Tomorrow, as part of the Eating for Education campaign to raise awareness about and money for school gardens, San Francisco restaurants Bar Agricole, Bar Jules, Contigo, Delfina, and Zuni -- along with coffee companies Blue Bottle and Four Barrel -- will donate a percentage of the day's profits to the Hunters Point school garden and cooking program serving some 250 mostly low-income children of color from elementary age through to high school. The Bayview-Hunters Point area of the city is known more for fast food than fresh food; only about five percent of food sold in the neighborhood is considered fresh.
Ace fundraiser and Chez alum Samin Nosrat is in charge of the Eating for Education effort, a nation-wide, one-day event (find a complete list of participants on the Eating for Education site.)
For many restauranteurs, participating was a no-brainer. "The Boys and Girls Club in Hunters Point is a model program and this is a cause that's important to us," said Brett Emerson of Contigo. "Showcasing for children in a fun and engaging way the fundamentals of nutrition, respect for those that grow our food and passion for eating is key."
Another Chez alum, Gilbert Pilgrim of Zuni, chimed in: "We believe that people will eat in a healthy manner if they start doing it while they are young. This is a worthy cause that deserves all our support."
For the Boys and Girls Club, the campaign is an opportunity to connect with chefs and reach others in the food movement who value edible education for youth, said Brittany Johnson, a spokesperson for the organization.
While Zuni is full for Saturday night, Contigo still has room for both reservations and walk-ins who want to eat well -- and support edible education at the same time.
Unless you've been living in a cave the last week or two you likely know that a certain iconic restaurant in Berkeley is celebrating its 40th birthday this weekend.
Today, however, Waters took to the streets of San Francisco -- in Maiden Lane off Union Square no less -- to serve lunch, sell T-shirts, and sign books.
On the menu: School lunch, of course, or Waters' vision of what school lunch should be. The boxed lunches were a fundraiser for the newly named nonprofit Edible Schoolyard Project, a national organization designed to integrate garden and kitchen education into grade-school curriculum. Suggested donation: $5 a pop for a box and 400 lunches sold out within an hour or so. In the mix: Smoked pulled chicken baguette (featuring Soul Food Farm chicken, Dirty Girl Farm shallot and Early Girl tomato, and Little City Gardens herbs and baby, frilly mustard greens) with harissa and aioli. The sandwich was accompanied by La Tercera cucumber pickles and radish, along with Knoll Farms figs, Lagier Ranches Bronx grapes, and Happy Quail Farms peppers. For veggies: Pounded lemon thyme pistou with iacopi butter bean mash, Dirty Girl tomatoes, pickled vegetables, and aforementioned frilly mustard greens. And to wash all those organic veggies down, a refreshing drink of Full Belly Farm yellow doll watermelon with anise hyssop and lime juice.
Got all that? There will be a quiz after lunch. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the Chez chefs were all too busy prepping for the weekend galas to whip up lunch today, which was outsourced to Nicole Lobue's Lobue Events, a high-end catering company, in close consultation with Waters, of course.
Waters also teamed up with another local-gone-global icon, Levi's, to launch a limited-edition t-shirt collection (100 % organic cotton, natch) designed by Alice Waters (who 'fessed up to help from chef Sylvan Brackett on her tee) and four well-known creative types: musician David Byrne, filmmaker Sofia Coppola, author Dave Eggers and illustrator Maira Kalman. Alas, none of the luminaries were on hand this afternoon to model the $30 shirts, proceeds from the sale also support the Edible Schoolyard Project. Beginning today, the shirts are available in select Levi’s stores and online at levi.com. At lunch some 40 or so Ts were snapped up, Kalman's pie print proving as popular as Waters' apple images.
Waters addressed the crowd and the media asking: "What could be more universal than blue jeans and edible education?" To which there were no snappy rejoinders, since this is Waters' moment in the sun. Levi's honcho Robert Hanson told a story about his then-very-pregnant girlfriend insisting the couple keep a date at Chez Panisse, some years ago. That night, she gave birth to a baby girl, who's been an organic vegetarian eater ever since. Cue awww now.
It was all very lovely: Wheelbarrows full of freshly harvested produce, including ground cherries, squash, and aromatic herbs from the ESY garden, along with cute little booths. The communal tables sported linen table cloths and posies of fresh flowers. Waters sang the praises of freshly picked garlic the way she has famously waxed about a perfect peach and stressed the importance of educating all the nation's children about good food and the pleasures of the table.
