EAT - Birdbath Bakery

Sustainability means different things to different people. For instance, I sustain myself mostly on coffee and cookies, but so rarely does that consumption actually help Mother Earth. That's where Birdbath, the green bakery, comes in. Here you can indulge your cafeine and sugar addictions while contributing to the betterment of our planet, and you barely even know you're doing it.

If you struggle with wanting to eat everything in a bakery, Birdbath is for you.  In this top-to-bottom green sustainability hub, eating literally everything entirely possible. The walls are made of wheat, the cups are made of corn, the countertops and shelves are made of presumably-edible recycled paper, and not unlike the lickable wallpaper of Willy Wonka's nightmare/candy factory, the paint on the walls is made from - you guessed it - milk proteins. But more importantly, the walls are also lined with cookies. Like, on shelves. Real, edible cookies. Oh my god, the cookies. I couldn't afford to eat them all, because that would be ridiculous, but one cookie is so big that it may be the next supersized treat to be outlawed by the mayor. 

For those interested in more than just the sustainability of cookies and coffee, Birdbath is out there doin the damn thing, picking up your slack. They make concerted effort to stay local and waste as little energy as possible, with all their milk products are milked straight from teets just outside of Manhattan, and their compost done daily on location. 


Also impressive is Birdbath's commitment to bike culture in the city. They have a discount for customers who arrive by bike - a bit of a kick in the teeth for those of us that don't own a bike, and hate helping the environment, but whatever. Best of all, all deliveries and shipments are made by rickshaw, or "hipster-powered cart" as I've just decided to call it. Valuable, delicious products in small rickshaws and no armed guards? That sounds like the perfect heist to me. 

As such they have a working relationship with local bike shop Bicycle Habitat to get employees bike discounts and are currently working on a grand scheme to rid the city of cars entirely. Not if I can help it!


Aside from the store's inedibles being all reused, recycled and whatever that third R word is, the food is made from all organic, local and seasonal ingredients. Their spring/summer menu highlights include organic treats like the rice milk muffin w/ red bean and ginger and  honey raisin scone, drinks like the edible flower lemonade and iced almond milk latte, and sandwiches like the hippie staple "old school" veggie sandwich. 


All that, and also they make really good cookies.

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