A New Sustainable Restaurant Creates Parallels Across Time with Its Building’s Historic Origins

Green and Greens

Low- and no-volatile organic compounds were important considerations and Mygrant opted not to lacquer the tables with formaldehyde-based coatings. Furniture was carefully selected to prevent offgassing materials. Kitchen products are biodegradable, edible, occur in nature or are otherwise non-caustic, and GBS worked closely with Toral to develop a green-cleaning policy customized to match restaurant practices.

In addition to the efficiency of the HVAC system, LED and fluorescent fixtures reduce energy consumption, and the lighting system is 45 percent better than ASHRAE 90.1-2007 standards. Balancing lighting efficiency with restaurant lighting needs requires innovation, so the controls are on dimmers and segregated by zone to provide the precise lighting intensity appropriate to each section’s function.

To limit transportation impacts, GBS helped Raven & Rose develop an alternative transportation plan with incentives for employees who bike to work or use public transportation, such as a free annual bike tune-up or subsidies for public-transit passes. Employees who commute via alternative transportation can also participate in an annual raffle for a $100 gift certificate.

Mygrant instituted multiple measures that contribute to the welfare of the environment and her guests. A robust recycling program has employees recycling all plastic, glass and paper, so trash is very minimal. All food waste is collected and becomes feed for livestock or compost. Cooking oil is recycled into biodiesel.

“The owner is a huge advocate of seasonal eating, supporting local farms and letting the natural flavor of fresh food shine through in our menu, which is inspired by Irish and British countryside cooking,” Toral says. In fact, Mygrant’s own 40 chickens supply the restaurant with eggs, and lemons and pomegranates from her mother’s northern California farm flavor food dishes and cocktails.

Given that Ladd started his Portland fortune by selling alcohol, eggs and local produce, a clear symmetry exists between Ladd’s personal history and the restaurant. Mygrant’s team has enhanced the correlation by naming seven cocktails made from their own label bourbons after people who had significant influence in the history of the building, such as Caroline’s Fancy (named for Ladd’s wife), Sim’s Old Fashioned (named after one of Ladd’s best friends, Simeon Reed) and, of course, Ladd’s Manhattan (named for the man himself). “Many people who have lived here their entire lives know some things about Portland history, but few know anything about Ladd,” Toral asserts. “We want to bring his legacy back.”

PHOTOS: Raven & Rose

Retrofit Materials

Metal framing: Clark Dietrich
Gypsum board: ProRoc from CertainTeed Corp.
Joint tape: CertainTeed
Plywood: Weyerhaeuser
Wood doors: Lynden Door
Interior paint: Rodda Paint
Earth plaster: Porcelina from American Clay
Resilient flooring: Marmoleum from Forbo Flooring Systems
Carpet: Lees and Atlas Carpet Mills
Hardwood flooring: Emerson Hardwood Co. and Pioneer Millworks
Rubber flooring and wall base: Flexco
Tabletops: Viridian Reclaimed Wood
Zinc bar top: Bastille Metalworks
Leather tiles: Ecodomo
Tile: Pratt & Larson Ceramics
Bathroom wallcovering: Bradbury & Bradbury
Toilet accessories: Bobrick
Lighting circuits: Wattstopper
Fan-coil unit: Mitsubishi Electric
Natural-gas hot-water boiler: AERCO