The crowd was a mixed bag of die-hard Chez Panisse fans, supporters of Waters' school lunch and slow food agenda, self-described foodies -- and nearby workers who stumbled onto a good thing. Some in line said that the boxed lunch was the closest they'd ever get to Chez Panisse food, since the high-end restaurant is out of reach for many. Some had never heard of the Edible Schoolyard, offering proof that Waters' mission is far from over.
The local food legend, who signed copies of her new book 40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering, shook hands with lunch-goers waiting in line to eat and promised the mellow crowd of 500 or so that anyone who missed out on a meal was invited to come eat at Chez Panisse. No word on who would foot the bill.
When asked if her offer was good, press rep David Prior, who was fairly confident that everyone who wanted a box lunch was accommodated, said: "I wouldn't be surprised. There's nothing Alice likes less than running out of food. She's all about feeding people."
A new class at UC Berkeley is getting a lot of buzz. Edible Education: The Rise and Future of the Food Movement is all about food politics. In an unusual step, Cal is opening up the 13-week course to the general public. Well, the class was open to all. Three hundred free tickets for the first night were snatched up in less than fifteen minutes. Student enrollment filled up just as fast. Edible Education is being organized, and funded, by Alice Water’s Chez Pannise Foundation. Nikki Henderson, the executive director of People’s Grocery in Oakland, along with author and U.C. Berkeley journalism professor Michael Pollan, will co-teach the semester course.
Michael Pollan. Photo: Alia Malley
Think of the sustainable food movement as a dinner party. Edible Education will take a look at the guest list and topics of conversation. How do the slow food movement and food justice fit together? What does corporate food look like? The class will feature immigrant farm workers telling their own stories. Each week will include a guest lecturer.
Here’s the line-up:
8/30: The Global Food Movement, Founder Carlo Petrini with Corby Kummer
A full-service grocery store may finally come to the people of West Oakland. It looks like the People's Community Market, a long-anticipated mid-size retailer in West Oakland, may be a step closer to raising the capital it needs to break ground with the announcement today by First Lady Michelle Obama about a new food financing initiative designed to increase access to healthy, affordable food in underserved communities in this state.
That's the local take away from a White House press conference Wednesday, where FLOTUS announced that The California FreshWorks Fund, a $200 million public-private partnership loan fund and a project of The California Endowment, will help bring healthy grocers to food deserts or areas that lack a grocery store. The endowment, a private statewide health foundation established to expand access to affordable, quality health care for communities in need, has been joined by prominent investors on the project, including NCB FSB, Kaiser Permanente, and JP Morgan Chase.
The goal of the fund is to provide loans at or below market rates to encourage new stores in Californian food deserts and it is expected to create or retain some 6000 jobs in the state. The First Lady also announced commitments from large chain retailers, including Walgreens and Walmart, to open or expand 1,500 stores in food deserts around the country. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates, 23.5 million Americans-- including 6.5 million children--live in low-income neigborhoods that lack stores likely to sell affordable and nutritious foods.
"The FreshWorks funding is so applicable to what we do and it's a real acknowledgement of the work we've done for nine years in the community to be invited to this event," said People's Grocery executive director Nikki Henderson, who was summoned to the White House for the announcement. Since 2002, People's Grocery has provided food education, training, and access to residents of West Oakland, including cooking classes, nutrition programs, urban agriculture instruction, a mobile grocery truck and a CSA delivery dubbed the "Grub Box."
The loans will be available to food retailers of all sizes and types. That includes independent stores such as People's Community Market, which is in talks with investors to raise $3 million, said Brahm Ahmadi, People's Grocery founder and the CEO of the People's Community Market, which was spun off from the group's educational arm last year. Current plans call for a 12,000-square-foot full-service, environmentally-friendly retail space serving low-income residents in an abandoned 1950s-era shopping center at the corner of West Grand and Market Street. West Oakland, which has some 30,000 residents has no full-service grocery. By comparison, the affluent Oakland enclave of Rockridge has one such store for every 4,333 people.
Henderson and Ahmadi are confident of securing significant assistance from the new initiative.
"FreshWorks is a good fit for our nonprofit, community-based model," added Henderson. "It's not enough to just locate a grocery store in an under-served community -- you have to engage people in a deep way about how to have a healthy community and that's what we do. This kind of funding can go a long way to solving both food access and food insecurity issues, which are not the same thing."
The organizations are well known to The California Endowment.
