Metro

Green Applebee’s in Harlem

Get ready for New York’s newest edible eco-trip.

The greenest restaurant in the city — and perhaps the country — will open its doors in East Harlem on Dec. 10 with rooftop rainwater harvesting, waterless urinals and a “living wall” constructed almost entirely of plants.

“No one’s done it before,” said Zane Tankel, CEO of Apple-Metro Inc., which built the new chow house. “It’s a new standard for what a restaurant will look like and what the industry will do.”

The restaurant, an Applebee’s, will be the first in the city to receive a gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the Green Building Council. It cost $4 million to build — $1 million more than a conventional Applebee’s, according to Tankel.

The restaurant features two “waterless” urinals which will each save about 40,000 gallons of water a year and operate simply by letting gravity do the work.

The roof, which is painted white, will keep it cool in the summer and save on air-conditioning costs. And LED lights and energy efficient appliances like fryers that use one-third less gas to run will also keep energy use lower than at a typical restaurant.

Rainwater will be collected in a cistern system on the rooftop and be piped down to two tanks that hold 4,000 gallons, which will be used for toilets that still require water for flushing.

The decorative “living wall” takes up most of the restaurant’s western wall and is made up of hundreds of plants — including dwarf dracaenas, baby tears and oyster plants — that are suspended by trays clipped to a frame.

The plants are watered automatically — 15 minutes each week — through an automated control panel, which controls fertilizing as well.