Clean Plates Brooklyn 2012: A Guide to the Healthiest, Tastiest, and Most Sustainable Restaurants for Vegetarians and Carnivores

193 Pages·2011·29.357 MB·English

by  Jared Koch

THE ONLY NUTRITIONIST AND 2012
FOOD CRITIC APPROVED
bROOkLYN RESTAURANT GUIDE
It can be difficult to find a restaurant serving mouthwatering, delicious food
that is also good for you. Not anymore. Nutritionist Jared Koch and several
food critics teamed up to taste the town, selecting over 100 of the healthiest,
tastiest and most sustainable restaurants in Brooklyn—featuring organic,
hormone-free, antibiotic-free, locally sourced and eco-friendly food.
• Over 100 reviews
• A user-friendly nutrition guide packed with tips for eating healthier
• Easy to follow indexes of best date spots, cheap eats and more
Brooklyn
• Free online database with new restaurant updates from fast food to fine dining
• Clean Plates Mobile version available at cleanplates.com
• clean Plates is the perfect gift for yourself, your friends and your family
Jared’s nutritional advice in clean Plates has the
Power to transform your individual health and
our collective well-being. —deeP aK choPra, M.d.
Jared Koch graduated premed from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and
is a nutritional consultant and health coach certified by the Teachers College of B
Columbia University, the Global Institute for Alternative Medicine and the r
Institute for Integrative Nutrition. oo
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reviews Featuring Sarah Amandolare, n
Talia Berman, Jessica Colley, Jaclyn Einis,
Allix Geneslaw, Debbie Koenig, Scarlett
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Lindeman, Megan Murphy, Amy Sung
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cle an pl ates
Brooklyn 2012
a Guide to the
Healthiest tastiest
and Most sustainable
Restaurants for Vegetarians
and carnivores
By Jared Koch
Reviews by
Sarah Amandolare, Talia Berman, Jessica Colley,
jaclyn einis, Allix Geneslaw, debbie koenig,
Scarlett Lindeman, Megan Murphy, amy sung
DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical doctor, and nothing in this book is intended
to diagnose, treat or cure any medical condition, illness or disease. Anyone with
a specific medical condition should consult a physician.
© 2011 Jared Koch Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced or transmitted in Koch, Jared.
any form or by any means, electronic or Clean Plates Brooklyn : a guide to the
mechanical, including photocopying, healthiest tastiest and most sustainable
recording or by any information storage restaurants for vegetarians and
and retrieval system, without permission carnivores / by Jared Koch et. al. –
in writing from the publisher. Cliffside Park, NJ : Craving Wellness,
2011.
Published by Craving Wellness p. cm.
Cliffside Park, NJ ISBN 978-0-9821862-5-1
1. Food—Popular works.
Cover design by Jessica Arana 2. Diet—Popular works.
Interior design by Gary Robbins 3. Nutrition—Popular works.
4. Restaurants—New York (State)
Printed inCanada —New York.
I. Title.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 TX355 .K63 2011
641—dc22
2008940260
contents
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Acknowledgments
5
A Note from Jared
10
How to Use this Book
12
Restaurant Review Process and Criteria
17
Why Eat Healthier?
Design Your own Diet
22
The First Precept: Bio-Individuality
27
The Second Precept: Whole Foods
32
The Third Precept: Plant-Based Foods
48
The Fourth Precept: Animal-Based Foods
58
The Fifth Precept: Other Foods
69
Making it All Work
the restaurants
75
Clean Plates Brooklyn Featured Restaurant Reviews
180
Index
186
Glossary
acknowledGMents
My deepest gratitude, appreciation and respect to the following people,
without whom this book would not exist:
To all the chefs and restaurant owners dedicated to serving delicious
but healthier food. A special thanks to Dan Barber, Bill Telepan, Sarma
Melngailis, Debbie Covenagh, Amy Chaplin, Rene Duran, Melissa
O’Donnell and Michael Anthony for taking the time to be interviewed.
Angela Starks and Bunny Wong for all their help writing and editing
the nutritional content. Sarah Amandolare, Talia Berman, Jessica
Colley, Jaclyn Einis, Allix Geneslaw, Debbie Koenig, Scarlett Lindeman,
Megan Murphy, and Amy Sung for writing great reviews.