"We're very familiar with their operations and programs and the great work they do in their community," said Tina Castro, director of mission related investment for the endowment. "While they still need to go through the application process like everyone else this is just the kind of creative, innovative business approach we want to support."
Castro added that the Bay Area is a hot bed of ideas and activities to address food access issues and that other local organizations are also applying to FreshWorks.
Eliminating food deserts from the U.S. landscape in seven years is a major goal of the First Lady's Let's Move! campaign, which began after the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity identified improving access to healthy, affordable foods as one of the keys to ending childhood obesity within a generation.
Mrs. Obama's announcement closely follows widespread coverage of a large study on food deserts and food access published last week in the Archives of Internal Medicine. In the study of three cities, including Oakland, researchers collected data on the grocery shopping habits of more than 5,000 people for 15 years and concluded that greater supermarket availability wasn't generally related to the quality of dietary intake or the consumption of fruits and vegetables.
But as Henderson, food access and food security advocates, and even the senior author of the study have explained, plopping a supermarket or two in a neighborhood that has long gone without isn't going to change residents' eating habits overnight. Education, encouragement, outreach, and training are all vital to help people raised on a fast food or junk food diet make the switch to more healthful eating, she said.
Of course, it's tough to compete with fast-food joints, corner stores, and gas stations that peddle cheap fried food, sodas, and highly-processed sweets and snacks. But Ahmadi points out there's a misperception around demand for healthy food in historically overlooked urban areas.
"People who aren't familiar with West Oakland or its residents assume that people here aren't interested in eating good quality food," he said. "They think these residents just want to eat junk. But what we see and hear is that people do want healthy, affordable food choices like people have in middle-class or suburban communities. Just because there's a lack of fresh food doesn't mean there isn't demand."
While small, health-oriented stores are beginning to find homes in West Oakland, including Mandela Foods Cooperative, an owner-worker grocery, and the recently opened Produce Pro, there remains a thirst for more than one mid-size retailer to set up shop in the area before it can shake off its food desert designation.
Today's announcement may mean that West Oakland will feel a little less parched in the near future.
According to Mashable a hacker group calling themselves Scriptkiddies broke into the Fox News Politics twitter account @foxnewspolitics on July 4th and started sending fake tweets about President Barack Obama being assassinated at Ross' Restaurant in Iowa. The tweets were still online 3 hours after being posted.
So, why did the hackers pick Ross' Restaurant in Iowa?
Ross' Restaurant was just featured on The Rachel Maddow Show after Obama made a stop at the restaurant to fulfill a campaign promise he had made 3 years earlier.
Here is the story from Obama Foodoroma about Ross' Restaurant:
"The President during his Tuesday visit to the 24-hour eatery had ordered four Magic Mountains--grilled Texas toast topped with loose steamed hamburger meat, piled high with a choice of French fries or hash browns, homemade cheddar cheese sauce, as well as two Volcanoes, which is the Magic Mountain with the addition of a scoop of 5-alarm meat chili and onions on top. "
The Rachel Maddow Show clip features restaurant owner Cynthia Ross-Freidhof and her daughter Melissa Freidhof-Rogers making a "Magic Mountain" and a "Volcano" on air. According to Obama Foodorama: "It was the first time food has ever been featured on the political commentary program."
Melissa, conscious of the Let's Move campaign asked Obama Foodorama to issue an apology to The First Lady for publicizing food that does not fit in with her campaign. She was relieved to hear that Michelle Obama loves French Fries and believes in moderation which could include an occasional "Magic Mountain."
So, perhaps the hackers choice of Ross' Restaurant in Iowa was simply a matter of timing -- a familiar name due to recent media publicity. But clearly if you follow the news at all Obama had been there days earlier and left the restaurant alive and well. Using Ross' in such a negative way is an unfortunate blow to the owners who were riding high on such positive and unexpected attention. I just wonder why the hackers targeted them as well as Fox News?
Happy Pride! And what a day! A whole lot of New York caterers and wedding-cake bakers are very happy today, now that same-sex marriage is wonderfully, amazingly legal in New York, and without a residency requirement, meaning Virgin Atlantic and Jet Blue should be running bride-and-bride, groom-and-groom cross-country specials very soon, at least until the slow-moving wheels of justice finally get the right thing done out here. So, what do you eat, in between the Frameline35 LGBT film festival, the Trans March, the Dyke March, the parade on Sunday and all the myriad house parties, dance parties, comedy shows, performances, and more happening during this fine final week of June? Popcorn, probably, the celery, pickled green beans and olives in your Bloody Mary, and of course, whatever bacon-wrapped hot dog or meat-on-a-stick is being smokily, deliciously offered for a few bucks to the hungry, sweaty, beer-bathed hordes from now through Sunday.
