217. Bread and Roses, and Coffee
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
4.7 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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, author of Ingredients for Revolution, a History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses, explains the ups and downs of how these places used words.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the illusionist in which I, Helen Zaltzman, stockpile language for the coming winter. |
| 0:10.0 | Today's episode is about a particular genre of restaurant and coffee shop, the words they used to describe themselves, |
| 0:16.0 | how they signal to their clientele in overt and covert ways, |
| 0:20.0 | how they demonstrated their politics and principles, and how they described their food. |
| 0:25.5 | Content note, the episode contains references to anti-trans movements of the past, |
| 0:30.3 | but never forget, The Illusionist is a show for all genders, |
| 0:34.1 | and I direct you to some past episodes about that, like No Title, Parents, Fiona, |
| 0:39.8 | Parts 1 and 2, and Name Changes. |
| 0:42.9 | I'm a guest on the new season of the podcast, Making Trouble, hosted by the marvellous writer Molly |
| 0:48.7 | Naylor. |
| 0:49.6 | I was never very into poetry until I read her collection, whatever you've got. So I was very excited to get |
| 0:55.1 | to be on her podcast. We had a big chat about creativity and ideas and career fears and such, |
| 1:01.0 | and you can listen to making trouble in the pod places. You know where they are. On with the show. |
| 1:14.5 | Bread and Roses Feminist Restaurant |
| 1:15.5 | Artemist Society Women's Cafe |
| 1:17.6 | Mother Courage feminist restaurant |
| 1:19.6 | Sapphoes |
| 1:20.5 | Boulder Lesbian Network Coffee House |
| 1:23.5 | Susan B's Feminist Restaurant |
| 1:25.4 | Crohn's Harvest Radical Lesbian Feminist Coffee House |
| 1:28.3 | Gaya Restaurant, Dapper Women's Restaurant, |
| 1:31.2 | Peach Street Dining Club for Women's Friends, |
... |
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