How Restaurant Olivia Reduces Waste and Compost in Denver

Balancing the often razor-thin margins of a restaurant operation and the desire to serve an environmentally sustainable and premium quality product is a delicate dance, and one that the owners of Restaurant Olivia know all too well.

“At the end of the day, that’s our kid’s name on the door,” says Austin Carson, who (with wife Heather Morrison and chef Ty Leon) owns the pasta-focused, Michelin Guide-recommended spot in Denver’s Washington Park neighborhood. “As a driver of decision-making with respect to legacy, [sustainability] has been a component of how we've approached the business since the beginning. And as much as maybe we would like to be a nonprofit — we're not.”

The trio opened Olivia (named for Morrison’s daughter) just seven weeks before the pandemic tore through the industry, and although survival was the first priority, sustainability was an immediate second. “When we opened, we were ahead of the game just by recycling,” says Morrison. “Then we added composting, which had a huge impact, keeping food out of the landfill. Then [bartender and server] Rachel Whimpey taught us ‘refuse.’”

Lobster spaghetti — the most popular dish — came off the menu. “It came in styrofoam, and was the most irresponsible thing we could do,” explains Morrison. “Shipping lobsters to be kept alive and cold … we didn't want that carbon footprint, and we took it off the menu. That was the ‘refuse’ part of the cycle. And people can do it.”

Now the restaurateurs have upped their eco-commitment, hiring industry veteran Paula Thomas as director of sustainability. A former pastry chef, Thomas worked with Slow Food International and earned a master’s degree in World Food Cultures and Mobility at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. She oversees day-to-day sustainability efforts for Olivia and is planning for sister restaurant Emilia, which will open later this year.

“[My studies] were my most depressing year,” admits Thomas. “Because we got into the nitty-gritty of how our food is produced, how much exploitation there is, the environmental impact, the social impact … trade policy, water usage, all these things. I just kept thinking, ‘I want to do this in a way that I can make an impact. How can I do that?’ I feel like here is the one place I can actually make a difference.”

Making that difference involves seeking out and liaising with sustainable suppliers and organizations, checking with Seafood Watch when selecting fish and sourcing from the Rye Resurgency Project, which helps small farmers in Colorado’s San Luis Valley market grains that promote soil health while requiring less water than some other crops. “Our focaccia now uses some rye, and some of the pastas here and there,” says Thomas. “I’d like to start growing koji on it. Rye is a great grain, and it tastes delicious.”

The products of Thomas’s waste-reduction efforts are innovative and delicious. The kitchen ferments spent lemons and the skins and seeds from Kabocha squash into misos and vinegars, rhubarb and ginger trimmings into zesty kombucha, and transforms fibrous pea shells into wildflower seed-embedded papers, which are given to diners as a parting gift.

“Compost is heavy and expensive,” she says. “We’re taking something that would end up in many places in the trash…in the landfill, not even in the compost. Then we create different flavors that are unique to us, because we made them here with things that would otherwise be wasted.”

Creating ingredients from what would be composting fees allows for indulgence in more expensive items such as fair trade vanilla, sugar, and chocolate. “Better ingredients with a better impact — products that are helping ecosystems,” says Thomas.

Carson feels the costs of sustainability need more discussion. “The rubber meets the road with the economics,” he says. “Part of our mission is to kind of problem-solve around these issues and put other people in a position to not have to go through growing pains that we did. The economics have to work: We still have employees to pay, we still need to pay fair rates or fair prices to producers for the things that they're selling us. Our sustainability isn’t just a goal. It’s a commitment to creating a dining experience that reduces our environmental impact while fostering a healthy, thriving community. And none of that happens if we…don't advance the conversation about how to do all of this in a financially sustainable capacity.”