America’s First Feminist Restaurant

After centuries of oppression in both the private and public spheres and an absence of
personal autonomy, women in the United States sought liberation, forming various feminist
groups throughout the country in the 1960’s in order to establish their rights. In this formation
of women’s liberation groups, spaces outside of the home became necessary for women to
have safe places for feminist discussion. In their fight against segregation and towards agency,
women congregated to educate one another, spreading the resistant ideology as a means to
undermine society’s patriarchal structure. Although, as many feminists faced divides in their
classes and races, this complicated their ability to unite publicly and eventually caused women
in the 1970’s to open feminist restaurants, bars, and cafés across the United States. While
many of these restaurants did not strictly prohibit men as customers, they were all opened by
women in the hopes of creating safe spaces for protesting women and the queer community.

Mother Courage: Menu cover and bonus photograph (Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History
Repository)

The New York City restaurant Mother Courage, is said to be the first feminist
restaurant in the U.S. which was opened in 1972 by Dolores Alexander and Jill Ward. Despite
its closing only five years later, Mother Courage inspired the opening of many more women-
run restaurants and cafes across the country through the 1970’s, ‘80’s and ‘90’s. In featuring
inclusive food choices, the use of feminist symbols and language, and often supporting
sustainable food practices, feminist menus actively reflect feminist ideology. These menus
serve as a platform for social and political commentary, using food as a vehicle to dismantle
patriarchal norms and create spaces that embrace empowerment (Ketchum, 2022)

Cafés as Political Spaces

In 1974, soon after the opening of Mother Courage, the Women’s Coffee House was opened
by Judy O’Neil and Shari Thaler, both lesbian women. The space was women-only, inviting
queer and feminist women to gather over coffees, teas and desserts and indulge in political
discussions concerning their oppression and liberation. The café often held activist-led
conferences that advocated for lesbian and feminist concerns (Kahn, 2020).

Women’s Coffee House (1974-1978): Menu

Despite the drawing of a hand holding a coffee mug with the female symbol on it, the coffee
house’s menu seemingly has the structure of a typical café menu with several selections of
coffees, teas, cold drinks, assorted snacks and desserts. Notably, the menu includes a selection
of “chocolate” under the “hot drinks” section, offering customers a variety of chocolate-
centered drinks, serving as a reflection of the feminization in the consumption of chocolate
(Robertson, 2017). The “solids” section of the menu, a deadpan humorous way to categorize
the list of small snacks, features a varying selection of hearty and mostly vegetarian options.
With a choice from dried fruit, nuts, and various spreads on crackers, the menu has no meat
options other than “beef or onion buon”. “Buon” in this context is likely to refer to
“Bouillon”, which is the French word for broth. The abbreviated word is evidence of the
straight-forward and casual tone of the menu, in addition to the simple, type-writer font and
the use of short-cut symbols like “@”, “½” and “&/”. This mimics the tone of a common cafe
in order to encourage guests to feel comfortable in the political environment and create a
sense of equality. The menu’s inclusive variety further creates a sense of comfort and
acceptance within the space, reflecting the values of the feminist community. Finally, the lack
of meat on the menu is characteristic of feminist food, a trait that can be seen across womens
restaurant menus.
The Intersectionality of Vegetarianism and Feminism
Opened in 1977 by Selma Miriam and Noel Furie, Bloodroot is one of few feminist
restaurants that remains open today. The Connecticut restaurant has no waitresses and an
informal operating style, prompting guests to pick their meal from a blackboard and bring it to
their own tables (Bloodroot, 2015).
 Bloodroot (1977-2024): Blackboard menu and current brunch menu

The restaurant's seasonal menus undergo regular changes, yet they consistently feature
fresh and meatless dishes. To effectively compare these dishes, I selected the current Brunch
menu, in order to focus on recurring elements such as cheese, eggs, fruit, and bread that
persist over time. The space serves to resist that of the patriarchal 1970s dining experience,
wherein many women had to be accompanied by their husbands and the choice of strict
vegetarianism reflects this. In using soy, tofu and mushrooms as substitutes for meat, the
ingredients similarly resist patriarchal structures - as many feminists linked the oppression of
women to that of animals. The Bloodroot menus have long stood at the intersection of
vegetarianism and feminism, using food to protest through resistance to the dominant culture.
As vegetarianism is more common today, the Bloodroot menu is not strikingly different from
other current meatless brunch options though, its women-empowered environment sets it apart
as a political space.

Hospitality Through Menus

The Brick Hut Cafe (1975-1997): 20th anniversary menu

The Brick Hut Cafe, which opened in 1975 in Berkeley, California, is another one of many
vegetarian-friendly feminist restaurants. This menu, which was for their 20th anniversary
included a variety of breakfast and brunch options that are almost entirely exclusive of meat.
With a similarly simple design, The Brick Hut Cafe’s menu features locally-sourced, fresh
ingredients, offering the choice between pancakes, waffles, french toast, cereals and
additional specials and combinations. The menu allows the guest to pick between several
variations of each dish, meeting the tastes of diverse diners. This speaks towards the
hospitality of feminist restaurants as they aspired to create a sanctuary for queer and female
guests, providing options for all to create a sense of community (Antonuccio, 2011). With
language such as “we welcome the community”, “of course we also have…” and “please”
included throughout the menu, the menu reinforces the feminist ideologies, similarly to how
“feminist restaurants used food to undermine oppressive sexist structures” (Ketchum, 2022).

Feminist Restaurants Today

Feminist restaurants have existed for over 50 years as places of protest and
community, though their presence has severely diminished. Due to the progress of the
women’s liberation movement, political spaces for women are less urgent in modern
American society. Many queer restaurants continue to exist, often adopting the same
welcoming and vegetarian qualities as these feminist menus. Through these feminist
restaurants, food has created community and served as a vehicle for activism, fostering a
sense of solidarity and empowerment among marginalized groups.

Mother Courage (Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository)