10/03/2013
Hi,
Looks like the Cafe is getting some interest from the Boulder Museum! I tallked to this woman from there, and pointed her to the Yahoo page for more info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carnivalcafe/
She just wrote this message there, and I am copying it here. Respond to her if you want your Cafe stories out there. I think she's legit.
Marc Weiss
************
Hello,
Before I jump into what I've been working on, a work of thanks to Marc Weiss who responded to my email.
I am Mary Oswell, and I am a volunteer at the Boulder History Museum. I've been doing some work for Julie Schumacker, who is the curator of exhibits. She had me making a PowerPoint presentation of the Museum's Tea to Tofu exhibit (from 2006, I think) that could be offered as a presentation to local groups, senior center and the like. Tea to Tofu chronicled the growth of the natural foods and organic companies that came out of Boulder beginning with the Sanitarium. Though the Carnival Café had a mention in the original exhibit, I wanted to find out more, which I did through the Internet. I was able to give a fuller picture of the organic and vegetarian options in Boulder in the early 1970s in the presentation and add a couple of photos as well.
But that is only part of what I've been working on. As some of you may know, the Boulder History Museum will be moving in 2014 into a new home at Broadway and Pine in the old Masonic Lodge. There will be new and expanded exhibits about Boulder in this larger space. The more information I can provide, the more likely this period of Boulder's history will be appropriately represented in the new space. I can make no promises about this, but as a museum professional I know that I have only so much time in my day to spend on research. The more info I can make available for staff the better.
As part of this I have been compiling the best history that I can about the businesses that were located in the Carnival's space. At the end of this message I have included that history for you to proof read and find errors etc, as well as a set of questions I have not been able to answer from the Yahoo website entries. Please excuse me if you've answer these questions and I missed them – there was a lot of information to plow through on Yahoo.
You may find that the history lacks the human part of the story – well it does because that part can only be added by those who lived it. When I package all this up for the Museum I would like to include copies of your memories from the Yahoo site or a something you write especially for this project, if you would like. Your feelings in your works are the things that bring this story to life. But how they will be worked in to the overall exhibits in the new museum isn't known yet. As someone who was just a bit young to participate in the counterculture, I do remember those years (although in San Diego, not Boulder) as full of possibilities and new ways of looking at the world.
Feel free to respond through the Yahoo site or to my personal email if you desire ([email protected]). And if there's something that I didn't include or got wrong, please let me know. I'm trying to get these things as correct as possible. Thank you for your help.
Carnival Café
Located 1843 Broadway in Boulder, Little Kitchen was a vegetarian restaurant located in a older wooden building that dated from the early 1900s. The Little Kitchen sold to The Family Table, a vegetarian restaurant operated by 5 individuals operating as a partnership. These friends from Seattle created a menu, vendor list, and operating style that would be adopted by the Carnival Café's workers when they bought the business in September on 1972.
This new group of 13 wanted to start a venture together – they had hopes of changing the world and saw the possibility that the Café would anchor an alternative economy in Boulder. When the opportunity to buy the Family Table came up, the group borrowed $6000 from the family of one member and bought the place. Most of the group had been involved in theater, dance or clowning (including one who had been a carnie), and they had recently participated a busker's carnival on the library mall, thus "Life in a Carnival" and the Carnival Café name. Decisions about the restaurant were made by consensus at a weekly meeting on Sunday mornings, tips and managerial duties were shared, and the earnings were divided among the workers. Many members cared for the one child in the group. The workers shared a single checking account (The Sojourner Truth Memorial Checking Account), and lived in two houses in Boulder(?) where the restaurant paid the expenses.
This configuration lasted for nine months before some members of the group were burned out with the demands of restaurant work and were ready to move on. Three of the original group remained, and the operation was reformed into a cooperative with more structure for work and compensation. In the spring of 1973, two classes of workers were instituted – people could work 28 hours a week for $100 a month, meals/groceries, and have management responsibility, or they could work 14 hours a week for meals/groceries, and no management responsibility. In this structure, both the needs of the business and the workers were met, which allowed the debt to be paid off in 1975. Once the debt was retired, a legal pad was passed around and 26 `employees' signed on as the legal owners. In this way, the `owners' felt that the Café was a resource that belonged to the entire community
On each shift, the workers chose the job they wanted to do. Training was provided, but patrons who came for just for a meal often ended up becoming part of the staff. Everyone stayed an hour after closing to clean up. Many of the workers lived on the Lingerbrook property up Sunshine Canyon in a house, a small cabin, or two teepees built on the property. Others lived in vans (both operational and not) parked in the back parking lot of the restaurant. Folks who needed a place to sleep were often offered the floor, benches, or even the storage shelves of the café after they closed for the night.
The Carnival Café became a center for Boulder's alternative musical, political and religious communities. Travelers to and through Boulder were directed to the Carnival Café as a place to get a good meal and to get their bearings. As Doe Gregoire said, "I am so grateful for the experience of love the cafe gave to me at such a critical time in my life." Her husband Cedar Geiger adds, "The cafe seemed to be a combination of many things to many of us. Lots of us were just frustrated with not having a skill, not having a home, not having friends/ family, etc. Here we found real family and a life learning experience that made us all a part of who we are now."
In 1977, the city of boulder decided to raze the block of buildings where the Carnival Café was located and build a mixed use/parking structure. The Carnies had always had a month-to-month lease. Though there were thoughts of opening the Café in another location that never happened.
When the Carnival Café closed, many of its workers remained in Boulder. Some went to work for Down to Earth, the natural produce store/deli owner by Steve and Al Krause. Though the Krause's never worked at the Café, they had supplied much of the produce that the Café had served. The furnishings were in storage for a while, as talk continued about starting the Café again, but they were eventually sold off. Some went to work at The Corn Mother, another vegetarian eatery or at Spinning Kitchen, the first place in Boulder to make Tofu.
Information for this history came primary sources (such as the Daily Camera) as well as the personal remembrances of Mark Weiss, Perry, Doe Gregoire, Cedar Geiger, Karen Diamond, Mark Gunther , P Sprout, Diane Vespucci and all the members of the Carnival Café Yahoo group.
Questions-
What was the actual closing day?
I'd love a further description of The Corn Mother; did Gino get the furnishings/equipment?
Anyone guess when the `two classes of workers" structure went away?
Doe G – Do you remember what equipment (generally) you sold to Steve-White Wave, and about what time?
There was a piano in the Café. Does anyone know where it came from?
Down to Earth – Are the Krauses' still around? When did Down to Earth (16th & Pearl) close?
Did Carnies have other jobs? Could one live on the wages/benefits?
Of the two homes leased by the first group, was one the Lingerbrook Property? Both?
How did the back parking lot become a live-in spot?
For those who came from outside the region, was Boulder your destination or did it just seem like a great place once you were here?
carnivalcafe: The Carnival Cafe
