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In a time when connecting with one another is harder than ever, Brooklyn's queer food community is coming together to share its diverse cuisine and, quite literally, its kitchen space—despite all the Plexiglass realness these days.
Eric See, the queer owner and chef of Ursula—a new Mexican restaurant in Crown Heights that opened in 2020—is hosting six chefs from the LGBTQ community in his kitchen for a "takeout series" in February and March. This project was first reported by The Infatuation.
Each chef will serve up their own dishes for a day or two:
Woldy Kusina (February 15 & 16) - Modern Filipino cuisine
Dacha (March 2) - Eastern European cooking
Tony Ortiz/Chile Con Miel (March 13 & 14) - Seasonal Mexican food
Zacarias Gonzales/Editions Projects (TBD) Gluten-free baking with roots in Mexican and Central American flavors
Hender Gonzales of Ursula (TBD) - Peruvian dishes
The hope is to help support these chefs by giving them a platform but to also introduce diners to new local cuisine and foster a sense of community. The restaurant business was hard enough to break into as a queer person before the pandemic, See says.
"[The LGBTQ community] is always in need because we're part of a marginalized community," he says, noting that 80% of his staff is queer-identifying. "The food business is a male, cis-gendered driven industry and is usually does not give a space or a voice to women, POCs or queers, we've had to silence or mute ourselves or make concessions to who we are."
See recently had to close his cafe, The Awkward Scone, which used to host events for the queer community. And in November, Meme's Diner announced it had to close its doors, devastating the community it built and fostered.
"We lost so many of those voices in the last year, so it's really important to save our space," See says. "This pandemic has changed the way we're able to interact and support each other. We had literal gatherings and now we're working with take-out boxes through plexiglass. It's hard to make that connection but this is a way to view people coming together even though we can't touch and have to wear masks. I wanted to remind people of the importance of upholding our community and supporting them."
See says to stay tuned for more information about the series, including times and menus, but that most dishes will be done by pre-order with menus published a week or two before each pop-up.
Follow along @ursula_brooklyn for more information.
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