Welcome to Conflict Kitchen’s first iteration, Kubideh Kitchen. Conflict Kitchen is a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries that the United States is in conflict with. The food is served out of a take-out style storefront, which will rotate identities every 4 months to highlight another country. Each Conflict Kitchen iteration will be augmented by events, performances, and discussion about the the culture, politics, and issues at stake with each county we focus on. Kubideh Kitchen is an Iranian take-out restaurant that serves kubideh in freshly baked barbari bread with onion, mint, and basil. Developed in collaboration with members of the Pittsburgh Iranian community, the sandwich is packaged in a custom-designed wrapper that includes interviews with Iranians both in Pittsburgh and Iran on subjects ranging from Iranian food and poetry to the current political turmoil.
Conflict Kitchen is a project by John Peña, Jon Rubin, and Dawn Weleski and is funded by the Sprout Fund, Waffle Shop, and the Center for the Arts in Society. Graphic design by Brett Yasko. Architectural design by Pablo Garcia of POiNT. Conflict Kitchen is located at 124 S. Highland Ave, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Public events, performances, and discussions about Iranian culture and conflict will be held at The Waffle Shop, 124 S. Highland Avenue, adjacent to Conflict Kitchen. Conflict Kitchen operates out of the Waffle Shop’s kitchen door and is an extension of the Waffle Shop’s unique programming. Each Conflict Kitchen iteration will be augmented by events, talks, and discussion groups about the culture, politics, and issues at stake with each county we focus on.
The Waffle Shop is a neighborhood restaurant that produces and broadcasts a live-streaming talk show with its customers, operates a changeable storytelling billboard on its roof, and runs a take-out window that sells food from countries engaged in conflict with the U.S. The shop is a public lab that brings together people from all walks of life to engage in dialogue, experimentation and the co-production of culture. The project functions as a classroom for students from Carnegie Mellon University, an eatery, a TV production studio, a social catalyst, and a business.
