Restaurant Northeast Minneapolis

The Red Stag opened on November 19th, 2007 as the first LEED-CI registered restaurant project in Minnesota. The Red Stag Supper Club strives to be a good local & world citizen by serving local & organic foods as much as possible, conserving resources & composting waste, and by always being on the lookout as to how to better its business practices. The Red Stag Supper Club values its relationship with its customers, its workers, and the environment in which we all live. Please always feel free to contact us with constructive criticism!

The owner, Kari Bartmann, and her sister, Kim, had been looking for a location in NE Minneapolis. They found a warehouse, formerly a mechanical contractor, and started the process. Because the ceiling was heavy timber Douglas fir, and because Kim was feeling a little nostalgic for northern Wisconsin, they decided to create a contemporized version of a supper club. The Bryant Lake Bowl & Cabaret Theater and Barbette had been focusing on local foods for some time and that summer they had transitioned the block parties to be ‘zero-waste’ events, composting a majority of the trash. Some efforts had been underway to ‘green’ the businesses and become more sustainably focused and energy efficient. Also in the summer of 07, managers at Barbette and Bryant Lake Bowl to the Natural Step Framework class given by Terry Gipps of the Alliance for Sustainability. Building out the new place under the framework of LEED seemed like the natural next step for that project.

Restaurants use more energy and water than any other small business, costing them 30-40% of their entire operating budget. Through using new technologies in the build out of the Stag, water use was cut by approximately 70%, and energy use cut almost in half. For instance, the Red Stag is the first facility in the country entirely lit by LED lights, which use 90% less electricity than incandescent bulbs. Eureka! Recycling assists us with composting our waste.

What is LEED®?

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. LEED provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting success for every building type and phase of a building lifecycle.