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 that rotates identities every six months to highlight another country. Each iteration of the project is augmented by events, performances, and discussions that seek to expand the engagement the public has with the culture, politics, and issues at stake within the focus country. These events have included live international Skype dinner parties between citizens of Pittsburgh and young professionals in Tehran, Iran; documentary filmmakers in Kabul, Afghanistan; and community radio activists in Caracas, Venezuela.
The restaurant is currently in its third iteration as a Venezuelan take-out restaurant. Developed in collaboration with members of the Venezuelan community, the food comes packaged in custom-designed wrappers that include interviews with Venezuelans both in Venezuela and the United States on subjects ranging from street food and popular culture to debates about President Hugo Chavez and the geopolitical dynamics of the region. These interview-based wrappers are produced for each iteration of the restaurant. As is to be expected, the thoughts and opinions that come through the interviews are often contradictory and complicated by personal perspective and history. These natural contradictions reflect a nuanced range of thought within each country and serves to instigate questioning, conversation, and debate with our customers.
Operating seven days a week in the middle of the city, the Conflict Kitchen reformats the preexisting social relations of food and economic exchange to engage the general public in discussions about countries, cultures, and people that they might know little about outside of the polarizing rhetoric of U.S. politics and the narrow lens of media headlines. In addition, the restaurant creates a constantly changing site for ethnic diversity in the post-industrial city of Pittsburgh, as it has presented the only Iranian, Afghan, and Venezuelan restaurants the city has ever seen. Upcoming iterations will include Cuba and North Korea.
Conflict Kitchen is a project by Jon Rubin and Dawn Weleski and is funded by the Sprout Fund, The Waffle Shop, the Center for the Arts in Society, and the sale of food. Graphic design by Brett Yasko. Architectural design by Pablo Garcia of POiNT.
Special thanks to Illah Nourbakhsh, Sohrab Kashani, Marti Louw, Najibah Tursonzadah, Mohammed Sidky, Lourdes Hann, and all of those from the Iranian, Afghan, and Venezuelan communities who supplied us with their advice and perspectives.
For questions about Conflict Kitchen feel free to CONTACT US
Press Inquiries can call Jon Rubin @ 510-912-2221
Conflict Kitchen is located at 124 s. Highland Ave, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Kubideh Kitchen, the first iteration of Conflict Kitchen, was an Iranian take-out restaurant that served 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. 
