Best and Most Eco-friendly Places to Eat in Omaha

You’re in Omaha. You wanna eat. But you want kick-ass food at a spot that’s not trashing the environment. We have good news for you.

Omaha has a ton of eco-friendly places to eat!

Omaha may have a west vs east divide, but one thing that unites us all is our love of amazing places to eat.

But you’re also a conscious consumer. When eating out, you want to support the environment with your money. So we compiled a list of the most delicious and eco-friendly restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, and caterers in Omaha. Many of them are …

Investing in local soil health by composting
Cutting down carbon emissions by sourcing locally
Practicing zero waste methods and/or ditching single-use plastics

Our skin in the game: We have the Greater Omaha Area’s only industrial composting facility, Soil Dynamics. We also have a compost & recycling hauling service. So if a restaurant is serious about sustainability, they most likely partner with us to recycle and compost their waste.

The list criteria: At a minimum, every listed food establishment composts with us. We also note if they are recycling, using compostable take-out packaging, or going above and beyond with additional zero-waste practices. So please enjoy and support these wonderful eco-friendly Omaha businesses.

Omaha’s most sustainable places to eat and drink …

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Coffee Alley - Callejon del Cafe

Bi-lingual, women-owned, and Latin-owned, this family-run coffee shop has a wonderful Latin flare. Including paneria-type desserts. Plus, they recycle and compost all the coffee grounds and left-over baked goods.

Untamed Kitchen

It’s what so many of us have asked for: fast, but healthy food. Untamed Kitchen is a new concept with plans to go nationwide. And they’re making sustainable practices are core to its business model. So you can enjoy a full suite of recycling and composting options when dining in.

Clean Slate Food Co.

Based inside the Ashton Building in the Millwork Common’s District, Clean Slate is a part cafe and meal delivery service. Super fresh, clean, and healthy. They compost their food waste, and recycle what they can. Plus the to-go containers are certified compostable.

Dolomiti Pizzeria

Carlos Mendez of Au Courant and esteemed chef Tim Maides have opened Dolomiti, a Millwork Commons pizza spot. They’ve joined Coneflower, Kros Strain, and Clean Slate who are using our composting and recycling services inside the Ashton Building. They also have a wine shop, so all bottles consumed on location are recycled.

Conscious Comforts

A wonderful female-owned vegan bakery that composts all pre-consumer food waste. Plus they’re a Compost Club host site.

Featured

Kitchen Table

Bonus points: first Omaha restaurant to ditch plastic & convert single-use service-ware to compostables. Plus, locally sourced farm-to-table food and one of our OG composters.

Au Courant - Benson

Best example of the circular food movement: Not only do they compost with us, but they also buy tomatoes from a local organic farm, Stream Meadows, that uses our soil. Then they compost what’s left to start the process over again. Watch here.

Amateur Coffee

Smallest carbon footprint & waste output of them all: it’s Omaha’s only vegan coffee shop, they ditched single-use cups for a glass-jar/reusable program in 2019, and most recently ditched single-use cutlery — even for to-go orders!

Heirloom - Caterer

Ya, farm-to-table is cool. But what about parking-lot-garden-to-table? Yep, some of that food is grown right on-site using our finished compost that they also contribute their food waste to. Plus they host a Compost Club drop-off site and are Omaha’s first all-organic catering service. So kinda a big deal.

Grove Juicery Downtown + West

Bonus points for being Omaha’s first all-organic juice shop, offering a glass-jar buy-back program, and doing clever reuse hacks like making snacks out of juice pulp.

Bad Seed Coffee

Only Omaha coffee shop that doubles as a house-plant store. They compost the coffee grounds and the plant store, Nodest, uses our compost in all of their plants.

No More Empty Pots - Caterer

Black and female-operated non-profit catering service that does things zero-waste style.

Le Bouillon - Old Market

French-inspired Old Market gem that loads us up with a few carts of food waste every week … Uh, yes, give us all those clamshells!

Roast Coffee - Aksarben Village

Composting coffee grounds + a central Omaha hot spot for studious UNO students & business casual networking vibes. For real, it’s kind of a scene in there.

Archetype Coffee - Blackstone

This coffee shop changed the whole game in Omaha. We suckers were drinking burnt carbon this whole time until they opened our eyes.

