The Sustainable Restaurant of the Year category represented a ‘wide national spread’

London’s Grain Store has won the Sustainable Restaurant of the Year 2013 title at the National Restaurant Awards. The Sustainable Restaurant Association, judging the category, found the Grain Store’s vegetables, meat and fish were ‘impeccably sourced’ and its kitchen features technology to monitor energy efficiency and performance.

7 October 2013 – Grain Store crowned Sustainable Restaurant of the Year at National Restaurant Awards

Grain Store has been named National Restaurant Awards (NRA) Sustainable Restaurant of the Year 2013, by the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA).

Bruno Loubet’s new restaurant in King’s Cross, which only opened in July, was placed ninth on the NRA’s Top 100 list and its outstanding efforts to operate sustainably across all areas of the business shone through in its Sustainability Rating. Grain Store’s ‘veg-centric’ menu clearly distinguishes it from last year’s winner, The Pig, in the New Forest, which it pushed into second place this time.

The SRA invited all of the Top 100 restaurants, voted for by the NRA academy, to put their sustainability to the test. Grain Store came out on top by achieving the highest score when the SRA rated its sourcing, water, waste and energy saving initiatives, as well as its commitment to treat and engage responsibly with its staff, customers and community. It fought off stiff competition from a number of the restaurants on the NRA Top 100 list.

Grain Store gives vegetables equal billing with meat and fish and the SRA found all the food to be impeccably sourced. Where possible, the meat served is organic or free range and it adheres to a strict sustainability policy when it comes to fish. The restaurant has state of the art technology that monitors and controls the performance and energy consumption of its kitchen equipment and half of the profits from sales of filtered water go to local charities chosen by the staff.

The award was presented by SRA Managing Director Mark Linehan at the event organised by Restaurant magazine, at The Brewery on Chiswell Street, London.

Raymond Blanc, President of the SRA, whose restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons received the third highest rating, praised Grain Store for its outstanding commitment to operating responsibly across all areas of the business.

He said: “I am delighted that Bruno and his team at Grain Store have won this prestigious award. It is fantastic to see a man like Bruno who has been a hardened carnivorous Chef creating a wonderful concept using grains, seeds, herbs and spices. The Grain Store has proved that you can open one of the best new restaurants in the UK and do it extremely sustainably and at the same time, be a successful restaurant which embraces all the rules of sustainability and good ethics. Bravo Bruno.”

The 25 restaurants from the NRA’s Top 100 who scored highest in the SRA rating mirror the diversity of the restaurants with which the SRA works: a wide national spread, from Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, in Perthshire, to Gidleigh Park in Devon, and huge variety including burger joint Meatliquor and Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons. In total 14 of the top 25 are in London, two are in Scotland, one in Wales, two in the Midlands, two in the North West, one in the South West and three in the South East.

Mark Linehan, Managing Director of the SRA, said: “The standard across all the restaurants was excellent, exemplified by Grain Store. All of the top 25 SRA rated restaurants reached at least the standard required for a Two Star SRA rating, demonstrating not only that sustainability is a core ingredient of the very best restaurants, but that the very best restaurants are also taking it increasingly seriously.”

For further information, please visit www.nationalrestaurantawards.co.uk, www.thesra.org or www.grainstore.com