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A Grand Re-Opening

Nearing Its 50th Anniversary, Moosewood Reopens Under New Ownership // By Brennan Carney, Staff Writer // Art by Julia Young

There are a lot of sayings about how working together produces something better, like the famous “Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction” (C.S. Lewis). But what happens when you put together 19 heads?

In 1973, a small group of Ithacans came together to form the Moosewood collective. The handful of friends eventually turned into 19 food fanatics who hoped to emphasize the importance of natural vegetarian cuisine that is locally and sustainably sourced.

It’s safe to say their goal has been achieved. Moosewood has been a successful pillar in the Ithaca community for 49 years, but also has a greater influence on vegetarians all over. The restaurant’s success led the collective to publish 13 cookbooks in its time, selling five million books in nearly 50 years. It has received critical acclaim from Ithacans and people around the world, including praise from The New York Times, Bon Appetit and the James Beard Foundation. In 2022, it was announced Moosewood had a new owner: Danica Wilcox. She’s the daughter of Kip Wilcox, a member of the collective and previous chef at Moosewood, specializing in desserts.

“My mother has been part of the collectives starting in the early 80s, so I grew up at Moosewood; in the kitchen, doing my homework and waiting for her to be done with work. It was my first job, washing dishes and making salads. And then I waited tables there for several summers and Moosewood is really kind of like my home.” After the trials and tribulations around the pandemic time, the collective began to discuss what would happen to Moosewood.

“When they decided to sell, I was actually looking for somebody else to buy it from them. But then, it just made sense for it to be me… the collective was like a family to me, so it feels very much like a second generation taking over the business.”

Upon first hearing this, devoted Moosewood fans may fear that the second generation owner has plans to take the historic restaurant in a different direction. While Wilcox has made changes within the interior, exterior and general operations, they aren’t so much steps forward as they are steps back to Moosewood’s roots.

“I think really what we wanted to do was to strip Moosewood down to its bones. In doing that, we took up the carpet and in doing so, revealed more of the woodwork and space,” said Wilcox

Another part of her changes has been a move back to some of the elements the restaurant had when it first opened, including the table settings. Bringing back the “original look and feel” of when it first opened has been a priority.

“We put the original signs back up, and we have mismatched plates on the table, which is how it was in the beginning,” explained Wilcox.

Moosewood’s menu has changed many times, but this current menu’s picks are also very purposeful. Under Wilcox and co, the hope is to bring it back to its focus on sustainability, with elements from local businesses at the forefront. This can be seen countless times on the menu, including a Wide Awake Bakery sourdough, chevre from Lively Run Goat Farm, sheep milk tomme from Nettle Meadow Farm and carrots from Stick & Stone.

“Obviously, there’s things that we can’t get here, like olive oil, that are crucial to vegetarian cooking. But, there’s a lot of things… if we can get it here, we will. And trying to integrate as many of the local producers as we can into the menus.”

As for changes that are truly “new” to Moosewood, Wilcox is trying to move toward more outdoor elements,

despite challenges with Ithaca weather.

“We have plans for the patio and have a kitchen garden, and really make it a very green space and extend the patio in the front of the restaurant with awnings and tables,” explained Wilcox. “It’ll also be a much more vital outdoor dining experience available throughout the summer.”

As you sit at a table at Moosewood, people around you reminiscing and remembering the past isn’t uncommon. Being around for 49 years brings a load of history. Crosby and Nash once shared drinks at the bar, and Allen Ginsberg ended his dinner with a Moosewood brownie and black coffee. Even the Grateful Dead stopped by during their trip for Cornell’s Barton Hall show, only to go unrecognized by the members of the collective.

On a Thursday night, seated in the newly-redone dining room, groups of old friends can be overheard reflecting on menu changes, praising the new local wines list and rejoicing in the continued presence of the Moosewood brownie years later.

Moosewood will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year, a big accomplishment for a small business, especially in a town like Ithaca. In a Facebook comment, Moosewood revealed there’s a 50th anniversary cookbook in the works to celebrate. Wilcox sees this maturing as an opportunity for the restaurant to grow in new ways and refine what it wants to showcase to the world.

“I think of Moosewood as a 50-year-old. She’s going to be 50 next year, and now she needs to be an elegant woman and not a hippy diner,” Wilcox said with a little smile. “She’s coming into herself now I think, in a way. So, I wanted to recognize her—the heritage of Moosewood— and give her that dignity.”

