Chapter 2: - Center for Responsible Travel

New York Restoration Project’s New Leaf Restaurant & BarBy Nik CharovDeputy Development Officer, NYRP andLauren LoebPublic Relations Manager, NYRPNew York Restoration Project (NYRP) is a nonprofit whose mission is to restore, revitalize, anddevelop under-resourced parks, vacant lots and community gardens throughout New York City‘sfive boroughs, so that no New Yorker suffers from a lack of healthy and natural spaces. Bysimultaneously delivering enriching and free educational and community programs at thesespaces, NYRP instills in children and families a respect for nature and a commitment to NewYork City‘s long-term environmental sustainability. Since 1995, NYRP has carried out the dreamof our founder, singer and actress Bette Midler, to create a cleaner, greener New York City.NYRP (www.nyrp.org) has achieved dramaticresults by investing in the greening andbeautification of underserved communitiesthroughout the city. Under Bette‘s leadership,NYRP has planted hundreds of thousands of trees;restored and helped maintain six New York Cityparks; launched MillionTreesNYC, the mostambitious urban forestry campaign in the UnitedStates; and removed more than 2,000 tons ofgarbage from parks and public spaces. In 1999NYRP saved 114 community gardens fromcommercial development and established the NewYork Garden Trust to ensure that these preciousspaces remain in the public‘s hands in perpetuity.NYRP is also responsible for transforming anillegal dumping ground along the Harlem River,into the five-acre Swindler Cove Park.NYRP/MillionTreesNYC, New York City.Credit: NYRPEarly in our history we decided to open a restaurant. Through our work restoring parkland, we‘duncovered a mismanaged, under-visited, and overgrown park concession cafeteria in Fort TryonPark in northern Manhattan, just down the hill from the famous Cloisters Museum. Havingsucceeded in our restoration of parks and gardens, we felt we could pull off the same feat with arestaurant. NYRP won the bid to operate what we call the New Leaf Restaurant in the fall of2000. For a year, we did the intensive and difficult renovations required, with generous publicand private sector support.We knew we were taking a risk. Ten restaurants open every week in New York City. Five ofthem fail within the first year of opening; four more fail within five years; only one in ten survives.However, a decade later, our New Leaf is still alive, and thriving. We now serve more than50,000 diners per year, in a city known for fine dining. The New Leaf‘s rustic setting, farremoved from major thoroughfares, was at first deemed a liability – it has instead been a boon.Most important, New Leaf profits have increased 8% per year for the past three years: netproceeds are being returned to NYRP to further our efforts to improve the environment of44