Dining Out
First Dates, Defiant Nights, and Last Call Disco Fries at America's Gay Restaurants
Contributors
Formats and Prices
- On Sale
- Jun 3, 2025
- Page Count
- 352 pages
- Publisher
- Grand Central Publishing
- ISBN-13
- 9780306832192
Price
$16.99Price
$21.99 CADFormat
Format:
- ebook $16.99 $21.99 CAD
- Hardcover $30.00 $39.00 CAD
- Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $27.99
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Dining Out explores how gay people came of age, came out, and fought for their rights not just in gay bars or the streets, but in restaurants. From cruisy urban cafeterias of the 1920s to mom-and-pop diners that fed the Stonewall generation to the intersectional hotspots of the early 21st century. Using archival material, original reporting and interviews, and first-person accounts, Erik Piepenburg explores how LGBTQ restaurants shaped and continue to shape generations of gay Americans.
Through the eyes of a reporter and the stomach of a hungry gay man, Dining Out examines the rise, impact and legacies of the nation's gay restaurants past, present, and future, connecting meals with memories. Hamburger Mary’s, Florent, a suburban Denny’s queered by kids: Piepenburg explores how these and many other gay restaurants, coffee shops, diners, and unconventional eateries have charted queer placemaking and changed the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement for the better.
Genre:
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"Erik Piepenburg's Dining Out looks at 150 years of queer American food establishments, from cafeterias to diners to bathhouses. He argues that gay (his chosen modifier, meant to encompass all queer and LGBTQ people) restaurants--defined simply as places where gay people eat--have been every bit as essential to connection, activism, and queer history as have bars. ... Any topical survey will wrstel with the subjective nature of queer belonging, but in Dining Out, Piepenburg's rigorous research and sensitive reporting are vital to the book's impact."The New York Times Book Review
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"Dining Out is at once a thoroughly researched investigation of gay restaurants and their impact on the resistance movements of the past and present, as well as a dedication to the queer community that Piepenburg holds dear. His experience as a journalist is evident in the piece’s structure and voice, but so is his reverence for all those who have been othered in spaces where they should be welcomed."Chicago Review of Books
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"If there’s one thing on which many in the LGBTQ community can agree, we like to eat in restaurants, be it breakfast, brunch (which we may not have invented, but we perfected), lunch, supper/dinner or late-night noshing. In Dining Out: First Dates, Defiant Nights, and Last Call Disco Fries at America’s Gay Restaurants (Grand Central, 2025), Erik Piepenburg narrows his delicious focus on LGBTQ dining establishments, incorporating history and hunger satisfaction."Lavender Magazine
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"New York Times reporter Erik Piepenburg shines a long-overdue spotlight on the vital but often overlooked role restaurants have played in LGBTQ+ life—a history that’s received far less attention than that of bars. ... Through interviews with diners, servers, owners, and activists, Piepenburg makes the case that even today—when queer couples can eat openly in most restaurants—spaces shaped by and for LGBTQ+ people continue to matter."Kitchen Arts & Letters
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"Piepenburg delivers an insightful and entertaining exploration of history-rich queer restaurants and their progressive impact on visibility and identity within a culture in constant flux. A fond, appreciative, nostalgic nod to queer eateries across the country."Kirkus Reviews