Brennan Carney is a fourth-year journalism major who is always first in line for dinner. They can be reached at bcarney@ithaca.edu.

Swinging to the Left

What Kentaji Brown Jackson’s nomination means for the future of the Supreme Court // By George Christopher, Staff Writer

Following the one term of Donald Trump, the Supreme Court has been firmly tilted in a rightward direction. Trump appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court in his four years in office, one more than President Barack Obama was able to appoint in his eight years in office. Of course, Obama nominated Merrick Garland in 2016 following the death of Justice Scalia. But, due to conservative control of the Senate and obstruction by then Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, Garland’s nomination never came to pass. As a result, the Supreme Court holds a 6-3 conservative majority. Additionally, Trump appointed over 200 judges to appeals and district courts. It wouldn’t be controversial to say that a fundamental shift in judicial balance is the most consequential achievement of the Trump presidency.

But President Biden has done his best to counter Trump’s actions. According to Ballotpedia, Biden has successfully appointed 59 judges to the federal bench since the beginning of his term. So far, the most high profile of Biden’s judicial appointments has been his nomination of Kentaji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. Jackson would replace Stephen Breyer, a liberal who was first appointed to the court by President Bill Clinton. Due to Breyer’s advanced age, the extremely delicate Democratic majority in the senate and the already conservative-leaning court, Breyer was under immediate pressure to retire following the 2020 election.

It was an understandable reaction given the memories many have of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s decision not to retire prior to the 2014 midterms. At the time, Democrats controlled both the Presidency and the Senate, but faced a daunting election that would ultimately hand Republicans a majority they would hold until 2021. Ginsburg herself was 87 years old at the time of her death and twice fought cancer. Though Ginsburg is still widely respected amongst Democrats, her decision not to step down has led to headaches for the party, now faced with a firmly conservative Supreme Court.

Jackson would act as a counter to the successful appointments of relatively young conservative jurists. Jackson is 51 years old, just one year older than Amy Coney Barrett, the controversial justice appointed by President Trump just weeks before the 2020 presidential election. To put that into context, if she remains on the court until the same age that Ruth Bader Ginsburg did (no small task, mind you) she would be on the court till 2058!

Jackson also represents a significant shift in who presidents nominate for these positions. Jackson is the first justice who previously served as a public defender. Not to mention she is the first Black woman appointed to the nation’s highest court. While Republicans may attack Jackson as “soft on crime,” her confirmation suggests a shift in Democratic philosophy in terms of judicial appointments that could mold a court more amenable to the rights of the accused. Something that is crucial for major criminal justice reform.

Granted, Jackson may not have the opportunity to lead any major majority opinions for liberal causes anytime soon. After all, the court remains tilted conservative. Liberals on the court have had to rely on the three most moderate conservatives: Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. While these three could never be confused for liberals, they offer the best opportunity for the court’s three liberals to do damage control and keep in check the more radical rulings the court might hand down.

None of this should suggest the courts are a small or inconsequential matter. Due to the appointments of Donald Trump, women’s access to health care has come under a more concentrated threat than any other time in the last four decades. Anti-abortion groups see now as their moment to overturn Roe v. Wade, and, by extension, rob America’s women of necessary health care and potentially endanger their lives. Restrictive abortion bans in states accross the country are a direct threat to the health of women in these states. Most importantly, poor women who will not be able to access the necessary health care in other states where abortions are permitted.

“Beyond Roe” Conservatives openly opine on the overturning of other cases too, like Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court ruling which allowed married couples the right to purchase contraceptives. It will not end at Roe v. Wade. That is merely the first step for social conservatives looking to roll back rights fought for decades to gain.

If one good thing comes out of the Trump presidency, let it be that America’s political left has a greater concern for the Supreme Court.

George Chirstopher is a third-year journalism major who waited on the steps of the court for weeks to deliver this report. They can be reached at gchristopher@ithaca.edu.

The Danger of Tourism

Travel is exciting, but what does it cost the world around us? // By Stephanie Monteiro, Contributing Writer //

Art by Adam Dee

Ibelieve traveling is one of the most magical things a person can do in their lifetime. I know that I want to spend as much time as majority of those tourists will come between June and September and they will crowd the streets and tourist sites. To improve over possible seeing the world; it’s always been a dream of mine. However, something I and many other travelers have failed to consider is how are wildly popular tourist destinations affected by the millions of people that visit every year?

