Tag Archives: Downtown

Not easy to find ideal venue for Hackensack Green Drinks

Green Drinks Hackensack has been meeting at Victor’s Maywood Inn in Maywood since our first meeting venue, The Restaurant, burnt down. Victor’s has been very hospitable to us and they have great food, but there are a few reasons we’d like to find a new home for our monthly get-togethers:

  • We’d like to meet in downtown Hackensack because it’s convenient for local residents to access by biking or walking, and it also houses the regional county bus hub.
  • We’re getting a bit cramped at our table in the bar area of Victor’s, where we meet, but don’t relish the idea of sitting in the restaurant portion of the place because it’s kind of formal for the type of gathering we enjoy holding.
  • When there are sports games on Monday nights or the regular bar patrons decide to play the juke box, it’s so loud it’s hard to carry on conversations. Ultimately, conversation about sustainability and the environment is what Green Drinks is all about.

Last night the group gathered was rolling ideas around about a change in venue, and I thought of a restaurant I’ve eaten at several times that’s located on Main Street and has great food. It’s a tradition for Green Drinks to take place in places that serve liquor, and this place doesn’t, but this is not a requirement or a big consideration for us anyway, since 70% of our members don’t drink at meetings. This morning I reached out to the restaurant’s owner to discuss the idea of us meeting there, but although he admits to his place being pretty empty on Monday nights, he still isn’t keen on the idea of hosting us.

In the couple of years I’ve been scouting out good places to meet, B is certainly not the first venue owner to offer discouragement instead of a warm welcome. He wanted us to commit to ordering a minimum amount per person, something I’m not willing to do since inclusion is part of the Green Drinks philosophy I’m sure B’s not asking casual diners who happen by on a given Monday night to do the same, so that’s a discriminatory practice! When restauranteurs hear “environmental”, do they think of wispy hippy types who consume only alfalfa sprouts, honey and wheat bread and ride bikes because they can’t afford to drive cars – and can’t imagine the reality: that the north Jersey Green Drink crowd contains plenty of professionally employed home owners who eat out on a regular basis?

I ended up asking myself – and now I’m asking followers: do you think it’s shortsighted of a food establishment’s owner to discourage Green Drinks from gathering there on an off night mainly because we won’t guarantee consumption of a minimum amount of food per person? Since I was thinking about it, I made up a list of:

Reasons a venue can benefit from hosting Green Drinks gatherings

  • If the menu’s good at the place we meet, group members do order food. For some reason, many Green Drinkers are also foodies. Sometimes, every member of the group eats.
  • We meet on Mondays and Tuesdays because those are off nights for restaurants. We want to be able to chat easily without the distraction of too much ambient noise, and feel at ease holding the kind of lively discussions Green Drinks is famous for.
  • It costs a restaurant to be open whether or not they have customers, so why not fill the seats at empty tables?
  • It’s easier to draw diners into a full place than an empty one.
  • Places empty on off nights benefit from a bit of revenue by having us there, no matter how much our group spends
  • If Green Drinkers like a venue, they will introduce friends to it and patronize it on other occasions besides our monthly meetings.
  • Over 3,000 people a month receive announcements about Green Drinks meetings and the venues where we hold them.
  • A host venue can show its support for environment health and making their community more sustainable just by hosting Green Drinks gatherings (=free advertising).
  • By listening in on – or actively participating in – our conversations, business owners can learn about ways to save money and enhance their communities through implementing sustainability practices.