kill the restaurant

kill the restaurant:
a voyeurs guide to the culinary underground.

there is a new generation of culinarians. actively questioning the establishment. questioning it by acting, cooking, dining outside the bureaucratically controlled mainstream of american food. by the most modest yardstick there are anywhere between several hundred and several thousand black market “restaurants” currently conducting business within the walls of our great country.

the name? well it brings attention to the issue – and if seen with a dash of irony and a pinch of humor it might make you laugh – ever heard the age old art school slogan “kill your parents?” – new generations always rebel – create new ideas, challenge the status quo. we all love restaurants – the glamour, the high ceilings, and soft music. but for some reason a great number of folks have decided to take a different path to feed people and take their money, they don’t have licenses, they don’t have sought after corner locations, they don’t rely on pr firms or foot traffic – this growing cadre of gastronomes set their tables in forgotten warehouses, on great rocky promontories, in cramped apartments, in suburban garages – they cook and they charge and their stories and their food make for one amazing unwinding story.

this site – and the forthcoming book will take you into these well lit dark recesses – sometimes we will point you toward the right door or down the proper staircase – but mostly we will protect the identities of these establishments and just share their stories and their food. the moral of this story: be inspired. if you have the urge: start your own. this site and the forthcoming book are meant as cultural documents but also as resource guides – a how to guide – a simple gift.

you can already click on "our findings" and read about speakeasy restaurants - from iowa to parkslope. if you have a story, a lead, if you run an occasional establishment, or know someone that does, please share the information here in the submit box to the left. the book is still taking shape and much of the country is still a mystery to us – all information will be carefully guarded and only released to the public with the consent of individual proprietors. this is not chowhound, or city search, we are not interested in reviews or thoughtless missives, we are very simply gathering stories.