New York Times journalist and author Erik Piepenburg explores the significance of LGBTQ restaurants as essential community hubs in his latest book, Dining Out.

Dining Out discusses how people in the LGBTQ community came of age, came out, and fought for their rights not only in society but in restaurants.

Piepenburg guides readers through an evolving timeline that includes automats, lesbian separatist cafes, Wisconsin sports bars, trailblazing drag brunches, and his favored diners.

He highlights the city cafeterias of the 1920s, the family-owned diners that nourished the Stonewall generation, and the diverse gathering spots of the early 2000s.

He includes archival material, original reporting and interviews, and first-person accounts on how LGBTQ restaurants transformed the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement for the better.

In the video player above, he explains why this book was crucial to write.

“I had so much material from people that I talked to who had never been asked before about their gay restaurant memories, and so I thought, you know what, for my first book I’m going to write the first book about the history of America’s gay restaurants,” Piepenburg said.

Piepenburg dedicated a lot of extensive research towards this particular niche of dining.

“I would spend an entire afternoon just looking at gay newspapers from the past and the other gay alternative weeklies that used to come out before the internet and just sort of spend time reading about where gay people went or what restaurants the gay newspapers reviewed or who was playing ads to let people know, ‘Hey, you can come to our restaurants,’ and you know it’s going to be a safe space for you,” he continued.

Dining Out is available on Amazon, the Kindle Store, Barnes and Noble, and Audible.