Sustainability in restaurants is not only about compost bins and recycled takeout containers (though those help). It’s a continuous endeavour, an ethos of how you trim your vegetables and write the menu, the difference between buying what’s available and asking why it’s available in the first place.

To co-owners and chefs, Lucas Johnston and Devon Latte, “hyper local means trying to use as many local purveyors and ingredients as possible.” In practice that means animal proteins are secondary. No produce from outside BC, no grains outside of Canada. The lemons from Jane ​​Squier on Saltspring or Local Harvest in Chilliwack are precious, so you won’t find a wedge dangling off your gin and tonic.

The menu defers to micro seasons, requiring both creativity and dexterity. When figs show up one morning, fresh cheese gets made that afternoon, so they can be served together that night. “Challenges have included filling gaps [in] ordering, as we can’t just walk to the grocery store,” Johnston explains. “We must drive to a local farm or call in a favour, weekly market runs on Saturday mornings, [and] running on little to no sleep.”

Nothing is wasted. Kelp left over from dashi making gets smoked, then becomes oil, to be spooned onto the finished broth. “Pulp from our oil making is used in marinades or emulsions, buttermilk from churning our cream into butter is used to make vinaigrettes or brines,” Latté adds. “Leftover BC-grown rice each night is turned into porridge then dehydrated and puffed crispy for the same dish.”

In June, kimchi, fava beans, and ricotta met up with first-of-season tomatoes. The by-product, whey, from that ricotta was reduced into a caramel with Quebec maple syrup, as part of the radish sundae.

Beyond the plate, they’re pushing for a better kitchen culture. No day rates, fair tip shares, and extending their belief in “full use” to the space itself, opening the restaurant to other industry professionals as a creative platform, a way of paying forward the help bestowed upon them when they started.

It’s everything; the sourcing, the reusing, the way of working that respects farmers and fisher folk, using every last part of what they bring to your door. The mental gymnastics and even their obvious joy, it all comes from the same place. “Hyper local” is less slogan and something real, more lived. It’s respect.