This being San Francisco, of course, Pride is hardly confined to the Castro or Civic Center. We've got LGBT chefs, restaurant owners, bartenders, bakers, and ice-cream makers in every neighborhood, after all. As Pride Parade Honorary Grand Marshall Susie Bright says, "I must have my breakfast, and the best crab cakes west of the Orleans parish line are at Adrienne's Just for You Cafe in Dogpatch." Once the late-afternoon fog rolls in, then it's time for a Blue Moon, not just a summer drink but the "ultimate lavender Liz Taylor's eyes cocktail," made from gin, fresh lemon, and Crème des Violettes, shaken over ice and served with a twist."The color is breathtaking, it tastes sublime, and the violet aroma is real!" Order it at what Susie describes as her "latest swoon," the Comstock Saloon in North Beach. "It's like going into a Barbary Coast time machine; the attention to detail is intoxicating, and the food and drink are prepared with such panache. A one-of-a-kind experience!" she says. And while you're feeling blue, you can also drop into the brand-new Bluestem Brasserie, where chef James Ormsby (Bruno's, PlumpJack Cafe) has returned to the restaurant scene as consulting pastry chef, whipping up tasty treats like the "Honolulu Hangover" (chocolate coconut layer cake, toasted coconut marshallow meringue) and "Sealed with a Kiss" (vanilla ice cream profiteroles, strawberry rhubarb compote, crème rose).
What else? Take a tip from what our local Celebrity Grand Marshall and Top Chef Desserts winner Yigit Pura says in his It Gets Better video, "Have some dessert! Feel good!" (Keep an eye out for Pura's own patisserie, Tout Sweet, coming soon.) Up in Pacific Heights, Elizabeth Falkner's crew at Citizen Cake are busy baking heart-shaped pride cookies splashed with spin-art rainbow icing, alongside with cookie sunglasses dotted with candy-sprinkle hearts. Down the street, at Fillmore and Haight, Three Twins ice cream has a dozen Pride-themed flavors happening this weekend, like Harvey Milk and Cookies (made with rice milk) and peanut-butter-laced Bear Bait. Prefer savory to sweet? Over in the Mission, Delfina Pizzeria is a sponsor of the 2011 Dyke March, selling a limited-edition t-shirt as a fundraiser for the cash-strapped parade. Instead of the restaurant's usual red-on-black offering, the aqua-blue, $25 tee imagines the Golden Gate Bridge as a ring of rainbow-colored pizza slices. Given the topless, tattooed show that the Dyke March gives the Prosecco-clutching patrons of Delfina and Pizzeria Delfina every June, it's clearly a case of, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and keep 'em going for another year.
You can make a sandwich for your cooler or parade-side picnic with Project Open Hand's new peanut butter, now for sale in Whole Foods. 100% of the proceeds go to support Project Open Hand's mission. Or, finally, you can take a little inspiration from Gertrude, Alice and Susie.
As Bright told us, "My main culinary memories of Pride can be summed up in two words: hash brownies. And yes, the Ghirardelli chocolate is up to the task."
Part 2: The Food... (Part 1: The Story)
Having a cafe was nobody's dream, but it sustained us in our other
endeavors.
The Brick Hut was a place for us all to create a space in the world
where we could be our complete selves.
The food was the community, the edible fare was our way of bringing it
all together, with love.
Brick Hut 1: 1975-1983 "Women Invented Cheese"
In the beginning, it wasn't all about the food. For us, owning our work place was about opportunity, self-determination, sanctuary. Every person did every job.
The Brick Hut was our anchor, as well as an anchor for our community.
Brick Hut 1: Something Moving album cover with menu
The menu was small, painted by Peggy Mitchell of the band BeBe K'Roche, on a board attached to the hood above the stove. It is featured on the cover of Mary Watkins' album, Something Moving which includes the song Brick Hut. Listen to Brick Hut:
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The food was simple. Comfort food: Eggs, waffles and pancakes, hash browns, toast, bacon, ham and sausage links, one kind of cheese -- cheddar. A bottomless cup of coffee was 70 cents and customers could help themselves while waiting to be seated. And, bless them, wait they did.
