The Dairy Restaurant

Plot

Ben Katchor illuminates the events and ideas that led to the proliferation of the dairy restaurant in New York City. He begins with Adam entering Eden and eating the fruits therein then examines ancient protocols for offerings to the gods and the kosher milk-meat taboo. He describes the first vegetarian practice, the invention of the restaurant, the rise of food fads, and the intersection between culinary practice and radical politics. He offers an encyclopedic directory of dairy restaurants that once thrived in New York City and its environs, evoked by illustrations of classified advertisements, matchbooks, menus, and phone directory listings. And he recalls his own experiences in many of these unique restaurants just before they disappeared.