Barcelona, Bali, Santorini, and Venice are renowned, must-see places, but they’re also the homes of thousands of people. This means that they need sustainable infrastructure, something that is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain when there are sometimes tens of millions of people using water, using energy, and creating waste. Amsterdam, for example, has a population of less than one million but Amsterdam receives almost 20 million visitors a year.

Overtourism has prompted cities like Barcelona to block construction of new hotels, to limit Airbnb rentals, to set a tourist tax and to block cruise ships, all in the effort of making cities like Barcelona and Amsterdam feel like rich, historic places again; as opposed to overcrowded, tacky, and money-hungry tourist destinations. When tourists crowd into the historic areas of Amsterdam, for example, the city-centers of Amsterdam end up catering to tourists with waffles slathered in Nutella as opposed to grocery stores or bakeries with fresh bread.

Tourist attractions like the large telescope that was recently constructed on Mauna Kea, Hawaii are funded and built by the Hawaiian government with promises of new jobs, but most people in Hawaii, especially in the tourism industry, work more than one job. In fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hawaii ranks in the top third of all states in the U.S. for the number of workers holding down more than one job.

One of the biggest complaints from native Hawaiians in regard to tourism is that attractions like the telescope are built with little to no respect for Hawaiian culture. Many native Hawaiians consider Mauna Kea to be sacred ground which prompted the protest against construction of the telescope. That protest was a part of a much larger message from native Hawaiians expressing their frustration with how their culture has been monetized and misused by non-Hawaiians usually to the detriment of Hawaiians and their traditions. Most resorts in Hawaii are owned and run by non-Hawaiians, Hawaiian people are often employed in the service jobs that don’t pay a living wage.

Hawaii’s locals aren’t the only ones directly impacted by overtourism. The number of tourists in Barcelona has quadrupled in the last decade which has also meant a 31% increase in rent prices between 2015 and 2020, this has made the city too expensive for many locals.

Barcelona has a year-round population of about 2 million, but over 30 million people will visit Barcelona this year. The vast tourism in these popular destinations, one should visit during the shoulder season, for Barcelona that is March to May and September and October. The weather in Barcelona will be more mild but still warm and there won’t be as much overcrowding at tourist sites like the Sagrada Familia. Another solution is to not book through Airbnb and to instead book with a licensed hotel or hostel, preferably in a neighborhood that’s not well-known. Despite my lack of knowledge about overtourism, I ended up staying in a neighborhood that is not wildly popular: L’Eixample and it was incredible, I would have never known that it was not as popular an area. Furthermore, cruises should also be avoided. Barcelona sees as many as 20,000 tourists from cruise ships. These tourists don’t stay for the night and don’t usually end up eating or spending money in the city which means Barcelona receives no economic benefit from the tens of thousands of day-trippers that inevitably create waste in the streets and crowd the city. Cities like Amsterdam and Barcelona have instilled a tourist tax as well in order to supplement the increase in waste management and policing that tourists create. Locals talk shit about the tourists from cruise ships, I heard it myself. If there’s anywhere people, specifically people from cruises, should stop going it’s Venice. Venice has around 55,000 permanent residents, and around 20 million people visit Venice annually. It is suspected that by 2030 there will be no native residents in Venice. Housing prices are rising just like in Barcelona, the streets are ridiculously congested with people during the high season of tourism, and Venice has been seeing the most severe and frequent floods it’s seen in decades. As an aspiring traveler, I want to go to all of these globally recognized places as well, however, in order for these remarkable cities to remain the rich and soulful cities that they are, they can’t become enormous tourist sites. Don’t you want to be the traveler that says, oh that place is too touristy for me, I went to this other place that’s super lowkey, no one knows about it? That is far more interesting than the trillionth person to get hammered in the redlight district, pee in the canal, and make a fool of themselves in front of the locals who are just trying to live. Traveling is exciting but you can’t forget that the places you are going are people’s homes. Stephanie Monteiro is a third-year music major who is passionate towards ethical travel. She can be reached at smonteiro@ithaca.edu.