Uncommon Ground, Chicago

Cocktails are supposed to make you feel warm inside, but Uncommon Ground’s Agripolitan takes the good vibes to an entirely different level. Every time the bartenders mix one of these organic vodka-based drinks, the café makes a donation to the Organic Roof Top Farm Urban-Agriculture Internship Program, a community orchard that supports rare and endangered fruit varieties.

This philanthropic effort is absolutely central to Uncommon Ground’s mission of sustainability, which permeates everything at the two locations on Clark and Devon (the café on Devon even has an organic rooftop farm, from which the chefs harvest all the vegetables to fill out their menu). The lunch and dinner cuisine skews classic American, though innovative flourishes abound in dishes such as bacon-wrapped meatloaf and sweet potato fries with goat cheese fondue. Everything on the roof ends up on the menu in some form or another, and that—along with hundreds of other environmental initiatives—led the Green Restaurant Association to name Uncommon Ground the greenest restaurants in America in 2011.

Yet owner Michael Cameron wasn't content to rest on those impressive accolades. In the summer of 2014, Mr. Cameron and his colleagues embarked on a new adventure: Greenstar Brewing, which the Midwest Organic Services Association certified as the first organic brewery in Illinois, according to the Chicago Reader. Here, the team brews organic kölsch, American pale ale, and other beers that eventually make their ways to both restaurants' taps.