Restaurant Fights Food Waste by Lowering Prices

Restaurant Fights Food Waste by Lowering Prices

This restaurant found a solution to the billion-dollar problem of restaurant food waste — it lowers its prices until everything is sold. Darcy MacDonell is the owner of Toronto's Farmhouse Tavern. Every Sunday, Farmhouse Tavern has a promotion called “F Mondays.” It runs from 3 p.m. until 10 p.m. The specials change every hour — from $3 mimosas and $4 salads to half-price drinks, appetizers, and entrees. The strong language stems from owner Darcy MacDonell's lifelong dread of the coming workweek and how, in the restaurant business, quiet Sundays lead to either tossing away food or freezing it. Because he is steadfast that "freshness is omnipotent," refrigerating unserved items and corking wine bottles are not options.

That philosophy led MacDonell to create Farmhouse's compelling offer: Come thumb your nose at Monday by enjoying an affordable evening that'll help us finish our food and drink. Chef Ashley MacNeil also finds ways to repurpose ingredients into new dishes. Food waste is a major problem in the restaurant industry. In the U.S., restaurants generate 11.4 million tons of food waste each year — at a cost of $25 billion according to ReFED. As the restaurant is closed Monday through Wednesday, freshness is part of its ethos.

Farmhouse relies on chalkboard menus, the better to cross off dishes as the night goes on. On Sunday, there's eighty-sixing on the central board. When that happens, all eyes turn to the server reaching over or around diners to cross off an item. Those dramatic erasures also create some urgency to find solutions in food waste.

Brut.