Amazing “Clean” Food

Since 2017, Blackjax American Pub and Grill has engaged in a clean food initiative.

At Blackjax, we believe that you are what you eat. In 2017 we started our clean food initiative which included removing bleached products from our table tops. We decided to swap our bleached table salt for pink Himalayan salt, we removed the bleached sugars and swapped them for sugar in the raw, and we removed chemical sweeteners and replace them with plant-based sweeteners.

We started to learn about clean food from a very different perspective. We took the time, and became extremely educated on different products, where to source them, and what the benefits are. We learned that many countries outside of the United States do not allow chemicals in their food. We learned that sourcing certain cheese product from New Zealand was beneficial because it was a organic, hormone free product, even though it wasn’t labeled. We also learned about sourcing different proteins, where to get them from, and why we were making those purchases.

Our initiative took us to getting rid of items that everyone consumed the most, and finding a scratch alternative to them. If you ever wondered why you get ketchup in a ramekin at Blackjax, it’s because we use BPA free number 10 cans of ketchup that is made with cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. They are Italian made products, and their ingredients are very limited.

All of our soup stocks are made from byproducts and scraps from our kitchen, but in the flavoring, we only use organic stocks. 

We’ve learned that corn is subsidized by the government which is why it is used as a sweetener in so many products. We don’t have anything against corn, but we are concerned about the chemicals used to aid in the sweetening process. We just don’t believe chemicals should be in food. If you’ve ever wondered why we only serve glass bottle Coke products, it is because of the products on the gun contain high fructose corn syrup. We’ve removed all of those where commercially feasible, and continued on with products made only with cane sugar.

We’ve learned that our fresh bread that comes in daily does not have preservatives, but you would find them in the bagged bread at the store. 

We’ve also learned that there are many issues surrounding bromate in flour as well. We now only use non-bleached, non-bromated, flour, and non-enriched in all of our batters, breadings, and any other recipes that call for flour. 

Are we have converted to 100% peanut oil in our cooking process. Since fried foods is one of the highest consumed products in our restaurants, we feel that we should use the absolute best product to fry in. 100% peanut oil has zero trans fat, zero saturated fat, a good flavor profile, and does not expose us to the same risks, associated with soy, and blended oils.

In our search for better products, we’ve also learned better processes. We’ve removed our chemical dishwasher, and decided to spend a large portion more for a high temperature dishwasher. In our mind, the less chemicals touching things we eat, helps us achieve a better standard. 

Some people ask why we do it… Well, that’s simple. It’s because we care. Thank you for being a part of BlackJax.