There’s nothing easy about working in a restaurant. But even when things are running smoothly, how does one begin to unpack the many social, environmental, and ethical concerns tied to food? Lucky for Restaurant Olivia it now has Paula Thomas on the team to help work those issue out.
Thomas has done extensive research into global food systems, which has led her to overseas operations far more shocking than any sausage factory you think you know. Now, as the restaurant’s newly appointed director of sustainability, she’s channeling her knowledge into meaningful change. Here’s how this small Washington Park eatery is making a big difference and setting a high standard in the Denver dining scene.
The Sustainability Director
Born and raised in Colombia, Thomas was surprised by the grocery aisles when she immigrated to Colorado. “Even though I grew up in a country where most people are not rich, we had access to fruits and vegetables,” said Thomas. The cost of raw produce being comparable to processed canned goods left her scratching her head.
While attending culinary school in 2004, she volunteered with Cooking Matters and delved into food sovereignty. Further digging led her to Slow Food, a grassroots movement that promotes sustainable food systems through thousands of groups across the globe. Inspired by its efforts, Thomas looked to make her own professional pastry operation connected to a place.
“Flour, sugar, eggs, butter, I had no idea where none of that came from,” she said. But in 2009, conversations around food systems weren’t the norm. “Organic, local flour did not exist.” Even organic, Fair Trade-certified sugar was impossible for Thomas to find, much less afford at the time.
Physically and emotionally spent, she closed her pastry business to pursue a master’s degree in food systems, once again turning to Slow Food. Moving to Italy to attend the organization’s University of Astronomic Sciences was a full-circle moment. It was also a pivotal experience for her husband, Scott Thomas, who studied wine culture and is now the wine director at Restaurant Olivia.
During her program, Thomas visited far corners of the world to better understand how food production impacts individuals, communities, and the environment.
“We traveled to the Philippines, to cacao farms, sugar plantations, fishing villages, to see and hear their problems with the deforestation of mangroves,” said Thomas. “I opened the lid and it was heartbreaking. The whole time, I was like, ‘Oh my god. It’s worse than I thought. It is so big, it’s so bad, and we don’t know it.’”
Despite these distressing discoveries, Thomas pushed forward in her research. She traveled to Mexico to meet with various Indigenous groups from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, whose territories are some of the most biodiverse places on the planet. However, industrialized agriculture has or threatens to cause devastating damage. Additional experiences throughout Europe further informed her understanding of international food supply chains.
After completing her degree in 2018, Thomas studied how to practically apply her insights at MAD Academy, the educational arm of Copenhagen’s acclaimed Noma restaurant. She explains, “That part was more business, like how can we make this financially sustainable?”
Balancing profit with social and environmental responsibility is no easy task, but Thomas has created an impressive roadmap for Restaurant Olivia.
The Sustainability Efforts
While the chefs at Olivia ultimately determine sourcing, Thomas informs and suggests local, ethical alternatives. However, gourmet mushrooms from Mile High Fungi, stonefruit from Ela Family Farms, and vegetables from Switch Gears Farm all come at a higher cost. The same goes for ingredients like Bibamba Artisan Chocolate and The Sweetest Bean vanilla.
“If I’m asking you to buy organic Fair Trade sugar, which is three times the price of regular white sugar, I need to find a place where I can reduce your costs so you can have money to buy the sugar that I want you to buy,” she explained.
One of the areas where she’s accomplished this is behind the bar. Prior to her hire, the restaurant was purchasing small, expensive bottles of aromatic bitters. Now, these items are a quarter of the price as Thomas makes them in-house. She also handcrafts ginger beer, kombucha, and a range of new preserved products using scraps that previously went to waste. These include bread miso, citrus vinegar, fermented rhubarb, and kimchi made from squash blossoms.
“What we’re trying to do is reduce what goes into the compost,” she explained, adding the efforts have also limited packaging waste. “We got rid of how many bottles, tops, the plastic that comes around it, all of that is gone.”
Another staff member, Rachel Whimpey, launched a recycling program before Thomas stepped into her role. It’s now been further streamlined in partnership with Ridwell, which takes items that are more difficult to recycle, such as multi-layer plastics. Additionally, with the help of labeled bins, the entire Olivia team now participates in reducing packaging waste.
Thomas further educates her colleagues via the new ten-by-fifteen-foot gardening plot adjacent to the restaurant. As a longtime gardener, she affirmed, “It could definitely produce quite a bit if we are smart.”
In addition to familiarizing the staff with local growing seasons, the plot will provide fresh ingredients for them and restaurant guests.
The Restaurant and Menu
“The three pillars of our business are sustainability, hospitality, and legacy,” said co-owner and beverage director Austin Carson. “We want to build something that lives beyond us, and sustainability is a cornerstone of that.”
According to a recent study by GreenBiz, only 10-percent of companies across multiple sectors have a dedicated sustainability role.
“Our industry is not really designed for this type of hire or for these types of behaviors,” added Carson. “Everything’s been centralized in the name of efficiency and cost reduction.”
Despite this, most restaurants operate on razor-thin margins. Financially, even Michelin-recommended Olivia was not in a place to hire Thomas. But during her interview, he said the restaurant’s leadership was blown away by her depth of knowledge and enthusiasm.
“It was very much us bringing her on board in good faith, knowing where we want to get,” he said. “We’re planting seeds that we hope to harvest down the line.”
With her support, Olivia recently became a certified member of the Seafood Watch Best Choice Restaurant Program. The Scallops entree ($42) served with spring tomato sauce vierge and crispy potatoes now displays an official seal from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Its other sustainable proteins come from Wild Idea Buffalo and Maui Nui Venison, among others.
Meanwhile, co-owner and executive chef Ty Leon has been enjoying the challenge and creativity of incorporating Thomas’s various funky, fermented products into the pasta-focused menu.
“All of these things that she’s making are new ingredients for us, and we have to learn how to turn them into something,” he explained.
Several items appear in the current dishes. For example, the first course on the $115 tasting menu showcases Thomas’s bread miso, which she made from the restaurant’s leftover focaccia. “She started that back in January and it’s all fermented, salty, and delicious,” comments Leon, who infused it into a Chilled Velouté featuring Colorado asparagus, tomato jam, and smoked trout croutons.
The Tempura Squash Blossoms small plate ($19) was also a collaborative dish between Leon and Thomas. Its filling blends spicy butternut squash kimchi purée, smoky chilies that were dehydrated and powdered in-house, buffalo ricotta, pecorino, and fennel pollen.
Other new additions at one of the city’s top Italian eateries include the koji-calabrian chili honey drizzled on the Whipped Goat Cheese ($14) and the parmesan vinaigrette tossed with the Chopped Salad ($14), which also incorporates local greens, apple, and pistachios.
Thomas has also influenced the beverage menu, with blood orange kosho infused into the High and Dry cocktail ($16) alongside Dryland Distillers’ prickly pear cactus liquor, rhubarb, vanilla, and lime. Her lacto-fermented honey and kumquat bitters amplify its signature Old Fashioned ($16) made with bourbon, rye, and hibiscus.
“I tell our staff this all the time, I’m more interested in trajectory than I am at any fixed point in time,” concluded Carson. “We’re not perfect, we’re never going to be perfect. But are we moving in the right direction? I’m not ashamed of anything that we’ve done, but we’ve definitely evolved a lot over the last 12 to 18 months.”
Visit Restaurant Olivia Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m. 290 S. Downing St., Denver, oliviadenver.com