In fact, waiting for a seat became a good time to meet old friends or make new ones, hold lively discussions or maybe just flirt with somebody.
Our specialty signature item was a spiced whole wheat batter for our delicious waffles and pancakes. Pure maple syrup was extra.
Our food evolved along with the business and the times. Debi Thow wanted to make muffins. She brought in a recipe from Gourmet magazine that we modified over time and the famous Brick Hut blueberry muffin was born. Amey Shaw showed us how to make a gorgeous Hollandaise sauce and brunch exploded in a bevy of Hollandaise dishes.
Hash browns became home fries and we saw our options were limited only by our imaginations.
People had ideas, we experimented.
We created omelets and named them for inspirational women: Sister Marion for a marathon-running nun; Ruth Reid for an early 20th Century lesbian poet and activist; Seven Sisters for the Berkeley feminist construction collective and the Mendocino omelet for the herb blend we ordered from a woman owned business.
What's in a Ruth Reid Omelet?
Avocado
Green chili
Jack cheese
Sour cream
Hut 2: 1983-1995 "Pancakes, Eggs and Fun"
When we expanded to a new location, the menu expanded too. More space meant the ability to offer more fresh foods: salads, fruit bowls, better breakfast meats, artisanal sausages, higher quality meat and poultry.
Seasonal fresh fruits topped the waffles and pancakes.
The Tofu Saute with fresh sautéed vegetables was a vegetarian favorite.
We made soups, improved our chili, made salsas, offered a beautiful variety of baked goods, some house-made, some from Berkeley's Nabolom Bakery.
We installed an espresso machine to round out our epic breakfast experience. There was still a line down the street.
We played with our food. We joked that we cooked 50 items 500 ways.
One day, I thought it would be fun to offer something completely new: eggs scrambled with pesto. It was an immediate sensation and was copied by several other cafes in the area, as well as a few in other parts of the country, thanks to customers who had moved away and talked their local eatery into trying it out.
Occasionally, the brunch board offered one special: the Mystery Omelet. I think I started that just to avoid having to make a million of my least favorite omelets (the Ruth Reid-- too many moving parts, too many substitutions!)
We just asked if the customer was vegetarian or not and proceeded to create a whatever omelet on the fly—no two alike all day.
Kids loved our Mickey Mouse pancakes and it wasn’t unusual to see a server carrying around a baby so mom could eat unencumbered.
People came in for breakfast during the times of the Iran-Contra hearings or when Anita Hill was testifying at the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and ended up joining people at other tables for discussion and, eventually, lunch.
If a customer asked for something different, we did our best to make it happen.
Tofu Saute
Cut medium/firm tofu into 1/2" thick triangles
Cut, blanch and shock: carrot, broccoli, zucchini, set aside
In heated sauté pan, add: Chopped garlic and ginger
Add tofu
Add tamari or soy,
Add sliced onions and mushrooms (shiitakes are best for this)
Add vegetables, a little salt and black pepper
Cover to finish
Drizzle a little sesame oil to flavor
Top with toasted sesame seeds, maybe some chopped scallion
Serve on rice or with home fries and toast
Brick Hut 3 kitchen chaos: Sharon, Rami, Monica, Luana, Kaja. Photo by Ace Morgan
Hut 3: 1995-1997 "Girl Town"
Once again we moved and our menu expanded into dinners. We served pastas, using old family recipes, pizzas, using a cornmeal crust by none other than Sophia Loren. We offered fresh fish, grilled veggies. We made our desserts in house or supplemented them with items, like our sorbet, from local businesses. We served wine and beer (featuring St. Supery, a woman-run winery and Lost Coast Ales, by Master Brewer Barbara Groom).
We bought a fryer and made French fries, chicken wings, and anything that we could make up that we thought our customers would like.
There really was something for everyone.
Still, there was a line down the street, but mostly on weekends.
People were surprised when we closed our doors forever, believing that that line happened all week.
I am grateful for all of the folks who came through those doors, to work or to eat. Every one of them created a part of the Brick Hut.
To this day, we hear from old customers that they really miss us and that they wish there was a Brick Hut. My old friend and business partner, Sharon Davenport usually replies, "There was a Brick Hut."
Sharon Davenport and Joan Antonuccio at The Brick Hut Cafe (3). Photo: Ace Morgan
Part 1: The Story... (Part 2: The Food)
For nearly 22 years, from 1975 to 1997, The Brick Hut Café was a popular destination for the LGBT community in the East Bay and beyond. It was for most of its life a lesbian-feminist owned and operated community café. I was one of the founding members.
