Eating Local

So for Valentine's Day on Saturday (I know it's today, but the weekend is more convenient, dangit!) Peter and I decided to do the traditional standby of dinner and a movie. If you want to read about the whole thing, go here.
But as this is all about buying responsibly... I'm going to talk a bit more about the restaurant we chose.
The Copper Onion.
Now I've been dying to go ever since I saw it almost a year ago. And whether it was because of time, travel, $, or just plain forgetfulness we hadn't gone yet. And we eat out. A lot.
The restaurant is nestled in downtown Salt Lake. It's right next to a theater, a parking garage, and in the bottom of a business tower. With all that around it, they've still created an extremely homey and inviting ambiance.
I'm thinking we're going to have to go back and actually sample the dinner menu, as we were there for brunch. But the thing I'm actually trying to get to is this.
Their restaurant is not a chain. It's local. It is a small business and a small restaurant. It is supporting people here in my town and I really like that in a restaurant.
I also like that they tell you where they get most of their product. When they can they have locally sourced whole foods. They support local farmers and producers.
It is a little more expensive. The portions aren't huge and that helped us eat responsibly. We didn't need to eat our weight in pasta. Though I would have liked to!
Here's a review with some photos from a local food blog...
And next time we need a nice place to eat out... This is it.

Tapped out

Last night we watched Tapped. It's a documentary about bottled water. About how awful it is for the economy. How it's a terrible use of resources. And it's less healthy than tap water. In fact it IS tap water, but with the added leached cancer causing petrochemicals from the bottles. Styrene and BPA and all sorts of other crap. I already don't buy bottled water, because it's ridiculously expensive. Which, the movie points out a number of times. It's healthier and more economical to use the regulated municipal sources which you already pay for.
This just makes me think about how many other things that we buy packaged for convenience sake that we already have available for free.