Dish Uses Good Packaging

Through Michigan Green Safe and other purveyors, Dish uses earth friendly packaging. 80% of our plastic food containers and our plastic bags, utensils and the bottles for the Primo water that we sell are made from plant products and are completely biodegradable. All other plastic containers used at Dish are #5 plastics, which are lighter weight and use less energy to produce than other plastics and also pose no known health risks. These plastic containers, our black boxes and deli containers, are sturdy and entirely reusable and recyclable. Paper containers for our pastries and our bags are made from recycled paper and are themselves recyclable. Soup containers are made from recycled paper and are biodegradable and compostable, as are the lids. The rest of our hot food containers are made from bagasse, a sugarcane by-product, and they are biodegradable and compostable.

Dish Buys Local

50% of all food products used at Dish are purchased from within a 50 mile radius from our store. We shop at Detroit’s Eastern Market, including R. Hirt Jr.. and Rocky Peanut Co. 20% of our produce comes from local growers. All of Dish’s dairy products come from Michigan’s Guernsey or Calder dairies. Our bread comes from Breadsmith, just down the street in Grosse Pointe Woods. We also use products from many Michigan companies including Eden Organic Foods, Pioneer Sugar, Mamma Mucci’s and Detroit’s own Friar Rick’s Honey.

Dish Buys Good Products

At Dish, we seek out the best products available. Through R. Hirt Jr. at Eastern Market we use their wealth of options for our cheeses, including Amish gorgonzola and many antibiotic-free cheeses. All of our deli meats come from Boar’s Head. We are currently in the process of switching over to their all natural turkey breast and ham, which are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, as well as more hormone-free and antibiotic-free cheeses. We use only Amish chicken and other poultry at Dish and we use only Michigan farmed fresh eggs. Seafood at Dish is chosen with careful consideration of the Environmental Defense Fund’s Seafood Selector and we buy Eco-Best as often as possible. All of our fish arrives to us fresh and we buy fish from our Great Lakes whenever we can.

On average 25% of our produce is organic and all of our produce is meticulously hand-washed. We heed closely the guidelines set forth by the Environmental Working Group regarding which specific produce items tend to hold the highest (and lowest) levels of pesticides. Finally, approximately 25% of our staples and canned goods are organic and free of additives. We purchase from Cheiftan Wild Rice Company, Eden Organic Foods, Bob’s Red Mill, De Cecco, Bella Terra and Roland, to name a few.

Dish Cooks

As we like to mention time and again, Chef/Owner Paul Sulek is a classically trained chef with exemplary skills. Aside from the aforementioned and a few staple items, all of the food at Dish is prepared daily from raw ingredients. All of our beef tenderloin, chicken and fish are butchered on site and meats are roasted in our ovens every day. We make all of our soups, sauces and salad dressings from scratch at Dish. All of the pastries and desserts sold at Dish are made on site as well. While Paul’s roots are in the French manner of cooking, and he is known to make delicious and rich sauces, he moreover employs techniques of healthy cooking. At Dish we are mindful of and limit the amounts of fat, salt and sugar that we use, while first and foremost never sacrificing taste.

Dish Recycles

For the time being, we recycle what we can through local facilities and curbside at our home. Beginning in January 2011 we will be free from our current dumpster contract and we will switch to Capital Waste Company which has it’s own recycling facility. We can hardly wait!