The Fall 2022 issue of Food & Dining Magazine (#75) is now available in all the familiar places: Louisville area eateries and food shops, newsstands and online. Go here for a preview of the features, profiles and columns, with links to the new edition at issuu.
Understory in Oakland, California is “a worker-led restaurant, bar, and commissary kitchen developed by 8th Street Collective and Oakland Bloom.”
Understory, a worker-run restaurant and bar, is as righteous as it is delicious
Understory is “organized collectively around a strong set of political values and principles.”
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- Uplifting Communities of Color
- Building Economic Sustainability
- Creating Space to build community that affirms disability justice principles
- Fighting Gentrification and recognizing our role in it
- Supporting Environmentally and Racially Just Food Systems
- Taking actions to Disrupt State Violence
- Practicing Honesty and Critical Reflection.
Operating as a business under capitalism presents us with daily challenges to these values. We seek to be reflective and critical, always learning more and challenging ourselves to strengthen our practices. We are open to feedback and ideas from our community.
But what about the food? Momo Chang has thoughts at Berkeleyside:
Understory’s goals regarding how labor is distributed are exciting, but so are its dishes and cuisines. For example, there’s its Filipino menu. The sinigang sa santol, a vegan and gluten-free soup, was the sliding scale item one one day I visited. The soup was tangy, made of tamarind, cottonfruit, okra, taro, long beans, tomato and water spinach. The tapsilog’s fermented and marinated beef had depth in flavor, and atchara (pickled vegetables) balanced the richness of the beef. The silog dishes are available as a brunch special on Saturdays for $12.
In Louisville the Old Louisville Coffee Co-op is an example of a worker-owned business that clearly states its values, and yet there’s nothing quite like Understory hereabouts.
