The Center Bistro is opening up again this August! I don’t know if this address is still current, but will be sure to update this information when I find out.

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]

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

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Bunna Coffee Tea & Market

7520 S. Rural Rd. Suite 12
Tempe, AZ. 85283
BunnaCoffee.com

Hopefully this will be the first of many reviews on AzSustainably of local restaurants that are trying to do their part to be ‘green.’ Although eating at home is probably the best way to eat ‘green’ (assuming you eat fresh and/or can get a hold of locally grown produce and you are not a tremendously wasteful person in the way you cook, etc) but eating out is fun! It is one of our main recreations (just ask our expanding waist lines and our thinning wallets). Finding a new and unique restaurant, coffee shop, or tea house just makes our day. What makes it even more exciting is when you can find all three in one shop and to top it all off they are independently owned and actually care about making a positive difference in the environment!

Besides being absolutely delicious, their wide variety of coffee and tea is organically grown and fair trade. We found Bunna on the Local First AZ website, saw what they were all about and convinced our friends Tori and Josh to meet us there. The brunch that they offer every weekend from 7am-2pm is made from as many locally grown and organic ingredients as possible and it was fantastic!! By purchasing their fresh produce locally they are avoiding the toll on the environment of transporting from across the globe as well as the energy and packaging that goes into frozen foods. Also, by going organic they are preserving the soils for future healthy agriculture along with avoiding all sorts of crazy pesticides and herbicides you would not want to be eating.

The atmosphere was relaxed and welcoming with cool artwork on the walls by local artists and a talented guitarist and singer playing. The seating was comfortable and the front counter was inviting, not at all pretentious as some cafes can be. It was not too loud to have great conversation and I can’t wait to go back again. They even have free wi-fi so if I need a place to get some work done online this is going to be the first place I head to.

I had the bowl of granola with strawberries and soy milk. They were extremely generous with the berries as most places really skimp on that and they are the best part! It was very tasty. I also had the jasmine green tea. I am a bit of a tea snob and with such a large variety of organic teas it was difficult to decide but I do adore good jasmine green tea. Tori ordered the White Peony tea and it was very tasty as well. I lucked out, again they were very generous with the tea. I loved that they had various sizes of mugs rather than paper, plastic or goodness forbid styrofoam cups. I had a large mug and there so many leaves in my bag I had four refills of hot water and it was still the perfect strength! James and Josh both expressed that the coffee was quite good, as well.

The boys, ironically, ordered the smallest portions with breakfast sandwiches that came on English muffins. They looked really yummy but for the price I would say try something else if you are coming with a big appetite. Tori had the veggie sandwich #2 and gave it two thumbs up. They have a ‘green’ outlook, amazing coffees and teas, good vegetarian options and everything was yummy. We would certainly return on a week day for some nearly guilt-free (in so far as it is organic and free-trade) teas and coffees and on the weekends for brunch. Go Bunna!

Very interesting article over at the guardian.co.uk about the global food price crisis and how one of the factors causing it is the switch from food crops to biofuel crops.

tens of thousands of farmers have switched from food to fuel production to reduce US dependence on foreign oil. Spurred by generous subsidies and an EU commitment to increase the use of biofuels to counter climate change, at least 8m hectares (20m acres) of maize, wheat, soya and other crops which once provided animal feed and food have been taken out of production in the US.

In addition, large areas of Brazil, Argentina, Canada and eastern Europe are diverting sugar cane, palm oil and soybean crops to biofuels. The result, exacerbated by energy price rises, speculation and shortages because of severe weather, has been big increases of all global food commodity prices.

Cameroon At least 24 people killed and 1,600 people arrested in February. Taxes slashed on food imports and public sector wages increased by 15%.

Indonesia 10,000 demonstrated outside the presidential palace in Jakarta after soya bean prices rose more than 50% in a month and more than 125% over the past year.

Egypt Seven people have died in fights or of exhaustion queuing for subsidised bread. Dairy products are up 20%, oil 40%.

Burkina Faso Riots in three towns after the government promised to control the price of food but failed.

Guinea Five anti-government riots over cost of living in past 18 months.

Pakistan Thousands of troops have been deployed to guard trucks carrying wheat and flour. [Read More]

Here’s some alternative biofuels to consider; these Arizona groups make biodiesel from waste vegetable oil.

AZ BioDiesel

Amereco BioFuels Corp

Desert BioFuels

Dynomite BioFuels Co-Op

Grecycle

Related Post: Biowar I: Why Battles over Food and Fuel Lead to World Hunger

If you’ve been to ASU’s main campus you’ve probably seen all the trees full of fruit and maybe assumed the school was using it in it’s cafeterias around campus. I guess not because I just ran across an article saying that some student groups have begun harvesting the fruit to be used around campus. I think it’s great that they are doing this and I hope it’s something that sticks. It makes sense that you’d use the fruit that growing right here. There is a good variety of trees there, navel, Seville and blood oranges, cumquats, limequats, lemons and pecans which are all organic. Thanks to the student group VegAware for doing all the hard work to make this happen!

Here’s the article about it at eCollege Times