Denver restaurant group Edible Beats launches hydroponic farm

Tucked behind Vital Root restaurant, in a couple of parking spaces, a 320-square-foot shipping container is producing the same amount of veggies as a 2.5-acre farm.

It’s not Justin Cucci’s original vision for his vegetarian restaurant that opened in 2016 — which was to build a four-story glass cube with three levels of hydroponic planters and a patio, where people could eat where their food is grown. “But that cost more money than anyone would lend us,” said Cucci, the founder of the Edible Beats group, which also owns popular Denver restaurants El Five, Root Down, Linger and Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox.

Instead, Cucci and his employees started a small-scale garden in the restaurant’s backyard, at 3915 Tennyson St., operated a micro-green grow room and rented plots of dirt around town to grow their own herbs and vegetables. In the end, though, “It probably cost us three times more than the market price,” Cucci said. “Arugula was usually $6 a pound and ours probably cost $15 a pound. It’s just the labor, plus we weren’t as efficient at it in comparison to larger operations.”

So, after coming across FarmBox Foods, a Sedalia-based company which builds vertical hydroponic farms in recycled shipping containers, Cucci was quickly sold. And in February, the aquaponic vertical grow room was up and running at Vital Root with the capacity to grow 7,800 plants at once and yield the equivalent of up to 2.5 acres of farmland annually.

“I realized this was game-changing. It’s 365 days a year, temperature controlled, and mostly controlled by software, so we’re not out there digging dirt or figuring out seeds,” Cucci explained. “So once I saw that, I thought, ‘Maybe this is what we’ve been waiting for and didn’t know we needed.’”

The little hydroponic farm, dubbed BeatBox Farms, had its first harvest in April after a few trial-and-error sessions. Cori Hunt, a longtime line cook at RootDown is the restaurant’s resident farmer. Cucci said they expect to harvest 120 pounds of veggies and greens weekly, including red Russian kale, arugula, tatsoi, mustard greens, watercress, basil, cilantro and dill.

“We can produce 100 pounds of BeatBox greens with $20 of energy,” Cucci said. “It’s about four gallons of water a day that recycles and filters. And I tasted them the afternoon they were harvested, and I couldn’t believe how flavorful and dynamic they were.”

Each of Edible Beats’ restaurant menus have some of the greens or veggies incorporated in at least two dishes, and they still supplement produce from local farms. Eventually, Cucci hopes to add a mushroom FarmBox to the mix, which can grow up to 250 pounds of mushrooms each week.

Sustainability and waste reduction is at the forefront of every decision Edible Beats makes, Cucci said, from wind-powered buildings to compostable storage bags and gloves. Half of the restaurant’s menu ingredients are locally sourced in Colorado, in addition to the homegrown produce.

“We deal with nature’s and human’s most important thing, which is food, and I just feel like there’s a responsibility as consumers,” Cucci said. “We consume a lot of resources and goods to feed people, so I want to be cognizant of whether we’re adding to the problem or facilitating solutions. Luckily, we have a culture that goes beyond me, and my staff pushes me to be better all the time.”

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