/ Photo By Betsy Wilson

As 17 year old Lee Williams takes a bite out of his buffalo chicken pizza, buffalo wing sauce and gorgonzola drips onto the table, obscuring the musical notes and treble clefs lying under the glaze. He is too busy savoring the pizza to notice. The smell of roasted red peppers and Pabst Blue Ribbon—on sale for $1 a longneck—sits heavy in the air while books with titles like Nostradamus and his Prophecies and Art History’s History lay clumsily on an aged bookshelf, directly under a chess set, Battleship, and a German English dictionary. The sound of the Budget Band, an acoustic folk group playing every Wednesday, wafts through the air from the back dining room. With the soft, muted lights and the wine bar behind me, I am no longer in Bowling Green. I’m in Louisville. Or Chicago. Or perhaps New York.

I am still in Bowling Green, though, which is what makes Greener Groundz so special. The heir to the hipster coffeehouse throne left empty by the closing of Bread and Bagel, Greener Groundz inherited the blink-and-you-miss it hole-in-the wall brick building on Broadway. Yet Greener Groundz is not something to be missed. In fact, it stands out among Bowling Green businesses as singular and unique.

Opened by Benita Bartley and Molly Kerby as a place to find local food, local music, and local artists, Greener Groundz has become destination dining for many WKU students, professors, and Bowling Green locals. And with theme nights such as “Budget Wednesday,” featuring $1 Pabst Blue Ribbon longnecks and $1 sandwich-minis, or “D’Vine Wine Night,” with $2 glasses of wine, each Thursday representing a different country, it’s no surprise. “We cater each night so we can get a wide range of people,” says Amy Satterfield, a PPR, or “primary person responsible” at the coffeehouse. “We get a lot of different types. Artists, professors.” And considering they’re right in the middle of town, they get a fair share of blue collar workers too, Satterfield says.

However, the type Satterfield is most interested in talking about is the environmentalists that come in. Which is no surprise, considering Satterfield herself is a sustainability-minded manager at a coffeehouse that’s name itself invokes the need to go green. She speaks with enthusiasm and genuine passion about sustainability and reducing carbon footprints, and says she enjoys going to work because she feels she works for a business that is standing up for the environment. She seems to find it difficult to stop singing the praises of Greener Groundz, a restaurant that grows its own mint out back and “is all about localness,” according to Satterfield.

“All about localness” it is. This is a business dedicated to the local community, whether it’s donating a portion of their profits from “Pasta for Pups” night to a local animal shelter or helping out by raising money for Take Back the Night. According to Satterfield, any ingredients Bartley and Kerby can get from local farmers, they do. Buying heavily from local farmers’ markets and sustainability minded local businesses, Greener Groundz places an emphasis on environmentalism, even at the grassroots level. “We use what we have until it dies,” Satterfield says, quickly adding “but our food is fresh.”

Lee Williams agrees. Stuffing a slice of his buffalo chicken pizza in his mouth, he declares it “the best pizza in town,” saying he enjoys coming to Greener Groundz because it is “organic but not expensive.” But it isn’t just the affordability that endears Greener Groundz to Williams. He raves about the atmosphere, which with its soft, amber lights and intimate dining room conspires to make for a cozy place to grab an early morning cup of coffee, evening glass of wine, or anything in between.

If Greener Groundz succeeds at being an environmentally conscious business, it goes above and beyond in creating arguably the friendliest atmosphere of any restaurant in town. On this particular night I went alone, yet was immediately joined by Satterfield and Williams, the latter of which I had never met. It’s that welcoming and sociable atmosphere that attracts many to Greener Groundz, including Williams. “You get to see lots of friends,” he says. Satterfield agrees: “You go to any other restaurant and you get the mentality of people who don’t care.”