Business Is Greener At The Grille Zone
New Boston restaurant incorporates ecologically sound products and practices on a grand scale.
Jaime Lackey

Ecofriendly restaurant The Grille Zone plans nine restaurants over the next few years.

Ben Prentice and Barry Baker set out to create a great restaurant that serves fresh American food. Along the way, they decided to investigate environmentally friendly initiatives that they could incorporate in the restaurant, and they found that it isn’t so difficult to be green.

From buying locally to investing in energy-efficient equipment and composting waste, Prentice and Baker have created a green business model that is gaining a lot of attention. And their food is getting great reviews in online forums.

Grille Zone is located at 1022 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, across the street from Boston University. At 1,800 square feet, it seats 25 and it features an open kitchen so guests can see the cooking line.

The restaurant is the first (and only) certified green fast food restaurant in the U.S., according to the Green Restaurant Association’s web site.

The concept is actually more quick-casual, Prentice says. The entrées are made from locally processed meats and produce that is purchased from local suppliers, whenever possible. Fresh, never-frozen meats are served as half-pound char-grilled hamburgers, quarter-pound char-grilled hot dogs, char-grilled chicken sandwiches and wings. The menu also features Caesar salads and made-from-scratch veggie burgers. Sandwiches are served on fresh, locally baked rolls.

“We want to serve fresh product so we purchase it from as close by as possible,” Prentice says.

Recycling and composting are important parts of the business model for The Grille Zone.

Using local suppliers also has the happy consequence reducing the carbon footprint of the food items served in the restaurant, Prentice adds. He explains that serving local products reduces the number of trucks on the road. He notes, “The energy we save by purchasing local bread products over the course of a year is enough to drive a Prius from New York to Boston and back 61 times.”

Energy expenditures required for each meal have also been reduced because the restaurant serves meats that have never been frozen. “We don’t even own a freezer, except for a four-tub dipping cabinet for locally made ice cream,” Prentice says.

Grille Zone uses three of the most energy-efficient fryers that are manufactured. “We’re the first restaurant in the U.S. to use them,” Prentice says. The company also uses an energy-efficient char-grill, an energy-efficient icemaker and energy-efficient refrigerators.

The bathrooms have energy-efficient hand-dryers and low-flow toilets. The décor features “green” elements including recycled upholstery fabric, cabinetry with design elements made from wheatboard, recycled tables and chairs that have been repainted, and large pieces of galvanized metal that have been salvaged from old barns.

The company also uses energy-efficient light bulbs and napkins made from 40 percent post-consumer content.

Disposable plates, forks and cups are made from wheat starch, cornstarch and the residue from sugar cane — and they compost within 60 days.

Almost all waste from the restaurant goes to a compost facility or is recycled. The restaurant only fills half of a 55-gallon bag with trash each day. (Prentice says a typical restaurant of the same size fills 12 55-gallon bags with trash each day.)

In the future, Prentice hopes to reduce even this amount of trash as new products become available and prices become more competitive. Currently, he says, there are no food-handling gloves made of compostable material. And it is cost-prohibitive to use compostable food wrap material and trash bags so the company is still using plastic. 

While the green focus may raise initial costs 10 to 15 percent, Prentice says that some initiatives pay for themselves very quickly. For example, cost-benefit analysis predicts that the extra cost of the fryers will be recouped with energy cost savings in about 18 months.

According to Prentice, a lot of customers are coming to check out the new “green” restaurant. “Because of the extreme nature of what we’re doing, we’ve had a lot of publicity,” he says. “People are coming to see what we’re doing and we’re hooking them with great food and great service.”

It cost $400,000 to start up this restaurant. Annual sales are projected at $1 million to $1.2 million.

Prentice and Baker plan to open nine more Grille Zone restaurants within 5 years. The company’s initial growth is likely to be focused on Boston and then in Albany, New York. Prentice expects future restaurants to be slightly larger in size — 2,000 to 3,000 square feet and seating 40 to 50 people. In urban areas, they are looking for heavy foot traffic during the weekdays, nights and weekends. In suburban areas, they are looking for endcaps in strip centers and local household incomes that average $55,000 or higher. They also want to be near strong dining, retail and entertainment centers that draw visitors to the area.

“We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished and we look forward to multiplying our efforts as we open more restaurants,” Prentice says.