The Grove Cafe and Market

OLocal Hero: SUSTAINABILITY, WASTE REDUCTION

An Interview with Jason and Lauren Greene, Owners

Owned and operated by Jason and Lauren Greene, The Grove is a breakfast, brunch, and lunch café serving the finest local food in a fun, casual atmosphere. With a team of more than thirty hospitality professionals, The Grove has grown through its seventeen years into a local food landmark in Albuquerque.

The Grove believes in supporting local farmers and sustainable agriculture. Their food is sourced from growers and producers from New Mexico and the greater Southwest. Local and organic products are served whenever possible, and the highest quality ingredients are sourced and served daily.

When brunching at The Grove, you will find a classic menu with cult favorites like their Grove Pancakes and the Farmers Salad. The growing team of talented chefs in The Grove’s kitchen work closely together to create new menu items and seasonal specials that focus on local agriculture and bringing the community together.

The Grove opened in 2006 and has been sourcing from local growers ever since. Can you talk about your relationships with farmers and how you learned to balance consistency with seasonality and local availability?

For us, it’s all about quality, consistency of product, and understanding what we need as a high-volume restaurant. We have farmer partners that understand our delivery time constraints—their communication of available product is super consistent and they are very communicative about how long the product will be available and how much we can get. There has to be a professional relationship there so that everybody wins.

When you talk about community, how do you define yours?

Our community at The Grove starts with our team, how we treat one another under our roof, and what we each bring to the table every day. From there, your vibe attracts your tribe . . . that’s actually in our handbook! We feel we have a community of food-loving, quality-seeking guests and team members that understand what we do and why we do it. The Grove is really a gathering place that brings so many different people together for so many different reasons. It’s like home.

This award is for The Grove’s efforts to reduce waste—something that restaurants stand accused of producing a lot of. That includes something like 20 percent of the nation’s food waste, along with plastic and other packaging waste, which surged early in the pandemic. When did The Grove start paying attention to waste, and what are some of the restaurant’s strategies for making less of it?

Using sustainable food, practices, and products was a value of ours since day one. Over the years, it has become easier as the city and private companies have begun offering services such as compost pickup and recycling. In the early years, we had incentive programs for our team members to encourage recycling and composting—things like gift cards and cash bonuses for those who would do a run to the compost or recycling facility. Today our composting program and recycling programs are just our way of life at The Grove. We continue to use ingredients, farmers, and companies that choose sustainable practices and quality above all else.

Describe the perfect date-night dinner.

We love a date night. We love doing dine-arounds, where we hit up to three spots in one night. We will start somewhere for a drink and a small bite, then head off to another place where we cozy in a bit more. We like to share everything and order multiple small plates rather than large entrées. The opportunity to sit together over food (and, hopefully, candlelight) and talk about fun things rather than work and life things is just the best.

How do you work on reducing waste at home?

We do our best and are always learning to do better. We do not use plastic-bottle beverages, we limit paper towel use, we recycle, we use reusable snack bags instead of single-use plastic baggies, and so on. We also garden to help cut down on our produce and flower purchases.

What (or who, or where) have been three of your greatest influences?

Lauren: My dad. Not only his love for people and business, but his advice on the big and the small things, remain constant inspirations in my life.

Lauren and Jason: Italy.

Jason: My wife.

Who’s your favorite food authority, local or otherwise?

Edible New Mexico for sure is our local authority. Since we can remember, we grab each new issue and read it from front to back. Good Food Foundation is an authority based out of San Francisco that highlights companies making sustainable food and beverage products without hormones, pesticides, or artificial or genetically modified ingredients.

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

Jason: I dream of leaving it all to live on the beach in the Caribbean making simple, delicious food from only what is local.

Lauren: I have an unusual love for taking walks on snowy trails in very cold conditions. It’s exhilarating to be in the elements.

Anything else you’d like to share with edible readers?

We would be amiss if we didn’t say how grateful we are for edible, the team and the readers, for being our voice for good food, farming, and drink in New Mexico. Thank you, all, for the years of support. We love you!

600 Central SE, Ste A, Albuquerque, 505-248-9800,
thegrovecafemarket.com