By Saba BerhieThe Daily Northwestern
The menu prices might look the same, but at three Evanston restaurants, there are important changes taking place.
The Clean Plate Club restaurant group, owners of Evanston restaurants Merle’s Barbeque, 1727 Benson Ave., Pete Miller’s Steakhouse, 1557 Sherman Ave., and the Davis Street Fishmarket, 501 Davis St., announced the removal of trans fats from its restaurants in an Oct. 17 press release.
Trans fats are found naturally in animals such as cows and unnaturally in some foods that are processed to increase shelf life. People are wary of these foods because of evidence linking the consumption of trans fats to heart disease.
Chicago has been embroiled in talks about trans fats and has recently set forth an ordinance to ban trans fats at restaurants with more than $20 million in sales.
Scott Anderson, director of marketing and events for the Clean Plate Club, said the prospect of making a healthier product motivated them to eliminate trans fats.
“We thought it would benefit us in terms of having appeal to the customers,” Anderson said. “Once we found vendors that weren’t much more costly we decided to go for it.”
Eliminating trans fats is another example of the group’s focus on health. All Clean Plate restaurants require a smoke-free environment, even in North Shore areas that permit smoking, Anderson said. The restaurants received a lot of positive feedback for banning smoking, but Anderson said he doesn’t think customers are aware of the trans-fats-free menu yet.
Although health benefits have increased, the menu prices at these restaurants have not.
Sarah Andrews, director of purchasing for Clean Plate, said she began the search for trans-fats-free vendors about a year ago. Food vendors had begun offering trans-fats-free products, mirroring a growing public interest, Andrews said.
“Oreo had no trans-fats-free cookie crumbs and now they are trans-fats-free,” Andrews said.
Other products, such as soup crackers, also have removed trans fats. The greater availability and health benefits may convince other restaurants to follow suit.
“I think other Evanston restaurants will and should jump onto this bandwagon,” Andrews said.
Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies student Brigitte Frett said that she has eaten at all three of the Clean Plate restaurants.
Frett, an Evanston resident, called the trans fats elimination a “really good idea.”
“Especially if you go to a restaurant, you don’t know what they put in the food, and you are trusting them not to put anything harmful in,” she said.
Even though these three restaurants are well-liked, decisions like this “help build a good feeling about the restaurants,” Frett said.
NU dietitian Rebecca Berman said that the medical community has known that trans fats are damaging for a while.
NU has made an effort to minimize trans fats served at the dining halls, Berman said. The bread, oils, shortening and salad dressings used at the dining halls are all trans-fats-free.
“If there is brand ‘x,’ and brand ‘z’ is trans-fats-free and we can get it, we make the decision to purchase brand ‘z,’ ” Berman said.
Total elimination of trans fats is difficult but should be a long-term goal for NU, Berman said.
“We thought cholesterol was the biggest culprit, but we know there are much more sinister substances in our food,” Berman said.
Reach Saba Berhie at [email protected].
