Background on Norine Kotts and Cheryl Lewis
Longtime partners in work and life, Norine Kotts and Cheryl Lewis met in San Francisco in 1980. At the time, Kotts was a freelance photographer, and Lewis was an art student in the Bay Area and a lifelong cook.
Kotts, the daughter of a law enforcement officer and a homemaker, grew up in a family who moved frequently and, during times of relative stability, cared for a series of foster children. She began working in newspapers in the early 1970s, taking on an assortment of tasks from answering phones to laying out pages, until she became interested in cameras and photography and began shadowing one of the photographers. As she gained in experience, confidence, and photo credits, she decided to go freelance. She spent a lot of time on the road including as a photographer for the Virginia Slims Women's Tennis Circuit, until she met Lewis in San Francisco.
Born in Chicago in 1957, Cheryl Lewis was the biracial daughter of a department store executive-turned-furniture designer and a schoolteacher who was also a teachers union organizer. When she was still very young, the family moved to Rockland County, N. Y., where they built a house and Lewis, from an early age, began cooking alongside her mother. She went to art school in San Francisco with the idea of becoming a ceramic artist. Meeting Norine Kotts changed her plans. They moved back to the house Kotts was sharing with a group of lesbians, in Somerville, Mass., and eventually into the world of food collectives, restaurants, and hospitality.
In 1982, along with two co-founders, Kotts and Lewis opened the cafe Beetle’s Lunch in Allston, a Boston neighborhood. Named "1983 Best Punk Restaurant" by Boston magazine, Beetle’s Lunch became known as a welcoming alternative community space situated at a convergence of queer and feminist politics, new concepts in art and music, and the changing food scene, with a dash of idealism, especially on the part of its young feminist founders.
Relocating to Portland, Me., in fall 1985 Kotts and Lewis opened Cafe Always. With their friend and business circles expanding and their reputation growing, they came to play a significant role in fostering and shaping that city’s burgeoning food culture. As Portland’s first restaurant to employ local farmers and incorporate local ingredients into the daily menu, Cafe Always garnered both regional and national attention. After selling the business in 1995, the couple moved into catering. In 1997 they opened Aurora Provisions, a gourmet food and wine shop with an in-store restaurant and catering service, which they ran until selling it in 2001. As consultants they continued to participate in and influence the food scene in Portland, helping to launch Portland favorite El Rayo Taqueria in 2009. Kotts and Lewis travel extensively, often centering their trips on food.
Between opening or helping open around a dozen restaurants and introducing new, often international ingredients and cooking styles, Cheryl Lewis and Norine Kotts influenced the Maine and New England food scenes in fundamental ways, and that impact--along with their unofficial mantra "no food rules"--endures.
