Ciudad Chef/Owners Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger have always been champions of the environment and in recent years have stepped up their efforts with a host of environmentally-friendly policies at their restaurants.

● Ciudad serves only sustainable seafood, as part of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program. It’s our mission to make lesser known, delicious, sustainable seafood like Arctic char, black cod, and barramundi as appealing as perennial favorites like salmon. As part of the Seafood Watch program, Ciudad distributes pocket seafood guides to customers.

● Ciudad developed a program called "Good for the Planet, Good for You" giving guests the opportunity to choose dishes made with at least 80% plant-based ingredients. Because 18% of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock--more than from transportation--and Americans eat about twice as much of the daily protein recommended by the USDA, Ciudad is encouraging guests to get meat out of the center of the plate and build the meal around vegetables, grains, beans, salads, and fruit.

● Ciudad does not serve swordfish or most species of tuna, working with Oceana, a leading international conservation organization, in their Stop Seafood Contamination campaign. Oceana aims to reduce the amount of mercury released into the environment, as well as educate the public about the risks of consuming fish with high mercury levels. As part of Oceana’s campaign, Ciudad agreed to remove swordfish and most tuna from its menus because of high mercury content. (After much research, we recently decided to occasionally serve albacore tuna as a low-mercury alternative to high-mercury bluefin, bigeye, and yellowfin tunas)

● Ciudad does not serve Canadian seafood. After joining the Humane Society’s “Protect Seals” Campaign, Ciudad took a pledge to boycott Canadian seafood products until Canada ends its commercial seal hunt.

● Ciudad uses the Natura water purification system, instead of bottled water transported from around the world. The reusable glass bottles provide an environmentally-friendly alternative to the waste associated with the manufacture, transport, and disposal of conventional bottled water.

● Ciudad uses organic long-grain rice, black beans, eggs, milk, and coffee, as well as beef, lamb, and uncured pork raised without hormones and antibiotics. We use seasonal, locally grown ingredients whenever possible and do not use any products containing artificial trans fat.