BRICK HUT 1
In February of 1975, the Brick Hut Café Collective was a worker-owned, feminist collective located at 3017 Adeline Street in Berkeley, CA across the street from the Berkeley Flea Market. The original members of the collective were Cheryl Jones, Claudia Hartley, Helen McKinley, Karen Ripley, Marshall Berzon (left in 1977 to open the Homemade Café), Randi Hepner, Sharon Davenport, and Wendy Welsh. By 1976, the collective included Joan Antonuccio, Cynthia La Mana, and Teresa Chandler.
The first Brick Hut was small: three booths and nine counter seats. We welcomed everyone who was an ally in our common cause of social justice and inclusion. The weekend crowds spilled out into the street even after we built a backyard patio where we served a limited menu of blueberry muffins, coffee, and tea.
We were a haven for lesbians and gay men, an information center for LGBT activists, an anchor for a diverse community that included working girls, bad-boys, suburban queens, transmen and transwomen. We were the Dyke Diner: the Lesbian Luncheonette: the Chick Hut: the Brick Hug. When AIDS hit a group of customers affectionately named the Shattuck Street Fairies (SSF) we became a refuge and an information outlet for AIDS awareness. Sometimes we were the last stop: as when Ron, one of the SSF housemates, was lovingly carried in on the arms of his friends for his last Brick Hut meal.
The Brick Hut Cafe contingent at the 1984 San Francisco Pride parade. Enjoy Life...Eat Out More Often!
We always closed on what was then called Gay Day and we closed to attend political demonstrations and rallies. We left a sign on the door, JOIN US AT the parade, rally, or demonstration. We supported through contributions of food and energy to anti-nuclear demonstrations, anti-war rallies, and the feminist causes of Inez Garcia, Norma Jean Croy, Joan Little, and Yvonne Wanrow. We closed and attended the vigil for the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. We closed to protest the Dan White verdict.
We worked to maintain the Brick Hut as a viable business in spite of threats and intimidations. We invited all our customers to cross the demoralizing barriers of class, race, and gender differences, and join us at the community table. We had our share of broken windows, vandalism, and public harassment. In one instance, we placed a poster in our window announcing we were boycotting Florida orange juice because of the Anita Bryant Campaign to repeal the anti-gay discrimination law in Dade County and our windows were broken.
These were politically active times for lesbians. “We are the women that men have warned us about” (Robin Morgan, 1970, Goodbye to All That (pdf)).
There were other women-owned and operated collectives and businesses:
The Olivia Records collective located around the corner from the Hut. The Brick Hut song with words by Pat Parker and music by Mary Watkins was part of Mary Watkins first album with Olivia, Something Moving, which featured the enormous talents of Vicki Randle and Linda Tillery. We fed some of these musicians and cultural activists and were sometimes repaid with a song. Customers still remember the day Linda T. spontaneously sang a cappella for the masses. The women of BeBe K'Roche, an all woman electric rock band worked at the Brick Hut from time to time. Listen to Brick Hut:
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Seven Sisters Construction, a feminist collective, would help us with carpentry projects -- sometimes in exchange for breakfast.
A Woman’s Place Bookstore and the Women's Press Collective were sources for books, publishing, and networking with artists and writers like Judy Grahn, Wendy Cadden, Willyce Kim, and Pat Parker to name only a few of our customers and allies.
There was a brief appearance of the Night Hut, with Chef Amy Shaw making her culinary debut cooking and serving dinner.
Between 1976 and 1983, Brick Hut collective members Karen, Helen, Randi, Cheryl, Teresa, and Wendy left to pursue other careers and interests as cultural activists, healers, and educators. Marie Della Camera joined the collective around 1983.
BRICK HUT 2
In 1983, with the financial help of the Cheese Board Collective, and the efforts of customers and friends, the Brick Hut moved to a new location at 3222 Adeline Street. Seven Sisters Construction, a feminist collective helped remodel the new space. The Brick Hut became a community gathering spot for local merchants, Berkeley City Council members, writers, musicians, and artists. We also continued to support feminist and queer causes and activities like the Lyon-Martin Clinic, Queer Nation, and East Bay Act Up. KPFA Radio broadcasted their International Women’s Day program directly from the Brick Hut. With our larger wall space, we featured community artists' work. Amana Johnson, Grace Harwood, Barbara Sandidge, Kyos Featherdancing, Cathy Cade, and Wendy Cadden were some of the artists who filled our walls. Once a year, we featured the work of the children of Berkwood-Hedge School to benefit their program.
