Finally there is a place to enjoy organic cocktails without worrying about ingesting pesticide in your Margarita or fertilizers in your Cosmopolitan. New York City is home to America’s (and maybe the world’s) first USDA certified bar. GustOrganics is making headlines with their innovative planet-focused, sustainable approach to doing business. Alberto Gonzalez, owner of popular and ultra-eco-hip GustOrganics restaurant – with their slogan ‘changing the world one meal at a time’ - has recently opened a sustainable, 100% organic bar. We caught up with the Argentinean native Gonzalez to ask him a few questions about organic cocktails and find out just what is involved in running a sustainable business.
Why did you decide to open a sustainable, organic bar?
I decided to open an all organic bar as the natural continuation of our all-organic and green restaurant. Our vision is to bring organics and sustainability into the mainstream and I believe organic drinks are important for our communities. Also, the idea of enjoying drinks free of chemicals, artificial flavors, and having drinks made out of fresh fruits and vegetables is in fact much healthier for us and at the same time much better to the environment.
All drinks at GustOrganics are completely free of chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, artificial flavors, enhancers, etc.
What makes the bar sustainable?
In terms of resources we use wind power only, we built our restaurant without using chemical paint, with only recycled woods (recovered from barns), the most efficient kitchen and refrigeration equipment that we were able to source, we print everything on 100% recycled paper with soy ink, we recycle and compost, (back and front of the house), during the day 70% of the light is solar, we use LED bulbs and low consumption bulbs, we have water preservation methods, we use biodegradable packaging for delivery, catering, etc, our cleaning products are bio based and green, etc. This means that our operational practices have a lot less impact on the environment.
How is the bar organic?
We have only USDA certified organic spirits, wines and beers. All these products are produced according to the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) NOP (National Organic Program). On top of this, our cocktails are made featuring fresh organic fruits and vegetables. All drinks at GustOrganics are completely free of chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, artificial flavors, enhancers, etc, etc. Therefore, they are good for our health (as good as an alcoholic drink can be…) good for the community and good for the planet. Every single ingredient or spirit we use is produced according to the USDA NOP, this therefore guarantees that downstream in the value chain from all our suppliers the impact to the environment is significantly reduced because they use the same standards we use.
Do you think the USA is ready for an organic bar?
I think USA is completely ready for an organic bar, (there are some other bars that claim to be organic in the country, but we are the first to be certified USDA which means that we are being audited for our quality standards so there is no room for mistakes or misunderstandings in terms of the meaning of organic…).
New Yorkers are very sophisticated consumers. Most of them are very educated and they know that we must do things that make sense for the environment and to our health. On top of that, people in general are looking to support businesses that are responsible in terms of the environment, because they like to be more responsible with their consumptions habits.
The only two ingredients that are not organic are the water & salt.
Besides the above, I see a huge shift in business models, in my opinion, the movers and shakers in our communities are developing a fine sensitivity to discriminate business that are stepping into the green wave to sell more of the same old stuff and businesses that are truly committed to make a change through integrity and good values in their practices.
Finally, organics are the future and people tend to sense that, even when some of them are not able to afford them… In fact at GustOrganics we support the organic cause - the more people who can afford to consume organics, then the organic prices will eventually come down and more people will be able to afford organics and so on.
Are all the drink ingredients organic?
100% of our ingredients are not only organic but they are also USDA certified organic. (This means that the USDA is auditing every single one of our suppliers to assure their good farming / manufacturing practices.)
The only two ingredients that are not organic are the water & salt (because they are minerals and by definition cannot be organic). We use sun dried sea salt only and that means no additives. We have our pure water that is NYC water run through a UV lamp that kills all the bacteria and after that we run it through a top notch purification system that takes out all the bad metals keeping the good minerals.
Do the drinks cost more?
Our special signature drink prices are around $12/$13 each so that is an average price for a quality drink in NYC. However, our cost are greater than a regular drink because of our high quality ingredients. Since our vision is to bring organics into mainstream we do not translate our cost directly into the prices. We depend on our community’s support to be financially alive. On Saturday nights, from 10pm to 2am we are offering our all-organic drinks at 2 for 1 price in order to promote sustainable drinking and we bring a DJ that plays some deep house and lounge music.
For some mysterious reason everything that makes sense to the environment and to human beings is more expensive in USA.
What is the most popular cocktail so far?
Honestly there are many that are extremely popular. It is impossible for me to mention just one…
Dulce de Leche Martini featuring dulce de leche, espresso coffee and vodka; Pura Vida Daiquiri, with strawberries, bananas & Rum; fruit drinks like the Fresquito: fresh mangos, fresh squeezed orange juice & vodka; and Rojito which features fresh strawberries, oranges and vodka. Another unique offering are the bar’s specialty fresh organic vegetable drinks such as: the Basil Daiquiri, and the Pepino which features fresh cucumbers.
Taking a guess I would say the most popular are Rojito, Pepino and Basil Daiquiri…
Are there any areas you are struggling to green?
It is always tough just for financial reasons. For some mysterious reason everything that makes sense to the environment and to human beings is more expensive in USA. Anyways, from operational standpoint we are really doing everything as green as possible and we have no areas that are weak.
Any future green plans?
GustOrganics all organic and sustainable bar will also be mobile from December onwards. We are in the process of building a wooden counter (from recovered barn materials) so we will soon offer all our organic cocktails, wines and beers for corporate events and private parties. We will be able to bring our fruit & vegetable drinks everywhere in New York.
The next project is called The GustOrganics Water project. This will be a very innovative project about the water. I cannot give you much detail at this point because this is a work in progress, but water is the most important human resource after oxygen and it is getting scarcer.
In closing...
I would say that the most important aspect of GustOrganics is that we are not just a profit-driven business model. That means we look for profits but only as a consequence of doing the right things first. We are not willing to betray our values at all and maintain this integrity on every single decision we make. Hopefully we will get to good results in the long term. Time will tell if doing things this way is sustainable in America. So far so good...
Visit: http://www.gustorganics.com/
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