Jessica Arana for designing the logo and the book cover. Gary
Robbins for interior design and layout. The whole gang at Monaco Lange
for all of their invaluable suggestions.
Special thanks to Blake Appleby for always supporting, encouraging
and inspiring me and offering her insightful opinions. To all my family,
friends, teachers and clients who have contributed and enriched my life
in so many significant ways. Greg Monaco for his talents, perspective
and calm demeanor and for his invaluable advice every step of the way.
To Maji Chien, Niles Brooks Leuthold, and Laura Mordas-Schenkein
for all of their invaluable help and dedication.
And to Mat Zucker, Lynnda Pollio, Yvonne Roehler at Jenkins
Group, Kate Basrat, Ameet Maturu, Susan Banzon, Amy Bush, Angela
Davis, Chad Thompson, Sam Rosen at ThoughtLead, Peter Horjus,
Vera Svezia, Barry Flemming, Jeremy Funston, Lisa Vasher, Catherine
Cusamano, Mark Sclafani, Katherine Jamieson, Kathleen Spinelli,
Erin Turner, Michael Ellisberg, Nancy Weiser, Carey Peters, Brett
Lavender, Cassandra Caffaltas, Kim Blozie and especially Andrew
Cohen and everyone at EnlightenNext.
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a note fRoM JaRed
Welcome to Clean Plates brooklyn 2012. For those of you
already familiar with Clean Plates Manhattan, we hope you’re as excited
as we are to venture into Brooklyn. If this is your first experience with
Clean Plates, welcome!
Our first Brooklyn edition features over 100 of the healthiest,
tastiest, and most sustainable restaurants in this up-and-coming
food mecca. We’ve teamed up with some talented local Brooklyn
writers including Jaclyn Einis, Debbie Koenig, Sarah Amandolare,
and Amy Sung. This edition also features reviews from our beloved
Manhattan writers, including Talia Berman, Scarlett Lindeman
and Allix Geneslaw alongside two new critics, Megan Murphy and
Jessica Colley.
Eating healthier does not have to be challenging. Especially
in Brooklyn. Especially with this book. In fact, it can be an easy,
pleasurable and sacrifice-free adventure. I’ve created this book for
you—for New Yorkers and Brooklynites—with exactly that in mind.
Let’s face it: We dine out a lot. And restaurants can be bad-
eating minefields. Then again, who would say no if a delicious
antibiotic- and hormone-free steak or a plate of tasty organic
vegetables materialized in front of them? No one actually wants
to consume hormones, antibiotics or pesticides. It’s just that
searching for the good stuff takes time. Fortunately, it’s been done
for you, and with a one-two punch: every featured selection in
Clean Plates Brooklyn is a restaurant that offers both delicious and
nutritious fare. Rest assured because all were personally visited
and screened by myself, a nutritional consultant, along with one of
our talented food critics.
This book is about helping you make better, more informed
choices. In fact, it’s my intention that you actually will crave healthier
food after reading it. You’ll learn that there’s more than one right way
to eat—a theory called bio-individuality (Makes sense, right? After
all, do you wear the same clothes as all of your friends? Why should
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food be any different?). Sure, there’s a lot of nutritional information
out there, but talk about confusing. That’s why this guide provides
an easy-to-follow education about the most important foods you will
encounter when dining out. That way, you can use your knowledge to
implement the life-changing diet that’s right for you.
3 Ways you Can use This Book
• To find healthy tastier and healthier restaurants in your area.
• To learn how to change your eating habits when you dine out—and in.
• To transform your life by seeing how eating healthier can be pleasurable
and startlingly simple.
By now you’re probably asking yourself: Who is this guy? Why
should I listen to anything he says? Well, honestly, I’m not that
different from you. I want to be healthy so I can enjoy my life and
contribute to making the world a better place. Rather than bore
you with a long report about my life (you can learn more by visiting
cleanplates.com), I’ll touch on a few highlights for your peace of
mind.
