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In their heyday of the 1970s and 1980s, there were more than 200 - possibly more than 400 - feminist restaurants and coffee shops in the USA and Canada. These places were aiming to change ways of working, and upend the hierarchies of restaurants; to provide food that was ethically sourced and affordable to customers, while providing staff with a decent wage; to signal to particular kinds of people that a space was specifically for them. They didn't always succeed, and often they didn't last for more than a couple of years. But they sure did try things.
Dr Alex Ketchum from McGill University, author of the book Ingredients for Revolution, a History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses and cofounder of the Queer Food Conference, explains the ups and downs of how these places used words.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
Ingredients for Revolution is available via open access - get your free book!
Alex’s directory of all the feminist coffee shops, cafes and restaurants in the USA and Canada is thefeministrestaurantproject.com and being updated regularly. If you know of a place that isn’t listed yet, let her know!
The place the phrase ‘bread and roses’ has in feminist history.
Bread and Roses in Cambridge MA “finally opened in 1975 and appeared to get off to a flying start. In a letter to their shareholders a year later, we are told of their successes. Throughout that first year they held a total of 18 art exhibitions, collected between $50-$125 in donations weekly (for a total of 35 women's organisations), and created a thriving softball team.”
Brick Hut’s closure “was a blow to the 35-member staff, which was mostly female and largely lesbian. For many it was the first job where they could be out lesbians in all their regalia.”
Bloodroot is still going strong!
“Multiple explanations have been offered for the preponderance of gay men in gourmet cooking.” This piece made me keen to read Lustful Appetites: An Intimate History of Good Food and Wicked Sex by Rachel Hope Cleves.
I’ve also been reading Dining Out: First Dates, Defiant Nights, and Last Call Disco Fries at America’s Gay Restaurants by Eric Piepenburg, covering 100 years of gay restaurants.
“I Ate My Way Through America’s Bitch-Themed Restaurants and I Have Feelings.”
Otherlusionists: how about the Food Season episodes? And Fat parts 1 and 2 with Aubrey Gordon. (Yep, the embeds and download links are still messed up on this website, but the entire podcast is available on all the podcast directories as normal.)
Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, regular livestreams with me and my ever-expanding collection of elderly and modern dictionaries, and the Allusioverse Discord community, wherein we are gathering weekly to watch the current season of Great British Bake Off, and donors are learning that apparently it is a surprisingly productive source of writing inspiration for me.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
dele, noun: a proof-reader's sign indicating matter to be deleted.
Verb: (deled, deleing) delete or mark for deletion.
Origin Latin, 'blot out! efface!', imperative of delere.
CREDITS:
Alex Ketchum is a professor at McGill University, and you can find out about her work at alexketchum.ca. Order Alex’s upcoming book Queers at the Table: The Illustrated Guide to Queer Food - with recipes! from Arsenal Pulp Press, attend the launch in Montreal and the Queer Food virtual event on 30 September. And submissions are open for papers for the next Queer Food Conference, happening in May 2026.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social… Essentially: if I’m there, I’m there as @allusionistshow.
Back in two weeks with a new episode - HZ.
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