We posted a little while back about Big Grove Tavern being nominated for the People & Planet Award for Green Businesses. They’re in the top 10 and voting ends on Monday, June 1st.
A top-3 finish would see Big Grove win $5,000 prize from Green America. The money is great, but Beckie Kane, the Marketing and Event Coordinator, is just as excited about being a finalist.
For the most part the other finalists hail from bigger cities with larger culinary arts communities. Three hail from New York City, one is from Chicago, another is from Portland. There are usually few things that you could compare Champaign to in each of those cities.
Kane feels like the association with places in major cities says a lot about the community we have in Champaign.
“I think it’s really special. So many people come down from Chicago here and don’t realize that we’re a food conscious town.”
So how did they get the nomination? They filled out an application and essentially wrote about the vision for Big Grove.
“Our focus is on utilizing our materials to their full potential,” she said. “We get sustainable products and local products from the community and we try and use every part of everything we bring in.”
An example of what Kane is talking about can be seen in Big Grove’s popular chicken and waffles special. She mentioned that the restaurant noticed that they were having a serious amount of chicken legs that weren’t being utilized from the chickens that they purchased. They solved that problem by creating the chicken and waffles dish centered around the idea of using those legs.
If Big Grove wins the prize, the plan is to expand the patio and get some new kitchen equipment… and also maybe host a little celebration.
You have until June 1st to submit your votes and you can do it here. Get out and vote.