In subsequent years, Cynthia, Claudia, and Marie left the collective to pursue other careers. At the second location, the Brick Hut was robbed and vandalized over 17 times in eleven years. With the ownership of the Hut left to Joan and Sharon and the neighborhood falling to the ravages of crack, we initiated plans to move the Hut to a safer location.
BRICK HUT 3
In 1995, the Brick Hut moved to a new, expanded location at 2512 San Pablo Avenue. The new space was constructed primarily by O’Malley and Latimer Construction (formerly members of Seven Sisters) and included a performance, meeting, and gallery space. We also opened for dinner. Our first salon featured writer Dorothy Allison and singer/songwriter Alix Dobkin hosted a regular open mike night. Women artists once again filled our walls: Franna Lusson, Mariella de la Paz, and Grace Harwood to name a few. We wanted the new, larger Brick Hut to be an attractive and active space for our community. Other women-owned businesses opened on the same block: Good Vibrations, West Berkeley Women's Books, and It's Her Business. Collectively we were known as Girl Town.
In 1996, the Brick Hut fell into serious financial difficulties; we filed for Chapter 11 status. In 1997, we filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and closed our doors for the last time at 2pm on March 24, 1997. We had a big, crowded, raucous party.
At the Brick Hut, I believe we celebrated difference. We were visibly different, we forefronted difference, we encouraged difference, we hosted difference. We did not try to assimilate, disappear into conformity, or become mainstream. We did not build The Brick Hut Cafe so we could have jobs, although that was good. We did not build it to have careers, or support career-moves, although that was a possibility. We did not build it only to make money for ourselves, although we wanted to maintain a viable business that supported our friends, our fellow workers, our causes, and ourselves. We built it to create the possibility of a workplace and a community where no one's politics or cultural affiliations were left at the front door. We built the Hut to celebrate difference, to celebrate YOU. It was a home for a while and we still mourn its passing. Thanks to everyone who contributed to and supported the Brick Hut (1975-1997).
One of my earliest memories is of my dad showing me an ant on the ground and explaining to me that we do not step on them because, however small in size, the ant's life is just as valuable as ours. That sense of compassion has stuck with me always and my love for all animals became the foundation for becoming a vegan years later. It was such a perfect move that when I made the transition it felt like coming home.
It is that feeling of compassion for all creatures that leads ethical vegans (my guess: the majority of vegans), to extend a cruelty-free lifestyle beyond food. Our compassion for animals and the planet affects what we buy when it comes to everything from body products to furniture to cleaning products to bedding to car interiors. And of course, it affects the clothing we wear. It would be hypocritical for us to avoid meat and then buy a leather belt. Vegans don’t just avoid fur—we also avoid leather, silk, wool, cashmere, down, alpaca, angora, and, well, anything that comes from an animal—including, when possible, animal-derived glue used in shoe manufacturing.
I haven’t always been a vegan, but I have always felt deeply empathic and connected with non-human animals—especially because they cannot speak for themselves. This connection, combined with my inclination towards creative endeavors and my love of fashion, led me to focus on researching not only the best vegan foods, but the best vegan clothing as well. Out of this inquiry emerged the creation of my own vegan fashion curation blog, plantmade.
There is something exciting happening in the vegan world right now where young designers are creating incredibly innovative ways to produce shoes, handbags, belts, coats, ties—you name it—with materials that are animal and planet-friendly. And vegan fashion-conscious individuals are also hitting the blogging world, as evidence by sites like Animal Friendly.Me, The Ethical Man, and The Discerning Brute, covering everything from the their top ethical picks from this season's collections to the recent Farm Sanctuary 25th Anniversary Gala in New York. They are mending the disconnect mainstream society harbors with regard to what they consume—whether it be a hamburger or a silk blouse.
