Nonprofit group Envision Charlotte has four main focuses in making the way we live more eco-friendly and sustainable: air, water, energy, and waste. They’ve made headway on the first three, but struggled to find a way to make an impact on waste. With their upcoming Innovation Barn, on Seigle Avenue near 10^th Street, Envision hopes to begin changing the way we look at waste. That includes the way we eat.

The Innovation Barn, named so because the building was the horse barn for the city of Charlotte in the 1920s, will be the city’s first circular economy building. A circular economy aims to encourage growth without waste, using local products to minimize pollution, and divert items that can be upcycled into something new from landfills.

Anchoring the Innovation Barn will be a restaurant, as well as a bar that showcases beers from local breweries.

“In there, we really wanted a space that would bring people to see the circular economy but they could come for a variety of reasons,” says Amy Aussieker, executive director of Envision Charlotte. “So having a restaurant, having a bar, event space, innovation space, retail space, all of that really made sense.”

The restaurant will follow strict guidelines about waste, and the food waste will be sent to the on-site compost bin. Nearly all of the food will have to be locally sourced, though Aussieker says they don’t have the guidelines complete yet, and there will be no plastics. The Barn will also be home to hydroponic, aquaponic, and outdoor gardens that will help supply the restaurant and hopefully a farmer’s market.

There will also be a training component to the restaurant, where the chef would teach cooking classes on subjects like how to use vegetables that are past their peak as well as offer job training. The restaurant and bar would help draw guests into the 36,000-square-foot space, but on their way to or from dinner, they’d also experience the circular economy at work by seeing the gardens or exploring the life cycle of plastics. The retail section of the building already has one tenant: bike upcyclery and nonprofit Trips for Kids. Much of the pavement around the building will be torn up to make room for outdoor seating.

“When people think, ‘I want to get a beer,’ or ‘I want to get a fantastic meal and it’s gorgeous outside and I want to sit outside, where am I going to go?’ Their first thought is going to be Innovation Barn,” Aussieker says. “I think that Charlotte does a very poor job of not capitalizing more on outdoor space.”

Construction should begin on the building in March, but Aussieker hopes to have a restaurant signed on by February to incorporate the tenant into the construction process. At a recent fundraising event at the Innovation Barn, a chef who seems to fit exactly what the space is looking for was on hand to cook: Clark Barlow of Heirloom.

“We would love from him to come in,” Aussieker says, though nothing has been decided as to who will go into that space. The restaurant that comes in will have to pay for much of the upfit, such as the dining room furniture, a bar, and kitchen equipment. If Envision can’t find the right tenant by January, they’ll put out an RFP to restaurants. The restaurant will also oversee catering to the building’s event space, which will hold around 400 people. A tentative, ambitious opening date for the restaurant is August 2019. —Kristen Wile

 

 

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