Claire's Corner Copia

By Tom Lagasse | June 28, 2018

Photo courtesy of Claire's Corner Copia.

There are few things in New Haven that rival Yale as an institution, but Claire’s Corner Copia, located at the edge of campus, is one of them. A vegetarian restaurant, Claire’s Corner Copia has been serving students and the New Haven community since 1975. When few independent restaurants last a year, Claire’s Corner Copia is surely an outlier – that is, until you eat lunch and a slice of Lithuanian Coffee Cake. Then you’ll understand the restaurant’s staying power.

When newlyweds Claire and Frank Criscuolo wanted to spend as much time together as possible, Claire, a registered nurse, and Frank, a musician, chose to open a restaurant. They took their families’ love of community and food to the masses. Their chief goal to was to make healthy, delicious food that happened to be vegetarian — not an easy feat in 1975, even if the location helped. “People come from all over the world, because of Yale,” Claire says. “It made our job easier. But even with that advantage, we still had a lot of education to do.”

Photo 1: Photo courtesy of Claire's Corner Copia.

Photo 2: Photo courtesy of Claire's Corner Copia.

Claire explained how, over the years, she’d overheard people say that vegetarian cuisine might be healthy, but not delicious. All she asks is that they give her restaurant a try. Diverse dietary needs are part of the restaurant’s menu planning, and Claire’s kitchen can work with any sort of need or restriction. “We’ll figure out how to make it taste great,” Claire says. “We’ve taught a lot of people that a vegetarian dish can taste just as good as any other.”

It’s a strategy that, clearly, has been working. Over the years, Claire’s Corner Copia has expanded three times in order to accommodate growing demand. “We’re goonies,” Claire says with a laugh. “We’re just different. We care about every single detail and work closely with our customers to provide food that meets all their needs, the same as you would for family.”

That sense of family informs every aspect of Claire’s Corner Copia. Claire, who now operates the restaurant alone after Frank passed away in 2012, has a “mother hen” relationship with her staff. Many of the roughly 30 employees have worked with Claire for over a decade. “There are so many stories and memories of family. Birthdays, wedding proposals…they all take place here,” Claire says. “We have tremendous customers and a great staff, which makes everything we do feel meaningful.”

Photo 1: Photo courtesy of Claire's Corner Copia.

Photo 2: Claire Criscuolo. Photo courtesy of Claire's Corner Copia.

Photo 3: Photo courtesy of Claire's Corner Copia.

Claire’s dedication to her staff and customers is about more than great food; it is also about being a supporting member of the community. Claire has taken a 100-mile pledge which, for the good of the environment, restricts her purchasing options to vendors within a 100-mile radius. Like all of the decisions that inform the restaurant’s operating procedures, this one feels less like a limitation and more like a natural extension of its familial relationship with New Haven.

Guests can choose from a variety of daily and seasonal specials or dive into one of their permanent-menu selections, many of which turn classic recipes on their head, vegetarian-style. The “C.L.T.” skips the bacon in favor of chipotle soy chicken, along with all the usual trimmings, and the Arthur Avenue Sicilian Sandwich forgoes deli meats in order to pile high sautéed broccoli rabe, tomatoes, garlic, and fennel under a layer of melted mozzarella that is sprinkled with crushed red pepper. Of course, there are also countless salads, soups, drinks, and more — all with enough flavor to draw the attention of even a dedicated carnivore.

It’s attention that Claire, also the author of four vegetarian cookbooks, has grown accustomed to receiving: “Once you taste real food, you know.”