Announcing a Big Sustainability Win For This Exceptional San Francisco Bar

The third edition of North America’s 50 Best Bars, sponsored by Perrier, returned to San Miguel de Allende for its annual celebration of the continent’s finest drinking establishments. The events culminated in last night’s awards ceremony at Rosewood San Miguel de Allende, where the list of North America’s 50 Best Bars was revealed in addition to a selection of special awards.

One of these special accolades is the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award, proudly judged by our team of sustainability experts. This year’s winner is True Laurel in San Francisco, which impressed Team SRA with its demonstrable dedication to  everything from using clean energy and reducing food waste to sustainable sourcing and getting involved with their community.

About True Laurel

True Laurel comes from the team behind Lazy Bear, San Francisco's supper club-turned two-Michelin-star restaurant. The space itself is small but spectacular, with an arty feel and every component custom-designed. Food from the daily-changing menu is centred around seasonal small plates: think Nashville green tomatoes, crispy hen of the woods mushrooms with sour cream and alliums dip, twice-baked potatoes with red miso butter, or roasted beets with smoked trout and roe.

At their vibrant weekend brunch, you might see duck confit tostadas or a grilled cheese and omelette sandwich, while the cocktail selection might include ‘In the Pines, Under the Palms’ – a blend of toasted cocoa rye with gin, vermouth, maraschino, absinthe and redwood – or the milk-washed ‘Mai o Mai’, combining rum with lime, pistachio orgeat, curaçao and a coffee-rum float. At True Laurel, creativity is the name of the game, and this filters into a truly holistic approach to sustainability. 

Sustainable sourcing at True Laurel

True Laurel is dedicated to working with whatever ingredients are available from their local producers. As they note on their website, "Current menus are updated each day around the time we open." This is a bar with a clearly defined identity, strongly rooted in its locality and dedicated to celebrating the bounty of San Francisco. Ingredients might come from backyard citrus trees, from small community gardens or from the Bay Area and Central Valley farmers with whom True Laurel works. 

• Most of the ingredients used at True Laurel are sourced from local farmers, with whom the team has built long-term relationships. 
• Local producers include Bardos Cider, a company that makes cider solely from apples they’ve tended in forgotten, otherwise-neglected orchards. Their cider is fermented naturally with no additives. 
• They’re not afraid to experiment using common invasive species as well as fully regenerative native species. For example, one of their staple menus extracts flavour from young redwood angel rings, while a new drink features creeping yellow wood sorrel, a commonly-seen Californian weed. 

What social sustainability means at True Laurel

True Laurel’s connection to San Francisco also filters into their community involvement.

• They bring staff members on field trips to distilleries as part of their training and education initiatives, and offer paid offsite trips to participate in guest shifts around the world. 
• They provide free services and beverage programming for Southern Exposure, the city’s longest running non-profit art organisation. 
• True Laurel works with the Two Eighty Project, a local organisation empowering the BIPOC community within the wine industry. True Laurel helps to harvest hybrid grapes and donates regularly to the programme through their TL pin programme: two dollars are donated to the Two Eighty Project for every pin sold.
• They also helped raise funds for the Sogorea Te' Land Trust, an indigenous and female-run initiative to fight for land rights within the community. 

How True Laurel helps the environment 

From water and energy use to targeted efforts to reduce waste, True Laurel is committed to keeping their environmental footprint as minimal as possible.

• By supporting local suppliers, True Laurel not only lower their transport footprint but also reduce food waste by purchasing ‘ugly’ fruit that wouldn't be easy to sell. 
• They are careful about using all the ingredients that they purchase. Trimmings from garnishes are collected for use in infusions or juicing, for example, while their ‘Trash Smash’ cocktails are deliberately designed to use up ingredients that might otherwise be wasted. 
• All the energy used at True Laurel is sourced from renewable sources. 
• To eliminate plastic use in their sous vide menu items, they now use a Gastrovac. This is essentially a hot plate that allows them to change the atmospheric pressure inside a sealed stainless pot, allowing them to extract flavour without single use plastics. 
• Through their elimination of single use plastics in-house, they've been certified as an Ocean-Friendly Business by the SurfRider Foundation. 
• Sous vide water and guest water that is not used is used to water surrounding planters. 

Congratulations to True Laurel for their well-deserved win of the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award at North America’s Best Bars 2024 – what a fantastic addition to this continent’s vibrant bar scene.

Learn more about True Laurel at their website, or read more here about our partnership with 50 Best and how we go about judging all of the sustainability awards across their busy calendar!

[Lead image from True Laurel's Instagram page.]