How to Tell If a Restaurant Sells ‘Good Food’

At a time when every other restaurant is touting “farm-to-table” and perhaps just as many restaurateurs are running from scandal, it can be hard to answer the question: Where to dine out this evening? Boulder-based Sara Brito hopes to help answer this seemingly small dilemma (at least the farm-to-table part) with her year-old program that tracks restaurant dollars spent in the “good food” economy.

The Good Food 100 Restaurants List works along the lines of the Fortune 500, only restaurants report their spending to get a rating or at least a mention for transparency in food sourcing. Last year when Brito, a former Slow Food NYC board member, launched the project, 90 chefs and restaurants participated around the country. They received ratings in the form of links on a food chain — six is the highest score, based on their sourcing of sustainable grains, dairy, seafood, meat, fruits and vegetables, and other ingredients. Of the 30 participating restaurants from Colorado, 15 received the highest rating (see the list below). All of the restaurants contributed to $68.1 million spent around the country in 2016 on good food purchases.

Brito wants 60 more restaurants to step up this year and take the survey. It’s already caught on with nationally recognized chefs such as Rick Bayless (Frontera, Topolobampo), Hugh Acheson (Five & Ten), and Suzanne Goin (AOC, Lucques). The Kitchen Restaurant Group, Fruition and Mercantile, River & Woods, and The Regional are among the highest rated restaurants in Colorado for good food. Here is a list of the rest of the 15 top Colorado scorers. And, who knows, maybe soon there will be another local resource tracking safe restaurants that promote positive workplace culture. Just saying.

The 2017 Good Food 100 top Colorado restaurant scorers:

• Basta
• Beast + Bottle
• Colterra
• Fooducopia
• Frasca
• Fresh Thymes
• Fruition
• Julia’s Kitchen
• Mercantile
• Next Door
• River & Woods
• Sazza
• The Kitchen
• The Regional
• Wild Standard

• Colorado-Born Restaurant Rating System Launches With National Support [EDEN]