Coneflower Creamery

As they say, it’s not the cow, it’s the how. And how you gonna pass up this dairy dreamboat when you know they’re composting 100% of pre-consumer food waste?

Cups Cafe - Florence

Black & female-operated non-profit with a mad cute cafe inside No More Empty Pot’s Food Hub. Director Nancy Williams is known as one of the gatekeepers of the local foods movement.

Herbe Sainte - Aksarben Village

Fancy casual hip spot for southern flare & killer cocktails. Plus our compost piles go nuts for leftover grits. Bonus points: they recycle all of their wine & beer bottles with us.

Lola's Cafe - Dundee

Think Paris cafe, without uppity-tude of the Paris people. They compost all the pre & post-consumer food waste, and sport certified compostable take-out materials.

Myrtle & Cypress Coffee

We know first hand, anything they do, they put a lot of thought & care into it beforehand. Great neighborhood-focused shop that composts, hosts a Compost Club drop-off site, and thinks continuously about their eco-impact.

Noli's Pizzeria - Blackstone

Only pizza shop in Omaha participating in composting. Bonus points for everything they hand to customers either being recyclable, compostable, or reusable.

Ted & Wally's - Benson

Long before the craft, small-batch ice cream craze emerged, Ted & Wally’s was showing us what good ice cream should taste like. The Benson location composts & recycles with us.

Vitality Bowls - Aksarben Village

Fast-casual with super-duper healthy options. Best acai bowls we’ve had. And boy, do we love composting all those banana peels.

Block 16

People go crazy over this place, so we’re happy to know they’re crazy about composting. Plus all wine/beer bottles get recycled with us.

Zinc - Holland Center

Inside the Holland Performing Arts Center and only open before shows, you’ll find some incredible food with a staff that’s super committed to sustainability.

Patricia Catering - Bellevue

Based in Bellevue but still the Omaha areas first zero-waste catering service. They basically utilize every recycling & composting service we have and are a Comopst Club drop-off site.

Zen Coffee

One of our original composting partners and present at all 3 locations! A Green America Certified Business, they’re committed to using business as a platform for social change.

Café Postale

Compostable service-ware that actually gets collected on-site for composting, plus these cute “newspaper” wraps for food make this a lovely breakfast & lunch spot in Omaha’s Little Italy neighborhood.

Avoli Osteria

This is one of those places you go to when you’re ready to spend some money and get blown away with amazing northern Italian fine-dining food. Just so happens the chef drives an electric car and is an avid recycler & composter.

Fizzy's Fountain & Liquors

Imagine a 1950’s soda fountain, but for adults. Adults who like boozy shakes with Fernet Branca. Or hamburgers with wagyu beef. And like to order from a corded phones hanging in the booth. But the cherry on top? They compost and recycle glass with us.

Bahn Mi Shop

Everyone knows they kill the game when it comes to Vietnamese sandwiches. Even making the bun in-house. But not many know they’re composting food waste on the back end. Give it a shot if you’re in Bellevue.

Wonton Jon's Food Truck

Wonton Jon’s, Omaha’s favorite craft wonton food truck now serves up wontons, burritos, and sandwiches — all while keeping it compostable & recyclable.

Fig

Incredible riverfront view. Fun optional outing with the Kiewit Luminarium in the same building. Plus one of Omaha’s top chefs making really fun food (get the burger!). But we love it most for the mindful eco-efforts they make, such as compostable single-use items and making all of our streams available to the guests when tossing leftovers.

Urban Abbey

There’s a coffee shop. There’s a bookstore. And they have Sunday worship services with a super open-minded audience. Here’s their newest feature to celebrate: having a superb recycling & composting program.

Catering Creations

One of Omaha’s top catering companies has gone all in on landfill diversion. Upgrade and get the zero-waste package when hiring!

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TipsBrent CramptonNovember 25, 2023Composting, Omaha, Nebraska, Green Resturants, Eco-Fri, Best Places to Eat, Omaha Best Restaurants, Best Places to Eat in Omaha, Most Eco-Friendly Restaurants in Omaha, Vegan Food Omaha, Best Places to Eat Omaha, Best Restaurants Omaha, Best Omaha Coffee Shop