This story is not unique to me. I was working in a small restaurant near my apartment in Brooklyn last month before the metaphorical storm hit. We could feel the closure coming from a week away, even if the crowds didn’t dwindle until Saturday night. So it felt almost cathartic when it finally happened, and Governor Cuomo’s mandate made the decision for us. Or maybe it was the open wine we had to finish that night that felt cathartic. Either way, when my coworkers and I joined the legions of unemployed and ate our last family meal together, nursing hangovers, there was a fragile feeling in the air that was familial, surreal, and deeply kind.
Empathic Archetypes
A few months ago, I attended a panel discussion on "Applied Empathy" hosted by consulting firm Sub Rosa, which featured three speakers from a variety of disciplines. The specific theme of that evening was "Consumption" - an idea relevant to most fields, but impossible to ignore in mine. We consume food literally and in media, we consume resources to produce it, and we often consume the ideologies of the places we eat. The panel itself felt like a sincere exploration, and the panelists brought unique perspectives that complemented one another, but the idea I kept returning to (the same one that brought me to the event in the first place) was Applied Empathy in general.
Who Sits at Our Tables
Much has already been written about The Red Hen, the Virginia restaurant whose owner refused to serve Sarah Huckabee Sanders, press secretary for President Trump, last month on the grounds that she represents a deeply unethical administration (and herself acts immorally by regularly lying on its behalf). Sanders is not the first Trump cabinet member to be kicked out of a restaurant recently (usually by impromptu protest), although she may be the last given the repercussions she has already faced. Backlash has ranged from the predictable (Trump's tweeting a personal review of the restaurant and its cleanliness) to the horrifying (public circulation of Wilkinson's home phone number and address).
Gabrielle Hamilton, or What We Need to Rethink in 2018
Early last monday, I received two texts from my closest friend that just read “Write about the Prune issue,” and “I’m so angry and hurt.”
Since there is more than enough heartbreaking and infuriating news to go around, I had to admit my ignorance to her as I hadn’t checked any blogs or feeds in at least 72 hours. I was only 50% sure that there wasn’t a typo or autocorrect situation happening. But a quick google, as it often will, sent me rapidly down the rabbit hole of Gabrielle Hamilton’s announcement that she will partner with Ken Friedman to take over the Spotted Pig – and the bizarre avalanche of explanations, rationalizations, soundbites and social media commentary that went with it.
Yellow, Orange, Red
Sexual harassment in restaurants is the norm. The rise of the #metoo movement has already sparked plenty of think pieces on the topic, but very little new information for women and non-binary folks in the industry. Whether it’s leering guests commenting on your smile or an inebriated manager at the holiday party asking about your sex life, the cavalier attitude toward harassment in hospitality has been status quo for decades.
The Bare Minimum
Discussions about the minimum wage, like every perceived partisan issue, are fraught. It is my personal belief that they become more fraught the more abstract the conversation is; boring data – and a genuine curiosity about what that data means – is an antidote to cognitive knee-jerks. So I invite you to bear with me, and first consider some raw numbers that directly affect more than 1.2 million people in New York City.
Restaurants in a Radical Time
As a current freelance worker and lifetime city resident, a huge portion of my social and professional life takes place in the so-called “third place” – public spaces which, after home and work, are the background for most of our lives. Specifically, I spend most of that time not in public libraries (too quiet) or parks (no wifi), but in the kind of social space centered around food and drink: coffee shops, cafes, bars and restaurants. I have also worked in restaurants more directly for over a decade – so I feel safe saying I have spent more time thinking about hospitality than most.