image courtesy Otarian
DCL
I was a "hungry vegetarian" Otarian founder Radhika Oswal tells me when I ask why, with no restaurant or food service background at all, she wanted to start a chain of fast food restaurants.
"When I was traveling with my husband I couldn't find anything but french fries and pizza," she goes on to say. "I said to my husband, 'we should start a chain.' Obviously he didn't know I was serious, because he said yes."
And when that yes comes from billionaire Pankaj Oswal, chairman of Burrup Holdings Ltd. in Australia, operator of one of the world's largest ammonia production facilities, you know the financial side of things just got a bit easier.
That all was three years ago, when Radhika began what she now describes as her thesis. "Otarian is my PhD is vegetarianism and sustainability," she jokes.
The product of that research: Two restaurants in New York City (a Bleecker Street location opening April 19th and one near Columbus Circle at 8th Ave and 56th St, opening on the 23rd) plus two in London (Shaftesbury Ave and Wardour Street, opening dates TBD). Australia may come at a later date.
Global Vegetarian Cuisine, As Local As Possible The menu is lacto-vegetarian with a number of vegan dishes, but Radhika describes the restaurants as going beyond that. This isn't a chain of vegetarian restaurants, but a chain of sustainable restaurants, she tells me. "Sustainability can't be superimposed. It's got to be at the foundation of what you do."
From the food, which is "a global cuisine, with as local as possible ingredients", to the design and construction of the stores, to the packaging, which is all recyclable and compostable, to the corporate target of having a 98% recycling and composting rate, the goal is truly the bigger picture of sustainability--which vegetarianism is but just one component.
Which brings us to the headline hook.
We've Left No Stone Unturned in Carbon Labelling Every menu item at Otarian has a whole string of numbers after it beyond the price. The carbon content of the item, the amount saved versus a similar meat dish, and the carbon footprint of that meat dish. "We've left no stone unturned and presented the information in a very layman-friendly way," she adds
I like the idea, making the abstract apparent, but will people care? Radhika says, "If I tell you our TexMex burger has a kilogram of carbon it doesn't mean too much to you. But if I tell you that a beef burger is three kilograms of carbon and you have an offset of two kilograms, that means something. If you don't understand what those two kilograms mean in terms of overall emissions, it means something in the sense that you understand you've saved something in a particular unit that means something in the world."
Parsing the numbers more, trying to make the carbon footprint impact even more clear, Otarian has a number of "Carbon Saving Combos" on the menu--meal combinations each of which saves you at least three kilograms of carbon compared to their meat counterparts.
"What's really big is that three kilograms of carbon is equivalent to the amount emitted by driving 21 miles in an eco-car or 7 miles in a normal car, and is more than the average person's journey to work every day."
Do nothing else but eat a veggie meal and you've offset the impact of your commute. Not too bad.
Does Anyone Care About Carbon Labelled Food? Still somewhat skeptical that people beyond a somewhat self-selected vegetarian community (of which I consider myself a member) I ask how people will respond to the labeling. Radhika explains that in London, where supermarket chain Tesco has already started carbon labeling, people are far more used to this. But in the United States, this is quite new.
Which is certainly true. And breaking out beyond the existing vegetarian community, which is really essential to bring about the type of dietary transition needed to literally and metaphorically cash in on the carbon labeling, probably is one of the biggest questions hanging out there.
Besides the food itself... I'm not a food critic by trade, but certainly know my way around world vegetarian cuisine both as a cook and patron, and in the realm of fast food, Otarian more than delivers the goods. If you don't know where to start, I suggest the Sweet Potato Chiplets (decidedly not soggy like sweet potato fries can sometimes be thanks to a special bread crumb mixture developed for Otarian) and Tandoor Mushroom O Panner Wrap (and try to keep a straight face while saying 'O' in the middle of ordering it).
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[i]Radhika Oswal at Otarian grand opening party in New York. Photo: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Otarian. Images courtesy Otarian.
