Dining Out, Erik Piepenburg
Dining Out, Erik Piepenburg
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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Dining Out
First Dates, Defiant Nights, and Last Call Disco Fries at America's Gay Restaurants

Author: Erik Piepenburg

Narrator: Erik Piepenburg

Unabridged: 8 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/03/2025

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

From a New York Times journalist, a culinary tour of gay restaurants—their history, and how they evolved as a space of safety and celebration for the LGBTQ+ community—full of joy, sex, sorrow, activism, and nostalgia.

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.  

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sarah on May 26, 2025

Book Review: Dining Out: First Dates, Defiant Nights, and Last Call Disco Fries at America’s Gay Restaurants by Erik Piepenburg Overview Erik Piepenburg’s Dining Out is a poignant and vibrant exploration of America’s gay restaurants as spaces of community, resistance, and cultural memory. Blending per......more

Goodreads review by Wendi on May 22, 2025

This was such a great book! It started off with a trip down memory lane. The author talked about The Melrose restaurant, a place that I loved and spent many nights at, enjoying waffles and scrambled eggs. I loved how this was written, it covered history but not in a heavy way. The AIDS years are nat......more

Goodreads review by Joe on May 26, 2025

Wow! What a wonderful book. I received a copy of this book from a Goodreads Giveaway that I entered but was not quite sure what it would turn out to be. Now I'm glad I did. A great trip through a restaurant genre, a way of life, a culture, a wonderful part of America. Engaging, forthright without be......more

Goodreads review by Jeremy on June 11, 2025

This book explores the history of gay restaurants in the US and the cultural significance of these establishments. New York Times journalist Laura Piepenburg draws together oral histories, memoirs, and archival research to examine how these spaces have nourished the LGBTQ community. The book talks ab......more

Goodreads review by Dave on June 17, 2025

Very entertaining. I only recognized one of the gay restaurants - Company, in the East 20s, because my late partner Jim and I just LOVED it there - but it was truly a great read.......more