Where Your Food Comes From: Green City Growers

As you know, we’re all about fresh food. We want each and every customer to know exactly where their meal is coming from.

Our menu contains locally-sourced ingredients from farmers across the great state of Ohio. We think it’s important to support our local farmers and companies so you can enjoy the freshest meal possible, and we're highlighting one valuable partner in particular in this blog post.

Green City Growers, located in downtown Cleveland, was launched in 2008 by Evergreen Cooperatives. Their initiative was designed to create an economic breakthrough in Cleveland, rather than a trickle-down strategy. Their co-op focuses on economic inclusion and building a local economy from the ground up, rather than offering public subsidy to induce corporations to bring what are often low-wage jobs into the city.

The company produces nutrient-rich, pesticide-free produce year-round, capitalizing on their state-of-the art greenhouse. The co-op produces millions of heads of lettuce and specialty greens and hundreds of thousands of pounds of herbs and micro-greens every year, ranked as the largest food-production greenhouse in a core urban area in the United States.

Rather than growing in soil, their greens float on pools of nutrient-enriched water. This method enables the produce to grow quicker and cycle as well as producing tastier produce.

During the winter, Green City Growers uses safe, energy-efficient grow lights to maintain production.

The carefully controlled environment allows the co-op to produce 12 months a year, to meet customers’ demand for the freshest, tastiest lettuce, basil and other products.

The Rail is proud to serve produce from Green City Growers day in and day out on our burgers and currently with our seasonal Grilled Chicken Lettuce Wraps.

Watch the video below to learn more about the lettuce served inside our restaurants.