While what’s best for our planet it to stop consuming at the rate we are, we can’t avoid the fact that people still want to buy a new pair of shoes once in a while.The key is to invest in quality pieces that you truly love and plan to keep for a long time made from materials that cause the least amount of harm to animals and the environment. If you do some research (through places like Global Action Network, PETA, Veg for Life, Farm Sanctuary, or vegan designers like olsenHaus) it can make all the difference. It is through this research that you will learn that sheep go through a cruel practice called mulesing and later get sent to slaughter (if they haven’t died from infection or heat stroke by then). Cashmere goats get castrated, notched, and dehorned without anesthesia and killed by age two if their coats are not perfect (50-80%), then sold for slaughter after shearing. Silk worms are boiled alive. Down "production," where birds are plucked alive or scalded in boiling water while still conscious, supports the foie gras industry. And of course, the leather industry is directly linked to the meat industry, whether it be represented in that calf-skin (veal) handbag, shearling (lamb skin and fur) boots, or in those kidskin (baby goat) gloves. And this is all just scratching the surface. The lesson here is that everything is connected and vegans don't like to turn a blind eye to that fact.
Luckily, more and more attention is being paid to conscious fashion and more and more small companies are popping up everywhere and growing. Footwear companies like olsenHaus (now sold at Nordstrom!), Cri de Coeur, Neuaura, and Melissa focus on vegan footwear. Stella McCartney avoids leather in her designs, so all of her shoes, belts, and handbags are vegan (but she does use silk, wool, and cashmere in her clothing). Melie Bianco, Matt & Nat, and Gunas are vegan “leather” accessory companies. Vegan coats can be found at Vaute Couture. Jann J. makes great silk-free ties. And of course, many designers who are not vegan, happen to create “accidentally vegan” pieces (like Marc Jacobs’s fabric bags or Givenchy’s jelly sandal). In that case a vegan needs to make the decision of whether they want to support a company that produces non-vegan pieces despite the availability of vegan ones. If the preference is to stick with only eco-conscious labels, check out any of the designers featured at Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week. Fashion is becoming such a focus in the vegan community that the first annual Vida Vegan Con international blogging conference in Portland this August features a vegan fashion workshop.
It can, however, be pretty challenging to find quality sweaters, scarves, and hats that are not cashmere or wool, and it can be even harder to find blouses and dresses (especially wedding dresses!) that are not silk. But they are out there. (Check out The Cotton Bride and Lindee Daniel.)
With yarn being made out of bamboo, soy, hemp, lyocell, and ramie, cotton and linen (made from flax) are no longer the only plant-based options for knits. Bamboo is incredibly soft, durable, and even antibacterial. Soy is smooth like silk and drapey, with a similar feel as cashmere. Hemp functions much like linen. Lyocell, made from cellulose fibers, is better known as Tencel or modal. Ramie, made from a flowering plant in the nettle family, adds luster to any fabric with which it's blended. Of course, it is advisable to look for organic when possible to avoid the chemicals used in the production of the textiles, both for environmental and health reasons. For more info, TreeWool is a great vegan blog that posts information on the world of vegan knitwear.
And then there are truly experimental materials out there that show how turning to plants that we normally associate with food can lead us to innovation in the apparel design world.
Suzanne Lee at Central Saint Martins in London is developing cellulose “leather.” Her “Bio-Couture” project uses bacterial cultures in kombucha tea to grow what resembles transluscent leather. Check out a video on her work on The Discerning Brute.
Compostable “Ingeo,” a plastic called polylactic acid (PLA) that’s similar to polyester is manufactured from plants such as corn, wheat, sugar beet, mollases, sugar cane, or rice. Not only does Ingeo not use oil or take centuries to degrade, it can also use up waste from our landfills. And, of course, it makes a fabulous wedding gown as well.
DyeCat is a company that created a way to “dye” polyester or PLA as the fibers are produced, eliminating the need for dyeing in water afterwards, a practice that has lead to dumping of chemicals into bodies of water, causing massive environmental damage and health hazards for workers.
If some of these options seem too expensive and/or out-of-reach, fear not and keep in mind that doing the best you can is better than doing nothing and you can always aspire to do more. The key is to buy products made from plants whenever possible (organic being ideal) and to stop adding to the consumerism cycle. Shop vintage. Buy kapok instead of down. Avoid PVC. If not made of plants, buy recyclable materials, then actually recycle them. Compost fabric. Donate clothing. Support small-scale designers. Educate yourself.
The whole point of being a vegan is to do as little harm as possible. And I’m sure that, no matter what we each ate for dinner last night, we can all agree that that’s not a bad idea.
A farmworker harvests lettuce near the border town of Calexico, California. Photo: Hector Mata/Getty
A new report by the United Farm Workers and food service company Bon Appetit Management asserts that health and safety protections for U.S. farmworkers are inadequate and rarely enforced. On Cesar Chavez Day, Forum got an update on conditions for farmworkers in California.
