It’s hard to believe that 40 years ago, Selma and Noel decided to open a vegan/vegetarian restaurant and feminist bookstore on an impossible to find dead-end street in Bridgeport, CT. The year was 1977 - before GPS existed. We opened with no trained chefs, no wait staff and delicious food, a plan that suited the lesbian feminist owners!
It is 40 years later and we are planning a BIG celebration. To accommodate more people, we will hold celebration dinners over three nights Tuesday March 21st, Wednesday March 22nd & Thursday March 23rd. Similar to past anniversary dinners, we will be serving free champagne and holding a raffle. But in contrast, we ask you to make reservations to ensure everyone’s comfort.
But we have many other celebratory plans for March and April!
As part of our festivities, we want to draw attention to the other vegetarian only restaurants in CT. So we invited all of them! We are so pleased that the following restaurants wanted to participate and will be bringing some of their specialties and menus*. These are free events, but please make a reservation so we can know how many to expect. We will provide free coffee, tea and prosecco.
Sunday March 5th - 4pm: Renana from It’s Only Natural in Middletown.
Sunday March 12th - 4 pm: Ramesh from Navaratna in Stamford - they specialize in south Indian food which is entirely vegetarian
Sunday April 2nd - 4 pm: Chris from Fire and Spice in Hartford and Donaldson from Shandal in Bridgeport - both are from Jamaica and serve vegan food in the Rastafarian tradition
Wednesday April 5th - 6pm: Claire from Claire’s Cornucopia in New Haven
Wednesday April 12th - 6pm: Owners Lisa and Glenn from Catch a Healthy Habit
We will be hosting a series of special art exhibits:
March 7 - 19: Noel & Selma are ardent weavers and have asked members of the Hand Weavers Guild of CT to curate a weaving show from March 7 - 19th.
March 19 - 26: Noel’s new photographs will be on display
March 28 - April 9: Caroly Van Duyn will bring new sculptures which will be for sale PLUS you can meet the artist the evening of March 29th!
April 11 - 16: From our private collection, we will be displaying Myriam Fougere’s sculpture and ceramics.
April 18 - 23: Also from our private collection, we will feature Australian artist Suzanne Bellamy's sculpture.
April 25 - 30: Sudie Rakusin’s oil paintings from our private collection will be on display and you can meet Sudie the evening of the 28th
On Sunday March 26th at 4 pm, we look forward to hosting a conversation with Sheila Jeffreys, the renowned Australian feminist author of "The Spinster and Her Enemies", “Anticlimax", “Lesbian Heresy” and Beauty and Misogyny”. We hope you will make reservations to meet her.
Over the course of the 2 month celebration, there will be an extra reason to come visit us for Sunday Brunch - we will be holding a used book sale - just a penny per book!
Cooking classes - Classes are $30 per person and Class size is limited to 8, so reservations are essential! Classes will be held at 4 pm on the following Sundays:
March 19th: Carol Graham will teach her famous Jamaican Jerk sauce and sorrel drink
April 9th: Erica Garcia will demonstrate the fundamentals of Mexican cooking including cooking beans in an Olla de Barro, how to make Mexican red rice, and the secret to making the perfect tortilla
April 23rd: Rachel Portnoy pastry chef and co-owner of Chez Nous in Lee MA, will teach cooking vegan desserts
April 30th: Selma and Noel will host a cooking class titled "You ask for it” where they will show how to cook what you want to learn! Choose from vegan pie crust, mushroom walnut pate, simple vegan cheeses, chocolate cake or what? It’s your choice!
Plus more surprises to be announced! To make reservations for any of these events, call Bloodroot at 203-576-9168. If you get our answering machine, leave a message and we’ll call you back to confirm!
Located at :
85 Ferris St
Bridgeport, Connecticut
http://www.bloodroot.com/
* Unfortunately G-Zen in Branford, Phali Too in New Haven, The Sweet Beet in Granby, The Stand Juice Company in Norwalk, Pure Alchemy Juice Bar in Wallingford and Lion’s Den Vegetarian in Hartford couldn’t make it, but we wanted to recognize their contribution to vegetarianism in CT.
Noel & Selma 1977
Selma & Noel 2016