Community Food & Juice

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If eateries won awards for good intentions, Community Food & Juice would score a sweep. It’s got eco-friendly bona fides like energy-saving kitchen equipment, composting, and tables made of reclaimed wood. Bottled water’s 86’d in favor of filtered H2O, served in recycled wine bottles. If owners DeDe Lahman and Neil Kleinberg wanted a gimmick to stand out in the restaurant-thick neighborhood, they’ve succeeded. But there’s also real heart here, as you’d expect from the founders of downtown’s beloved Clinton St. Baking Co. Relationships with local farmers and Greenmarketeers mean a seasonally driven menu: An intense, polychrome Bowl O’Beets appetizer with whipped goat cheese might precede a juicy, hormone-and-antibiotic-free burger from Angello’s Farm in upstate New York, served with handcut fries. If you’ve got room, follow up with butterscotch pudding and rich organic espresso. At the higher end of moderate, prices here haven’t scared away Morningside Heights grownups; the stark, dark-wood-accented room is packed nightly, and weekend brunch is a green riot. — Michael Kaminer

Bowl O Beets, $9; natural grass-fed beef burger, $13; rice bowl with grilled wild king salmon, $14

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