Opened by Josh Smith in March 2024, Neon Greens isn't your typical café or bistro. It takes the idea of farm-to-table a step beyond with an additional, next-door component: a hydroponic vertical farm. Inside the farm and its attached "Harvest Capsule," staff tend to crops like oakleaf, mizuna, sweet crisp, kale and more. Seeds are carefully sown before being placed in the plant nursery to grow; next, they're plugged into a lush, living wall of lettuce, where water gently trickles down, nourishing the roots.
To keep up with demand, Smith and the team seed and harvest every day. "We harvest tomorrow's lettuce today," Smith adds. "And unlike traditional farming, we use the same 120-gallon reservoir of water. The irrigation system brings the water down, then it goes back into our reservoir, where we recycle, re-oxygenate and re-treat it." In this way, the farm is able to produce the equivalent of three acres of greens while using 85% less water and no pesticides.
Smith is transparent about his methods. "One part that's less sustainable is the fact that we use LED lights," he says. "But when you consider an emissions offset, we go beyond breaking even with just the water usage factor." According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, most of America's lettuce travels from the desert valleys of Southern California and Arizona from mid-November to early April, then shifts to Central California. At Neon Greens, the freshest produce is grown year-round, sharing a wall with the restaurant that will ultimately serve it.
Once the greens are harvested, they make their way to the restaurant side on a conveyor belt that floats above guests' heads. "The DNA of the concept is about getting people in touch with the food they're eating and the folks who are growing it," Smith explains. "The space itself puts a focus on the greens. The conveyor belt is a means to solving the problem of getting the greens to the kitchen, but it's also a storytelling element – it connects the dots."
Source: stltoday.com