The bar at Restaurant Olivia stocks spirits from all around the world, but what sets the Italian eatery’s cocktails apart are house-made flourishes using ingredients you might not expect in a mixed drink—like syrup made from kabocha squash. In addition to providing unique flavor, this syrup and other ingredients like it are part of an overall mission to find uses for fruit and vegetable trimmings otherwise destined for the trash. The seeds and peels from squash that appeared on Olivia’s dinner menu in the winter give the syrup a unique, fruity depth—and often have diners doing a double take when they read the menu.

Restaurant Olivia co-owners Austin Carson, Heather Morrison, and Ty Leon created a new director of sustainability position and hired Paula Thomas at the end of 2024 to lend her vision to the restaurant and its upcoming sibling, Restaurant Emilia, slated to open at the end of the year in RiNo. That kabocha cocktail syrup was one of Thomas’ first contributions to the menu.

“We laid a lot of groundwork prior to Paula’s arrival,” Carson says, noting that Restaurant Olivia (named after Carson and Morrison’s daughter) had already been recycling and composting through companies like Ridwell and Scraps, which specialize in waste management above and beyond city services. (Ridwell has a solution for all those wine corks, and Scraps composts paper products that are off-limits in city bins.) “Having your kid’s name on the wall really makes you think about your legacy.”

As the director of sustainability, Thomas examines nearly every aspect of the business: energy and water consumption, waste management, procurement, and food production. She spends roughly half of her week doing hands-on research and development in the kitchen to create useful and tasty ingredients—like house-made miso, vinegar, pickles, preserves, and other fermented foods—for the food and beverage menus. Since serving fermented and preserved foods often requires state or even federal approval, getting the proper licenses is part of Thomas’ job, too.

In addition to developing innovative ingredients, Thomas also weighs every single piece of produce before and after it gets broken down by a prep cook to determine the cost per pound of used and unused parts of fruit and vegetables. “Produce is sold by weight, but a lot of it gets thrown away; in the long run, we’ll start tracking numbers on these,” Thomas says. “I’m looking at reducing bills, paying less for recycling, and saving money on product.”

A jar of orange past with a tape label reading pumpkin miso with a date and ingredients
Pumpkin miso is one way Restaurant Olivia reduces food waste. Photo by Austin Carson

When she’s not in the kitchen, you’ll find Thomas at her computer applying for grants that can help the business become more energy efficient by using the funding to replace HVAC systems and lighting. She also recently landed certification through the city’s Certifiably Green Denver program, which could open up more financial resources for the restaurant.

But  sustainability isn’t just about finding creative uses for produce and pursuing grant money. Thomas is also collaborating with food distributors to minimize the plastic packaging that proteins and produce come in, and she consults the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Sustainability Guide to help select ethically sourced seafood for the menu.

The final piece of the puzzle is partnering with Colorado grain farmers for Olivia’s pastas. “To the extent that we can work directly with farmers, it puts us in a mutually beneficial situation,” Carson says. “We can offset the risk of loss associated with being a farmer, and we can reduce costs by purchasing grain from the source and milling it to order.”

Not only is reducing waste, energy, and water usage important for the environment, it’s also important for a growing business. With the cost of food, rent, utilities, and other expenses skyrocketing, saving money can help bring on more employees—and that leads to more innovation and more exciting menu options and events for customers.

Beyond dinner service, the Olivia team offers regularly scheduled classes with the culinary team, including Thomas. Learn how to make pasta at an upcoming class and you might even pick up some tips on how to incorporate sustainable practices into your own kitchen.

Restaurant Olivia is located at 290 South Downing Street, Denver (Washington Park). Hours are 5 p.m.–10 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.