This special edition of Business Spotlight features one of the greenest restaurants in the nation, Uncommon Ground, and their Organic Rooftop Farm Director, Dave Snyder.


Name: Dave Snyder

Title: Organic Rooftop Farm Director

What neighborhood do you live in?: Garfield Park

Favorite thing about Chicago?: The people. Everyone is friendly and sociable.

What is Uncommon Ground's green angle?: At Uncommon Ground, we source our food from both organic and local farms. Because of this, the different seasons dictate the specials and the menu is always changing. In the end, our kitchen scraps are sent to a composting service as well. Still, we have a small carbon footprint since a majority of our food goes right from the roof to the kitchen. Both locations have 4-star certifications from the Green Restaurant Association.

Photo Courtesy of Uncommon Ground

We also enjoying educating the community through our open houses and private garden tours. It gives us a chance to mingle with the community and share what we do on a regular basis. 


Enjoy the open house yourself this Friday, August 3rd at their Edgewater location, 1401 West Devon at 6:00pm. For more information on their private garden tours click here.

With a rooftop farm supplying a majority of the menu items every week, Uncommon Ground makes incorporating a garden into restaurant operations look easy. This week we went to Dave Snyder, Organic Roof Top Farm Director at Uncommon Ground, to get some advice for beginning gardeners.

We have a few corrections to our post this past Monday, July 23rd:

• The full name of the non-profit organization Jeff oversees as Rick Bayless' assistant is "Frontera Farmer Foundation"
• Only XOCO is LEED certified. All 3 restaruants are certified by the GRA (Green Restaurant Association).

Research done by the University of Illinois Extension shows that these four flower species are colorful, inexpensive, and absolute butterfly magnets. By including a variety of plants and flowers in your garden, even a tiny garden can make a huge impact in supporting biodiversity!



•    Zinnia
•    Milkweed
•    Brazilian Verbena
•    Purple Coneflowers


Article Link

Chicago Gateway Green is very excited to spotlight Jeff Maimon from Frontera Grill this week!


Jeff, oversees the Frontera Foundation, which is a nonprofit that gives small farmers that serve the Chicago area working capital grants up to $12,000. To date they have given out one million dollars in grants.



Name: Jeff Maimon

One of our first posts featured Sara Gasbarra, lead garden girl of Verdura Chicago, and her rooftop garden at the Hilton Chicago. At that point in time the garden was mostly young and promising seeds and seedlings.

• Chicago City Hall Rooftop Garden
• Washington Mutual Center Green Roof
• For more rooftop gardens click here

Tips for getting the most out of your urban garden
By Stephanie Somers

Jon and Monique Tunney are two savvy urbanites that know how to make the most of their garden in the city. Their condo has a west-facing back porch that’s great for sunsets, but also growing plants. For the past nine years they have grown everything from heirloom tomatoes to banana peppers to swiss chard. And pick any herb; they’ve grown it! They shared with us some of the things they’ve learned over the years.

Replant to maximize your crop

The Tunneys say that they typically grow more than they need on purpose. Why? Consider letting some plants go to seed and you can replant them for a second time. So even if you have a small space, you may get two harvests in one year, yielding more food. Also, consider saving some of the seeds for planting next year. They have gotten so good at it that they don’t even need to purchase seeds in the spring!

Beauty and function unite

You love hanging out on your porch, not just growing things on it. So you might be thinking, “Can I plant my urban garden and still have room for some colorful flowers to look at?” Yes! While you can always mix in a pot of flowers here and there, consider planting flowers and vegetables together in the same pot. Beautiful and functional!

Summer labor, Winter reward

Did you know all this work in the summer can make a cold Chicago winter seem brighter? One of the Tunneys’ favorite herbs to plant is Stevia, a natural sweetener with no calories and no carbs. Save some of your Stevia and mint at the end of the summer. Then crush the dried leaves together to use as a loose tea. That should keep you warm all winter long and dreaming of next summer’s harvest.

Come out to the Gaming For Green Texas Hold 'Em Tournament TONIGHT!

 Click here to buy your tickets now!

Chicago Gateway Green’s wildly popular annual Texas Hold’Em Poker Tournament and Casino Night combines great entertainment, refreshments, and friendly competition.

