CookNSolo’s cultural presence in our city is not just maintained and legitimized through direct support from customers and fawning local press, but also through the many partnerships and collaborations they’ve established with local businesses and personalities.
In our research into these relationships, we discovered that local roaster OX Coffee had an exclusive partnership with CookNSolo restaurant, K’Far. Not only did they supply coffee beans to K’Far, but OX co-founder/owner Will Gross had used their business to host a fundraiser for his ‘22 run for PA House of Representatives. In a 2020 interview Solomonov spoke glowingly of the business and its founders and the time he spent there: “I love to start my mornings at OX Coffee, just off South Street, owned by two old friends, Max Cudworth and Will Gross... It's this compact, inviting and warm little space. My home away from home.”
In collaboration with our partners in Philadelphia DSA’s No Appetite for Apartheid campaign, we began a process to push OX to end their complicit partnership and to answer the demands of both our campaigns.
And we won!
Will wrote a letter about the decision to end this partnership and sign onto the No Appetite for Apartheid campaign:
“As a socialist and a small business owner, I know firsthand how our economy puts enormous pressure on small businesses. Every day, we're forced to make difficult decisions about how to compete with massive corporations, pay our workers a living wage, and stay afloat.
I also know that Israel's invasion and occupation of Palestine hasn't just taken lives, it has devastated livelihoods. Palestinian workers and their families have struggled to survive for generations under a state where they are not afforded equal rights. In recent years, Israeli state and settler violence against Palestinians has escalated even further. Palestinian farmers, winemakers, olive growers, and countless other small businesses have been targeted, displaced, or destroyed. Economic survival is political. Food is political. Our whole lives are political.
That's why I'm proud to support the movement to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel. OX Coffee has taken the No Appetite for Apartheid pledge with Philly DSA. This means we will not buy from or sell to businesses that provide material support to Israel. We have also stopped selling coffee beans to K’Far Cafe (owned by CookNSolo). We're committed to ensuring we're not complicit in a system of occupation, displacement, and genocide, nor in the economic blockade that continues to deny Palestinians the ability to live and work with dignity.
Small businesses have a role to play. We don't have to accept that our shelves, supply chains, and purchasing decisions are neutral. We can choose solidarity over complicity. We can say no to Israeli products that generate profit that supports apartheid, displacement, and hunger—and yes to a future built on justice and collective liberation”
We are glad to see they decided to do the right thing, but we know that businesses and institutions do not arrive at these decisions without pressure from all of us. Customers, workers and community members must continue to make it clear that they want nothing to do with anyone conducting business that supports or overlooks genocide or normalizes the supremacist ideology of Zionism.
Unfortunately, another local coffee brand, Rival Brothers, maintains their business relationship with CookNSolo while Solomonov and Cook offer material and political support for genocide and apartheid. MilkJawn uses Israeli-produced tahini from Zionist CookNSolo partner Soom in their ice cream— despite pushback from their own employees. Are you a frequent customer? Tell them what you think!
Boycott CookNSolo, Boycott K’Far, Boycott Dizengoff, Boycott Goldie, Boycott Zahav, Boycott Jaffa Bar, Boycott Lilah, Boycott Aviv, Boycott Soom!
Want to learn more about No Appetite for Apartheid, volunteer to canvas and find out who’s signed onto the pledge not to carry complicit products in our city? Check the Philly campaign, map of businesses who have signed on and social media. If you’re outside of Philly go to the national site to find a campaign near you!