Click on the Ocean Friendly Restaurants program on the Surfrider Foundation website, and you'll see businesses that have earned the nonprofit's seal of approval. Restaurants participating in the program must adopt seven protocols to reduce or eliminate the use of single-use plastics, as well as three of eight optional measures, like offering vegetarian, vegan or sustainable seafood menu items. If you scroll down to the map and zoom in on our county, only two Ocean Friendly restaurants pop up: Six Rivers Brewery and Gyppo Ale Mill.
Meredith Maier, co-owner of Six Rivers Brewery, which has been in the program since 2017, says joining was "kind of easy because we were instituting those practices." That includes setting out only reusable dishes and utensils for dining in, paper straws only on request and not selling drinks in plastic bottles. Takeout doesn't go in polystyrene or plastic bags, and customers must ask for paper straws, condiments and single-use utensils. And, of course, you've got to recycle properly. As a Platinum Member, Six Rivers Brewery also checks off all eight optional criteria. "I feel really proud smacking that Surfrider seal on there. Especially for a restaurant like ours with a beautiful view of the ocean, it's important to us," she says.
Jennifer Savage, senior manager for Surfrider's Plastic Pollution Initiative (and sometimes Journal freelancer), says the largely volunteer-led restaurant program, which dropped its membership dues and is now free, doesn't require major changes for most. "If you're a restaurant in California, you're probably meeting most of these [standards] anyway because state laws and lots of local ordinances have already eliminated things like polystyrene, plastic bags." But that doesn't mean the program is without impact. "We have more than 300 Ocean Friendly restaurants in the U.S., which translates to about 60,000 meals daily being served without plastic, so it's not insignificant."
Maier says with a chuckle, "We get these agave straws — they look horrible, they look like flypaper — but they're really cool, and they break down really easily." The straws indeed resemble unfortunate gluten-free bucatini, but they're not homely enough to put you off your Margarita. "When we couldn't get the straws that we wanted, we didn't have straws. And we got blowback about that, but we're not going to put out something we don't feel good about."
Owner-operator of Gyppo Ale Mill Julie Peacock, another Platinum Member who enjoys her own ocean view in Shelter Cove, echoes some of Maier's sentiments about the Surfrider requirements. "A lot of it was pretty easy for us as we get our fish locally and line caught," Peacock says, noting the lingcod and rockfish for the fish and chips are supplied by local fisherman Sam Stebnicki. That means rough weather can affect the menu, but she feels it's worth it.
"We don't have Styrofoam in the building," or plastic bags and straws, says Peacock, who offers paper bags, as well as plant-based forks and knives for takeout upon request and, for $6, reusable bamboo cutlery sets that come in little cloth pouches.
Given the option, Savage will take the bamboo. Even plant-based bioplastic "breaks down into microplastics — it still goes into the trash. There's not some magical place that bioplastic goes. ... at best, they end up in the landfill, which is not great." When possible, refilling and reusing, she says, are the way to go.
Cooking from scratch and making sparkling water on-site cuts down on containers in Gyppo Ale Mill's kitchen, and Peacock keeps plastic in mind when ordering supplies. "I go for bigger," she says, which generally comes out cheaper with less packaging.
The brewery side uses a new water system Peacock says is efficient and uses malt from Admiral Malting in Alameda, which sources raw materials close to its plant, though hops and other ingredients come from farther afield. "I actually push the growler more than the canned beer," she says. "Because I think some of the recycling processes don't always pencil out [in terms of carbon footprint] when we're shipping our recycling to another state."
Maier says she sees sustainable supplies getting cheaper, "but there's a lot of Styrofoam in town." Some of that is likely down to cost and habit, she says, as owners "get stuck in our day-to-day and you just buy what you always buy." But she sees the effects of the pandemic, too. Once service shifted to takeout and supplies became unpredictable, "Everyone was just using whatever they could get their hands on."
Pre-pandemic, Six Rivers was set up for composting waste from the brewery, kitchen and tables. But the cost of composting, especially with extra waste from the food trucks in the lot, Maier says, became untenable at roughly twice the cost of sending trash to a landfill. It's her hope to get back to the practice eventually. Along with the benefit to the environment, she says, "It was a great marketing tool for us."
Peacock agrees. "I feel like in California, we eat really well, we eat healthy, and people wanna know where their food comes from." Ingredients like grass-fed beef and organic chicken are important to her customers, and she sees positive feedback when the restaurant shares its sourcing and green practices on social media.
Savage says the Surfrider seal of approval is also "an effective tool for policy change because business owners are a powerful voice ... and it shows that you can be sustainable and economically viable." She's also one of those customers looking to dine in restaurants that offer service without a side of avoidable ecological damage.
"I love when I get a regular plate with metal foodware," says Savage. "Even if it's a budget-friendly option, I like it to be a nice experience, and there's nothing nice about eating with plastic."
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill (she/her) is the arts and features editor at the Journal. Reach her at (707) 442-1400, extension 320, or jennifer@northcoastjournal.com. Follow her on Instagram @JFumikoCahill and on Mastodon @jenniferfumikocahill.