Gaming for Green raises funds for Chicago Gateway Green’s Tree Partnership Program, which is a large-scale volunteer tree planting initiative transforming vacant land across Chicago’s neighborhoods into tree-filled green spaces, improving Chicago’s neighborhoods’ environmental health, beauty, and livability.


This year's event will be emcee'd by Roe Conn & Richard Roeper of The Roe & Roeper Show on WLS 890AM who will bring a fun atmosphere to a friendly poker competition with the involvement of numerous sponsors and supporters.

Don't Miss the McGrath Lexus $30,000 Challenge! McGrath Lexus of Chicago along with IMPACT365 have created an amazing contest that will take place at the event. The top 5 poker chip leaders after the 4th blind level will all have a chance to win $30,000. The 5 players with the most chips will head to the stage, pick 5 random envelopes numbered 1 to 52 (representing the 52 cards in a deck) and IF one of the 5 players ends up with a "four-of-a-kind" poker hand or better, they will win the cash!

Additional Gaming: Poker not your thing? Event guests can enjoy a variety of other charitable gaming. Try your luck and skill at roulette, craps, and blackjack.

Additional Entertainment, Fine Food & Cocktails: No evening would be complete without the fabulous music, food, and beverage. Enjoy live music on the outdoor patio while sipping complimentary cocktails and smoking cigars if you favor them. Delight in Galleria Marchetti's famous Italian specialties with your ticket.

*All contributions and tickets benefit Chicago Gateway Green 501(c)3.

*For additional information, please contact Chicago Gateway Green at 312-540-9930 or info@gatewaygreen.org. 

Happy Monday! This week Gateway Green is putting the spotlight on Jason Klarfeld from UrbanEater.
UrbanEater's mission is to build a unified marketplace where consumers can discover, interact and buy food directly from local producers. UrbanEater offers producers and consumers the ability to interact in a setting accessible via web, mobile, talent or public forum.



Name: Jason Klarfeld

Title: Co-Founder of UrbanEater

What neighborhood do you live in?: Lincoln Park

What is UrbanEater's green angle?: Our focus at UrbanEater is to strengthen community by connecting people with local food and the folks behind it. Living in a big city, the majority of people interact with these types of local food merchants at outdoor marketplaces only during the spring and summer months. We want to help these merchants promote their craft to a larger audience of consumers not knowing where to find their product, continue to build relationships, and as a result, grow their business. By creating a "virtual farmers market", we are able to bring a new quality of experience and intimacy to the online storefronts.

This week our urban gardening tip comes from Ryan Beck, head gardener of the Jane Addams Hull House farm located on UIC's loop campus. This is the fourth season for the garden and he says that he has biodiversity to thank!

Biodiversity emulates natural gardens and helps maintain the balance of life within the garden. Native prairie plants and a buzzing bee hive create a unique ecosystem that allows the plants to grow and thrive. Companion planting also helps create biodiversity. In this way, Ryan is able to grow larger crops since the plants can feed off of each others nutrients.

Garlic plants at the Hull-House farm

His tip to us was to trim the new growth on your plants. This helps produce more fruit by tricking the plant into thinking it’s dying so in turn, it wants to produce as much fruit as it can.

Make sure to check back on Monday for our interview with UrbanEater!

Happy Monday! This week Gateway Green is putting the spotlight on Meg Goldberg founder of bethie b.

With more than 30 years of interior decorating experience, bethie b. was inspired by Meg Goldberg's mom, Beth, who has passed along her love of repurposing items, finding quality pieces, creatively decorating spaces, discovering beauty in recycled artifacts, throwing out the decorator rule book, and loving the search for the unexpected – both for your home and in life.

Bethie b. allows clients to easily sell their home furnishings as well as buy quality interiors from locals in their area. They believe that everyone deserves affordable, quality, eclectic furniture and stylish home decor to help make their house feel like a home.



Name: Meg Goldberg

Title: Founder of bethie b.

What neighborhood do you live in?: Lakeview.

Favorite thing Chicago?: All things summer -- Belmont Harbor Dog Beach, summer street fests, byob sidewalk dining, farmers markets, urban gardens & beaches, and the people!

What is bethie b.'s green angle?: bethie b. is an online interiors boutique that allows clients and small businesses to buy and sell premiere recycled furnishings. Furniture is currently the #1 least recycled household item and accounts for 10 million tons of waste a year. Our mission is to promote sustainable, stylish living by providing a local marketplace for recycled interiors.