Creativity and distinction in the hotel business is essential to success. Hotel designers around the world have discovered the growing need for individuality in hotel spaces. Every day, hotel owners are ...
Green Ingredients: Celeb caterer Akasha Richmond serves up organic cuisine in a sustainable environment.
By Matthew Hall
Akasha isn't one of the one-name wonders our star-struck culture is so inebriated with-at least not yet. But while she's not in the same stratosphere as Madonna or Elton, vegan cook Akasha Richmond is nonetheless well-known in organic foodie circles (especially in LA-LA land) as the "caterer to the stars." (She's also spokesperson for a soymilk brand and a columnist for the Vegetarian Times.)
Given all that green cred, it's no surprise that in opening the self-named Akasha restaurant/bar/bakery in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City, Richmond says she sought to serve up "food that's healthy for my customers in a setting that's healthy for the planet." In keeping with the latter goal, Richmond chose space in an 83-year-old building as the site of her restaurant. That structure, known locally as the Hull Building, housed Culver City's first hospital for several decades, followed by a succession of businesses in more recent years.
The 5,400 square feet of space Richmond took over most recently housed an Italian restaurant. Brought in to whip up a renovation plan for the space was sustainable architect/designer Alexis Readinger of Preen Inc. "My goal was to give Akasha a comfortable, innovative look in an environmentally sustainable, artisan design," says Readinger, whose résumé includes stops at Dodd Mitchell Design and Thomas Schoos Design. "That meant the use of a variety of local, natural, recycled and recyclable materials."
Readinger started by restoring the building's steel, wood, concrete and brick bones to their original condition. Then she saturated the space with a spate of sustainable materials and technologies, including furniture made of organic leather and hemp fabric; energy-efficient lighting (LEDs, metal halide and compact fluorescents); natural ceramic tile flooring made from sand; and stalls in the restrooms made of reclaimed wood.
Businesses like Akasha, which wear their sustainability as a badge of honor, can face the danger of coming off as "holier-than-thou places," the Los Angeles Times noted in its review of the restaurant. Akasha dodged that bullet by finding "the sweet spot: an everyday restaurant with healthful comfort food and an appealing urban vibe," wrote Times reviewer S. Irene Virbila.
That's just one of several positive reviews the restaurant has generated since its opening in February 2008. In addition, Richmond's efforts to create her restaurant were captured in a one-hour "Flip the Restaurant" special for the TLC cable channel. Given all that coverage, her days of single-name fame may well be in reach.