seems to be more focused on ambience than on food.

      There does seem to be a general trend toward providing better quality meat. If we ask for grassfed meat every time we go to a restaurant, maybe they’ll get the idea that we want it and will pay for it.

      • Gratifi (former Ziggy’s) says also they use local, organic, pasture-grazed, antibiotic+hormone-free eggs. On the breakfast page of the menu. At the beginning of the year they had grass-fed lamb burgers also but perhaps no longer. Also, no word on the cheese from Elevation – so I still haven’t tried it. We usually start some baked fries in the oven (olive oil), get our burgers to go and use our own cheese too.
        Thanks for checking on the oil! There seems to be an exhaustive list of questions to ask and I always forget at least one!

        • I love your solution to Elevation’s cheese and oil problem: cook your own fries and add your own cheese. But sometimes it’s just not convenient to take your food home. Wouldn’t it be great if restaurants used healthy food so that you wouldn’t need to take your food home to improve it before eating? I see a trend toward better restaurant food, but it’s moving slowly. BTW, we should avoid fake American cheese because it contains quite a lot of unhealthy trans fats.

  2. I don’t like Elevation burger’s cheese. It’s American cheese-style cheese. Ick. I eat there sometimes, but bring my own cheese. Yes, it would be nice if they cooked their fries in tallow and lard. So write them and suggest it!! Give them links to the healthiness of the fats!! Be nice if they had sweet potato fries, too.

    • Yes, those of us who care about what we eat should email the restaurants about the quality of foods we’re looking for. I also think it helps if, every time you eat at a restaurant, you ask questions like “Do you have butter?” “Do you have cheddar cheese?” “Do you have organic wine, vegetables, grass fed beef . . .?” Since often the waiter must go back to the kitchen to get the answer, the word gets around that customers are wanting better quality and more options. The more times people ask these questions, the more likely there will be an influence on restaurant food, especially if, for example, when you ask about the fat for the fries, you don’t order them when you learn they use unhealthy fats like vegetable oil.

      I have been asking these questions sometimes but not often enough.

      There are restaurants which don’t have ANY butter at all! I try not to go back to those.

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