Secret Cafes

I am a fan of secret cafes. I don't know too much about their history except that I went to my first one in Olympia at the Track House, sometime in the earlyish 1990s. In my mind it is a concept that Molly B brought over from the east coast - Maryland. So, as I remember, some punks started having regular vegan cafes at the grungy communal home on the rail road tracks in downtown Oly. I believe that Molly B was in charge. It was amazing.

Every Sunday or some other day of the week (every day was Sunday), we'd show up to the Track House and claim our spots at the card tables in the yard. The tables were all unstable because they were usually balancing on some wood laid over the swampy lawn. My favorite spot was under the lavender Wisteria canopy.

The food was wholesome. I remember one dish was called "Fuck the Man_icotti". It was vegan manicotti with some sort of tofu for cheese substitute. There would be salad and some flower-infused drink and a vegan sugarless dessert. Kind of bland but delicious nonetheless because it was so awesome to sit in this yard with other people and eat. Sometimes a band would play. Once Rebecca Pearcy's song made me cry all over my dinner because I had a broken heart. It was about a blue heron flying over.

The food was cheap -- $5 for a three course meal. I think that a lot of it came from gleaning and dumpster diving. We were all poor. There was a cleaning station set up in the yard with different buckets for washing your dishes when you were done. The dishes were all chipped and mismatched from Goodwill. I loved those dinners.

Then there was the Red Horse at Mirah and Ariana's apartment. I will write about this later because it was amazing too.

These pictures are from a Secret Cafe last weekend in Oakland put on by a former Oly girl and friend of Molly B. This one was finger food, drinks and music. It was so crowded, I had to use elbows and my Russian Jewish chutzpah to get me out of there.