Going Organic In the Windy City

Outside Class Experience 2

I recently went on an annual girls shopping trip in Chicago with my boyfriend's lovely family this year. And what a trip it was! (I know shopping feeds capitalism and many of you are rolling your eyes at me, but it is the Christmas season and I promise I didn't go crazy.) I still wanted to stay on my mission of being as green as possible lately. I was hoping I would find a nice organic cosmetic store while I was perusing Michigan Avenue but I didn't come up as lucky. After a few hours of walking and window shopping all of us were getting pretty hungry for some lunch. My friend Christie started talking about her favorite restaurant in Chicago. She loves it so much she was willing to go alone and meet up with us wherever we were so she could get her hands on one of their sandwiches. We were all convinced that this place must be delicious so we whipped out our phones, and got directions to walk there. About five blocks or so later we came upon Hannah's Bretzel.

When we walked in it smelled delicious. With pictures of pretzel buns and all of their organic products I was sold and excited. I started to red their signs around the restaurant and got even happier. "We are proud to support local farmers," "We are donating 20% of our sales to the academy for global citizenship," "we offer gluten-free", "we offer vegetarian and vegan options."There were signs about their history, what is fully organic foods, what is local. This place was a hidden gem! How had I never heard about this place?!

I walked in and was greeted with friendly faces and a delicious and large menu. Though a bit pricey for just a sandwich I am always willing to pay a little bit more to support something important. So after much wavering over items because of their delicious ingredients I finally settled on "Hannah's Club" and walked up to the counter. I placed my order to a lovely deli attendant and made my way through the line. My sandwich came wrapped in wax paper, two napkins, and I got to choose from an organic soda that came in a glass bottle. I got an Oogave organic soda which was one of the yummiest pops I've ever had, probably due to their use of agave and no high fructose corn syrup. I got to the cashier, payed around $12 for a HUGE sandwich, homemade potato chips, and an agave pop. Not too bad in my opinion taking into consideration everything it supports and how delicious it all was. It was so good I forgot to take a picture sorry :-( but it did look EXACTLY like the photos of the sandwiches online.

Hanna's Club at 56.0% Organic

One thing that I found was really interesting is that since they support local farmers not everything is "certified USDA organic", but through my sustainability classes I have learned that just because something isn't certified doesn't always mean it isn't pretty organic. So I have no qualms with Hanna's Bretzel. The highest organic sandwich is the Bavari-Asian at 84% which is quite impressive in my opinion.
By the end of my lunch I found it even more surprising that they give you recycling options as well.

This place was really impressing me. With areas for paper, class, plastic, and food waste I was astonished. I was so happy that my adventure into the city didn't make me compromise my green morals. I was able to keep eating local and organic during my adventure to the Windy City. My outside class experiences have proven to be fun, exciting, interesting, and productive! As I move back to Chicago in May I am excited to know that I now have a new sandwich place (that even is a chain! woot woot way to go!) that is pretty affordable for yummy organic deliciousness! Props to Christie Salmon for finding this restaurant and Hannah's Bretzel for doing what is right when it comes to opening a restaurant.