Hemenway's Restaurant

Fine dining at its best

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Hemenway’s restaurant is a delectable, up-scale dining establishment in the heart of Providence, RI. In this unique building on South Main Street, Hemenway’s expansive windows overlook the Providence water channels that connect the city’s downtown. The scrumptious seafood you’ll find at Hemenway’s is not the only reason to rave. Behind the bustling kitchen, they are dutifully composting, working to safeguard the health of the ecosystem and food sources this restaurant serves.

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Why did you decide to compost?

Hemenway’s composts with The Compost Plant. There are numerous compost haulers in Rhode Island, and it’s important that restaurants work to find one that fits their specific needs. The Compost plant is large enough and able to take enough volume to meet this restaurant's needs.​

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What are some of the rewards of composting?

Hemenway’s agrees that the increased sustainability and positive impact on the environment is a tremendous benefit. Helping the state, and the environment, is so rewarding.   Because we compost, recycle all oil into bio-diesel, recycle glass, metal, cardboard and plastic, our solid waste is very minimal.

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How has it affected your bottom line?

Costs have slightly increased now that Hemenway’s has started composting. However, the costs are not drastic and our employee owners feel that this cost is worth the benefits.

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How do you train your employees to deal with the compostable waste?

The training described sounded very straightforward, and could be incorporated into existing back-of-house tasks. Their kitchen reportedly has three different buckets (trash / compost / recycling) whereby staff know which items goes into each. An additional bonus: Hemenway’s stocks take-out containers, straws, and plasticware, which are all compostable.

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What are some of your wishes in regards to composting?

Increasing awareness of how approachable composting can be is an important, and urgent, message. Reducing food waste is an immediate, achievable goal, even for restaurants as large as Hemenway’s and other sister properties within the group.

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What company do you compost with and why?

Hemenway’s composts with The Compost Plant. There are numerous compost haulers in Rhode Island, and it’s important that restaurants work to find one that fits their specific needs. The Compost plant is large enough and able to take enough volume to meet this restaurant's needs.

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