Claire鈥檚 Corner Copia, a vegetarian restaurant located on the New Haven Green, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Owner Claire Criscuolo recently joined 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 鈥淲here We Live鈥� to talk about the story of starting the restaurant and how she approaches building community.
Interview highlights
Her mother鈥檚 philosophy around food
鈥淓at this. It's good for you. We don't eat that, it has chemicals.鈥� Those were her main food mantras. But more than anything, I think what she gave me most was a gift of empathy. If I ever came home complaining about someone, she'd say, 鈥淗ow would you feel if that was your brother?鈥� And I say, 鈥淲ell, Mom, it isn't my brother,鈥� and she'd say, 鈥渂ut it could have been your brother and it's someone's brother. How would you like someone to treat your brother?鈥� And then she'd say, 鈥渢hat's how you should treat them.鈥�
What inspired her to open Claire鈥檚 Corner Copia in 1975
I really just wanted homemade salad dressing and bread and real food.
That's another reason why I think everyone should try to cook, or at least taste real food somewhere else, like my place or somewhere else. Because I think that once you get that pattern, once you know what it feels like and tastes like and looks like and smells like to have real food, you will know the difference. So when you taste canned beans, you'll know they didn't start out dry. When you taste a bottled dressing, you'll know that it wasn't a freshly made dressing. When you taste homemade bread, you know, it wasn't sitting somewhere for, you know, a week and a half or two weeks on the counter.
On owning a restaurant during COVID-19
It was pretty bad. But, I mean, we had already been through a big economic crash in the 鈥�80s. We had been through 9/11.
We were about to do a renovation of our kitchen. We were going to try to shut down for a long weekend and move things around in the kitchen and operate at a minimal level. And then the pandemic came through.
We were going to renovate anyway. So that was a big distraction for me, but I was more worried about how to pay my people so I took out a big SBA [Small Business Administration] loan. But our customers were not going to let us fail. They were buying thousands of dollars worth of gift cards while we were closed.
Why Claire鈥檚 Corner Copia is vegetarian
Actually, it was because I became vegetarian. I always say, I want to go through the world kind of hurting as little as possible. And so for me, it was because I just didn't want to eat animals. So that was my reason.
How the status and acceptance of vegetarian cooking has changed in the past 50 years
It has changed. I'm so happy, and I think a lot of it is based on science.
If you eat well, if you eat lots of fruits and vegetables 鈥� and we're very big on organic as well 鈥� and if you eat a clean life, if you exercise and be happy and have purpose, it's all a big package. So it's very important.
I read a lot of the New England Journal of Medicine, more than I probably read cookbooks. Because it's important to me, and I think that we need to be healthier, and we need to take the dyes and the chemicals out of our diets, and people are realizing that now. I mean, now they're talking about ultra-processed food. So this is wonderful.
The motto 鈥榖e kinder than necessary鈥�
It just means empathy. It means treating people like you would want to be treated. It means don't judge people. You don't know what they've been through. And try to make everyone feel the way you would want them to make you feel. And we're neurotic about that. You know, even if you have to kick someone out, you can't be mean. It's just, it's not worth it.
On what community means to her
Everything. Community means, it's like a big hug. And the science proves it now, I mean Dr. Vivek Murthy came out with that book 鈥淭ogether,鈥� like a minute before the pandemic. And it's true. And community, to me, means just knowing your community, knowing your people, helping your people, letting them lift you when you need it, and lifting them when they need it.
Listen to the full conversation
Where We Live: Claire Criscuolo on 50 years of Claire's Corner Copia and the importance of kindness
This conversation has been edited for clarity and condensed. 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 Catherine Shen, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Lily Tyson and Patrick Skahill contributed to this post.
