Moosewood Restaurant


Moosewood Restaurant is a restaurant that was founded by Therese Tischler, Judy Barringer, Mollie Katzen, Kris Miller, Josh Katzen and others in 1973 in downtown Ithaca, New York. Moosewood is located on the first floor of the Dewitt Mall building, which is a converted high school. When The Seed Company closed, the owners gave Therese Tischler the money they had left saying, "We're giving this to you because we know you'll find something good to do with it." Therese had been politically active as a student at Cornell and was very concerned with ecology and the health of people and the planet. The work of Frances Moore Lappé and Adelle Davis formed part of her inspiration. She wanted to open a vegetarian restaurant and went to Judy Barringer and Kris Miller with the idea. About a year later Moosewood opened its doors. It won a James Beard Foundation "American Classic" Award in 2000. While they are most known for vegetarian cuisine, their menu does occasionally feature a seafood option.

Cookbooks

The restaurant is owned by Moosewood, Inc. a collective group of 19 owners which operates the restaurant and writes and publishes cookbooks as The Moosewood Collective. The Collective has produced 13 cookbooks over the years, beginning with New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant, and its three most recent Moosewood Restaurant Favorites, published in 2013 by St. Martin's Press in celebration of the Moosewood Restaurant's fortieth year of continuous operation, Simple Suppers from Moosewood Restaurant, and Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health, in 2009. In 2010, the Moosewood Collective donated its archive of original cookbook manuscripts and memorabilia to Cornell University where they are housed in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in the Carl A. Kroch Library.
Moosewood co-founder Mollie Katzen has separately authored the best-selling Moosewood Cookbook and 11 other cookbooks which have no connection to the restaurant or the Collective.