Power lunch: the greening of Alaska: Fresh Sourdough Express and Organic Oasis offer different type of fare; good for you and environmentally friendly.

• Author: Lavrakas, Dimitra
• Position: This Month's Featured Eateries

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You could call them visionaries, but they'd scoff at that. It was something they did because they believed it was the right thing to do.

Still, what these restaurant owners brought to their communities heralded the current organic approach to eating and brought an environmental consciousness to dining.

Twenty-six years ago, Donna Maltz opened her organic restaurant in Homer--Fresh Sourdough Express. It lives up to it motto: "Food for the people and the planet."

"The locals considered us a hippie restaurant," she said. "Us" includes Kevin Maltz, who walked into the restaurant in 1984, became the head baker and married Donna.

The from-scratch bakery (they grind their own grain) and restaurant serves vegetarian fare, but also more mainstream organic meals. That means meat.

"We're always trying to reach out to people," Donna said.

Sourdough Express is unique in the state, as it is the only member of the Green Restaurant Association, which means everything is recycled or composted and the take-out containers are biodegradable. If you bring your own container or coffee mug, you get 50 cents off.

The restaurant is for sale, and Donna wants whoever buys it to envision it as a chain. The systems she has set up proves that it works.

"This will be around for a long time," she said.

She's started a new business, Green Cuisine Consulting, where she will advise restaurateurs how to become more eco-friendly.

From her days as an organic farmer in Vermont to starting the restaurant, she has always felt that what she was doing was "the right thing to do." She doesn't gloat.

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"It's great that it's finally come around," she said.

Organic Oasis in Anchorage used to buy Sourdough Express' hamburger buns that is before Steve Plante learned how to make them.

Plante also reflected on his early attempts to try and force people to eat "green."

"A group of five came in and asked if we had coffee, and when I said 'No,' they all got up and left," he said. "I never forgot...