One MICHELIN Star and Green Star BRUTØ has been a trailblazer for sustainable dining in Colorado. With the restaurant’s mixed beverage pairing, guests enjoy anything from cocktails to ciders, sakes to wine. Led by General Manager Suzanne Roberts and Director of Beverage (and MICHELIN Guide Colorado 2023 Exceptional Cocktails Winner) Caroline Clark, zero waste is the centerpiece of their satisfying beverage offering.
At BRUTØ, there is no back-of-house: only an oven and butcher block in the center, surrounded by guests. Without any barriers between the chef, the bartender, and the diner, there is unparalleled cohesion and communication between everyone.
Roberts explains of chefs and bartenders, “they're always working directly across from each other at that big island. So whether during service or during prep, there's always the conversation happening. ‘What part of that ingredient are you not going to need? How can we utilize that together as a team?’”
Sustainability is part of BRUTØ's core ethos, and the team's ease of communication makes zero-waste so much more attainable. Clark explains, “we very much operate with a cross utilization mentality between our kitchen and bar. Our goals around zero waste are a huge piece of that, as well as our work with regenerative farmers and the regenerative green movement in Colorado. That oftentimes finds itself in the preservation movement, whether that's fermentation processes, koji inoculation and preservation, or dehydration. That's a massive piece of sharing ingredients between the bar and the kitchen.”
One example is a pea dish featuring snap peas from Esoterra, a local farm, paired with a drink made of lovage (vegetable) fizz, mezcal verde, Faccia Brutto Fernet, Oaxacan rum, egg white, and lemon juice. To reduce waste, the drink’s garnish is leftover, recycled dehydrated pea pulp dust.
Another is their cantaloupe. Roberts says, “the bar is taking all of the cantaloupe rinds and the pulp with seeds that [the kitchen is] not using. We're dehydrating the pulp, using that as a powder. The rinds are going into a solution to make a brine that we're putting into a martini for our pairings.”
Cider also shines on the menu. “We have so many apple trees in Colorado. We can get sugar, acid, and complex flavors from the apples,” explains Clark. Working with Haykin Family Cider, the beverage is used in cocktails and sometimes as a pairing by itself.
Spirits like sotol also replace less sustainable alcohol. She says, “our proximity to the Southwest, we can work with sotol, which is a really important spirit right now, especially as agave has some sustainability issues.”
All offerings change depending on the time of year. Clark adds, “the seasons are always going to drive. Honesty and rawness with the ingredients – making sure that as the seasons move, preservation goes to work, so that there's always a pantry of interesting vinegars and mirins and shrubs available.” Going into the colder months, the team is looking at charred onion, wheat, rice, and corn.
At the end of the day, creativity is always at work, and the team is unafraid to approach things in a different way. “In the bar world, there's lots of rules and books that explain how you're supposed to break down a drink and think of the percentages,” explains Clark. “Ultimately, anything is possible. When we're testing, we're looking for structural things like acidity, tannin. We're trying to find how spice and how roasted and all these different flavors work together.
Through all of these efforts, the result is exactly what guests are looking for: “it’s being able to tell the story of what's happening in Colorado.”
Hero image: Jeff Fierberg / BRUTØ