After deferring my acceptance to medical school for a decade-
long stint as a successful entrepreneur, I decided that I needed to
figure out my health and happiness. As part of that journey, I not
only became a certified nutritional consultant, yoga instructor and
health coach but also healed myself from chronic irritable bowel
syndrome (IBS), fatigue and skin issues. I’m now a nutritional
consultant backed by eight years of immersing myself in the formal
study of nutrition—and five years of working with clients. I’ve had
some amazing teachers: Andrew Weil, M.D., Deepak Chopra and
Walter Willett, the head of nutrition at Harvard, in addition to many
experts in the fields of Raw Foods, Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda,
Macrobiotics, Vegetarianism and High-Protein Diets.
For my clients, and in this book, I synthesize those dietary
theories in an easy-to-use format—always keeping an open mind to
discovering the truth about what actually works for each individual.
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Thanks to my experiences, I’ve had several insights over the years
about how we eat, all of which I will be sharing in more detail in Clean
Plates Brooklyn:
•
Eating well is the easiest and best way (along with exercise and
perhaps meditation) to positively affect your health and improve
your quality of life.
•
Contrary to conventional wisdom, healthy eating can be enjoyable
and satisfying, free from the typical guilt and confusion we usually
feel in relation to eating.
•
No single way of eating works for everyone, but there is a healthy
way to eat that’s just right for you and your body.
•
A quick way to upgrade your well-being: Select higher-quality
versions of whatever foods you’re currently consuming, especially
when it comes to animal-based products.
•
To increase nutrient intake and boost immunity, start with food
that’s fresh (locally grown), non-toxic (organic) and mostly plant-
based (more vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds). Think of it as a tasty
trio—local non-toxic plants.
•
Reducing your intake of artificial, chemical-laden processed foods,
as well as sugar, caffeine and alcohol, will have you feeling better
immediately.
•
Making small improvements over time leads to significant change.
•
What’s good for you is usually good for the environment. Growing
food locally means less energy consumption. Organic items don’t
poison the earth. And a reduction in the demand for livestock frees
up vital resources.
•
It’s entirely possible to commit to values of health and conscious
consumerism and fully enjoy the pleasures of life and this wonderful
city. Why? Because, increasingly, tasty and healthy food is accessible
to everyone from vegans to carnivores.
One of the major reasons I wrote this book is that there’s a real lack
of helpful, well-organized information for people who wish to dine
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out mindfully and still enjoy the experience of eating. Sure, cooking
at home is important and many nutrition books offer delicious
recipes, but the truth is, we New Yorkers eat out a lot—it is part of
the culture. Our city boasts amazing chefs and a stunning variety
of cuisines; if you live here, it’s likely that restaurants are where you
get a huge proportion of your nourishment. During my preliminary
investigations, I noted a few gaps in the advice offered by other books
and websites: 1) It’s easy to find places that list vegan and vegetarian
establishments—but none adequately distinguish which spots are
healthy (not all are) or which would be appealing for non-vegetarians.
2) Few are dedicated to omnivores who would like to frequent places
that serve organic, local and sustainably-raised animal products,
and those that do exist tend to be confusing, poorly researched,
and neither comprehensive, nor screened for taste. That’s why I
created Clean Plates to be the most exceptionally well-researched,
comprehensive and easy-to-use guide that exists; I’m certain it will
help you navigate the ever-expanding maze of Brooklyn’s healthiest,
tastiest and most sustainable restaurants.
The main inspiration for this book, however, grew out of my
interactions with my clients. Several years ago, I began researching
“healthy restaurants” because I believed that I could both eat healthier
and enjoy the pleasures and diversity of this wonderful city. As I
shared my ever-growing list of healthier restaurants with my clients,
they actually started implementing changes and feeling better—a fact
that inspired me to thoroughly expand my research, hire an amazing
food critic, and set out to create Clean Plates. I learned from counseling
clients that real change calls for practical tools. I think of this book as
one of those significant tools.
This project is an extension of the work that I do with my clients:
a way to reach more people and contribute to a growing awareness of
healthy, responsible and sustainable eating. Together, let’s shatter the
myth that healthier eating is a sacrifice and prove that we can do it
without the guilt, inconvenience, boredom and sheer lack of long-term
success that characterize the usual diets.
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You see, eating clean food is admirable, but I am equally interested in
clean plates—the kind of food that makes you want to lick your dishes.
In good health,
Jared Koch
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