If you've ever idly considered paying a visit to the first restaurant in Philadelphia to earn a Green certification from the Green Restaurant Association - and really, who hasn't? - today might be a good day to go ahead and do it. That's because the eatery in question, the Pita Pit at 1601 Sansom Street, will be giving away free pita sandwiches from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Yeah, that's right, free. While you're mulling that over, the Green Restaurant Association is a national non-profit that "provides a convenient and cost-effective way for restaurants, manufacturers, distributors and consumers to become more environmentally responsible." You can read about their standards for assessing a restaurant's "green" quotient here.

Philly Pita Pit owner Adam Green recounts that he and his business partner were already looking into LEED certification when they learned about the GRA. "They do a full analysis of the store," he explained. "They gave us three pro-active steps to take." 

Among the changes Pita Pit made was switching to high-efficiency lighting, replacing standard plasticware with  biodegradable greenware and using recycleable napkins. But the GRA requires certificate-holders to continue their green efforts year after year, rather than sitting back on their laurels. "So this year we're looking into starting composting, we're adding high-efficiency hand-driers and greening all our paper products."

Well, sure, that's laudable, and likely reason enough to check the place out sometime... but what was this about the free pita sandwiches? 

"Yeah, they're doing a promotion to get people to taste the chicken veggie steak," Green says, referring to Vegedelphia Foods, a local (ya think?) company that produces Veggie Lean, a wheat-based meat substitute that you may have encountered - along with their crab-free crabcakes - down at CB Park. "They're gonna be here live from two to six, getting testimonials" from people who try the product, in a bid "to see if they can franchise it, you know, get it in all the [Pita Pit] stores nationally."

This would be a coup for the wheat-meat company, as Green said there are around 200 Pita Pits nationwide, "about 195 open already" and a handful more in the process of starting up. On a related note, Green mentioned that the Pita Pit in State College, which he also runs, will be doing a similar promotion on Thursday, "in case anybody happens to be out there at Penn State."

To get your free pita sandwich you will need to register and fill out a brief questionnaire, which you can do at the door or at this online link in advance. "We're trying to get a sense of how many vegetarians are out there," Green said. "We've already had 400 people register."

Even if you're not veg but want to support the option of a meatless steak sandwich now and then - or if you want to learn more about that Green Restaurant certification - it could be worth a trip to 16th and Sansom today.