Looks like they closed up shop. R.I.P.

The Center Bistro
21 East 6th Street, Suite 114
Tempe, AZ 85281 • 480.491.5591
- Hours of Operation -
Sun-Thurs 11am-10pm
Fri-Sat 11am-Midnight

Increasingly in the downtown Tempe area surrounding the ASU campus the charm of small local restaurants and businesses is being wiped away for a more corporate, polished, and I would argue, cold and unwelcoming feel. I have walked past The Center many times with its great location near my preferred parking garage and Borders. I ignorantly dismissed it as another new kid on the block taking up space in the area that used to be home to some of my favorite little mom and pop places now replaced by chains. Don’t let its new brick exterior and chain store neighbors fool you, this place is locally owned, has all the charm of its local predecessors with some artsy-polish and serves Earth-friendly organic dishes.

We decided to go there on a whim, wanting to try something new and environmentally friendly. Not knowing what to expect and seeing their prices were moderately steep we got gussied up and headed to Tempe. Their menu is vegan/vegetarian friendly allowing for substitutions of tofu for any of the meat dishes. They specialize in beautiful salads and sandwiches, vegan desserts and some darn good smoothies! As we were seated we were each greeted with a shot of their strawberry-peach-mango smoothie, or ‘Karmic Colada.’ It was so great we ordered a full sized version along with the banana-blueberry-spirulina. The banana one was far sweeter and I liked knowing I was getting all of the nutrition from the spirulina but while it was really yummy I preferred the strawberry. I was so impressed with their smoothies I will make a point of returning just for them.

Even their drinks are organic! I had some organic iced green tea that was quite good while James had an organic pear cider. They had a small but good looking selection of teas I would like to try at some point, including a spiced chai (both green and black), mint, breakfast black, and a couple of good looking greens. They also had fresh lemonade, Mexican coffee, and a wide variety of organic beers and wines.

Our meal started with the baked organic coconut tofu and blackened organic tempeh tower. Not only was this sculpturesque creation beautiful, it was delicious, nutritious and environmentally sound! Reminiscent of Jamaican jerk-spices with a twist of grapefruit-yuzu, this kicked off our special occasion with style and taste. Next up was the main meal… after smoothies and protein packed appetizer we were pretty full but the incredible presentation and scent was more than enough to lure us into gluttony.

Their miso soup is vegan and fantastic. Not too “fishy” from the vitamin-packed sea weed but just right. The salad, with its fresh baby greens, artfully spiraled carrots and sprouts in an amazing ginger-soy dressing was too good to be true!

I ordered the organic wild mushrooms sandwich with spring lettuce, fresh dill, organic olive oil and garlic, vegan cream cheese and power green pesto. The dill made this baby something really special, subtle so it didn’t knock your socks off but it acted as the perfect unexpected flavor that made me think for just a moment – what is it that is so great about this?! Dill!!

James substituted tofu in place of beef on the free range organic roast beef sandwich with fresh organic beets, organic spring lettuce, house mayo, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar reduction, with Mainland Farms white cheddar. Who would think to put beets on a sandwich? It looked amazing and James was very pleased with his choice. Aron, James’ brother, ordered the salmon sandwich, wild salmon filet with organic heirloom tomatoes, daikon radish shreds and horseradish black sesame aioli. He was also quite pleased. 3 for 3!

As if we were not stuffed enough…. they have organic vegan cheesecake!! Now how often do you have this option? It would be a sin to deny such an amazing treat, right? It was, just as all of their dishes, beautifully presented and tasty as could be with a lighter texture than a conventional cheesecake. They also had other vegan dessert options so I will certainly be back for.

What makes The Center a green place to go? They are mostly organic, so what? When we eat organic foods not only are we avoiding ingesting the potentially harmful pesticides and herbicides that go into conventional crops, we are supporting sustainable agricultural practices. Organic farming promotes better treatment of the soils which means they will be healthy and supportive of tomorrow’s crops for our kids and theirs. It is also important that they have a focus on vegan options. The meat and dairy industries, particularly from the factory farming practices due to their highly concentrated population of critters, contribute a huge amount of methane (a green house gas) not to mention the requirement for huge amounts of water, land, and crops to feed them (and the water and land required for those crops!) and the fuel to truck them, living and dead, across the country. (Click here to read “Rethinking the Meat Guzler” from the NY Times for more info) There are controversies around soy at the moment regarding rain forest being cleared for lucrative soy crops, however, those are being resolved and the U.S. is the number one producer of soy.

I can’t say enough about the Center. The artwork was beautiful, the food was fantastic, and the service was amazing. I will be back soon and encourage anyone wanting to support a local green restaurant to head over there as soon as you have the chance!

[The Center Cafe/Bistro]

Removed due to request by Invest Green’s compliance office.

The Memorial Union at ASU’s Tempe campus was damaged by fire last November and as part of the clean up they are going to do some renovations with a focus on sustainability. This is exciting news, I can’t wait to see what it looks like when the construction is finished next Fall.

“We had to repair the fire damage. Why not use the opportunity to upgrade the building as well?” she said.

ASU spokeswoman Leah Hardesty added that many of the University’s efforts will focus on sustainability.

The University will be going for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification in commercial interiors, she said.

LEED certification is given to buildings that have achieved high degrees of sustainability in terms of construction that recycles and reuses materials and buildings that make use of energy-efficient designs and appliances, among other factors.

The new dining facility is tentatively named the Starlight Terrace and Eco-Fresh Café, Lowe said.

The restaurant will make use of local organic foods and environmentally friendly practices such as recycling.

“We’re still mostly conceptualizing on the Starlight Terrace,” Hardesty said. “But we do know it will be entirely sustainable.”

[ASU Webdevil]

More about the environmental costs of bottle water from Tucson’s KUAT 6. Follow the link to see the video.

Read the rest of this entry »

This might not be something that is happening in Arizona, but behaviors and successful sustainability practices in major industries affect us all. In the particular case of the movie and television industry, financial support comes from the entire world and Arizona’s money matters. For this reason, you may be interested in some of the environmental practices of production studios.

This 2006 report titled, “Sustainability in the Motion Picture Industry” (PDF) was commissioned by the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) to review the movie and television industry and find some of the successful sustainability practices already in place. It is worth noting that although this is a public project funded for $170,000, the CIWMB claims full copyright of the report and does not allow reproduction of it in any form. The excerpts reproduced here are done so in Fair Use in order to comment on and review the report.

The Principle Investigators of this report are Dr. Charles J. Corbett, Professor in the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and Dr. Richard P. Turco, Professor in the UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

The authors used interviews and case studies to learn about “best practices” within the movie and television industry between Summer 2003 and Spring 2005. The goal was to present this information in a clear fashion that would make it easier for the industry to make these best practices more commonplace. The reason for studying the movie/TV industry is that it is highly decentralized. A studio decides to pay for a film or television show, but it is the production team that finds an assortment of other individuals and businesses to help put it together. The argument is that other industries are starting to outsource more and therefore they can learn a lot from the practices of this industry.

Read the rest of this entry »