Photo taken by Gary Sheer
I spent a little over a week in New York City recently. We visited friends, saw the sights, went to museums, and ate tons of delicious food! But let me tell you, I have gained a completely new level of respect for those of you in the community who live in NYC (check out Laura from Trash is for Tossers, for an amazing example). I produced more trash in a week there than in the previous seven months of attempting to go zero waste!
I had a much tougher time getting people to listen to my "no straw, please!" request, and food at restaurants would appear wrapped in all kinds of nonsense before I knew what was happening.
I attribute part of this to the fact that we were eating out A LOT. At home in Denver almost all of our meals are home made, and it's easy to bring a coffee mug out for beverages. But being out an about and not wanting to take up our kind friends' tiny kitchens, we were eating out for almost every meal.
I'm also not quite up to the NYC speed of things, maybe if I had a little more umph behind my request and looked a little less like I fell out of the CO mountains I'd have some more success. Then again, maybe it is just legitimately way harder to make this happen in the city.
So my attempts ins NYC did not go so swimmingly, I guess I'll have to give it another shot soon!
However, I was taken to one zero-waste friendly restaurant by a friend! It was an awesome, small Pho joint in Brooklyn. The only non-zero waste friendly item was the paper napkin with the place setting. However, they had reusable chopsticks (my friend had legitimately not seen that anywhere in the city before), nothing came in plastic/styrofoam, and there wasn't a straw in sight! Also the waitress there was outrageously nice and helpful.
The name of this glorious place was Falansai, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in a more minimal-waste dining experience in NYC. They are also vegan and vegetarian friendly!
Falansia, 112 Harrison Place, Brooklyn, NY 11237