Nominate La Copine

This is the first year we have decided to nominate La Copine for a James Beard Award! With our cookbook coming out next year, we need all the help we can get to spread the word and we wanted to share with you the reason why we need your help to nominate La Copine. When Andrew Zimmern came to visit us on Bizarre Foods in 2017** he noticed how spread thin we were and standing on one of his legs, he told us that we needed to find balance–something else to sustain the restaurant. He said it didn’t have to be another restaurant, but it could be a gift shop or a cookbook.

Eight years later, (with a pandemic in-between) here we are with both a cookbook and a gift shop about to open! Our reason for pursuing these ventures are to sustain the restaurant, so we can keep employing all of our dedicated employees and continue growing with the incredibly high demand in Joshua Tree and at La Copine. We would love to see our restaurant open 40 years from now, like the Chez-Panisse-of-the-desert…

James Beard Awards Platform

Below is the Impact Statement we submitted on the restaurants behalf, but if you decide to nominate La Copine you would need to put something in your own words. La Copine has been open since 9/11/2015 and is eligible for the following James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards: Outstanding Restaurant, America’s Classics, and Best Chefs - California. The co-owners are Chef Nikki Hill and her wife, Restauranteur Claire Wadsworth. Thank you for supporting our dreams and considering to nominate La Copine for a James Beard!

Deadline: Friday, November 21st at 11:59pm EST

**The Bizarre Foods episode, a road trip from PS to LV, was pulled from the air due to the shooting in Las Vegas!

Every restaurant can be an instrument of persuasion, and La Copine isn’t just a destination for late lunch in the desert. It’s a model for outsiders putting down roots in the places where they find beauty, changing and complicating a community as they become an essential part of it. –Tejal Rao for the New York Times.

Out in the California desert near Joshua Tree, La Copine has been spinning its own kind of magic since 2015, powered by business and life partners Claire Wadsworth and Nikki Hill, the drama of the landscape, the eclectic local population, and of course, the irresistible food.

Dubbed the West Coast’s answer to Via Carota’s Rita and Jody, Wadsworth and Hill are passionate, community-driven, California cooks with a deep love for each other and the people around them. They welcome their guests to La Copine (slang for “girlfriend” in French) with open arms, create a safe haven for the queer community outside of Los Angeles, and have a deep sense of care and pride for everything they put on the plate.

La Copine adopts the restaurant’s “New California” style: veggie-forward, innovative yet comforting, light enough for lunch, yet substantial enough to gather around and linger over. With constantly rotating menus, La Copine’s food roams far and wide but always imparts a sense of home.

More than the food, though, Wadsworth and Hill’s backstory as a couple, the business they’ve built together, and the community they’ve found in the desert, make for an unforgettable trip through the remote and spectacular setting, as well as a mission statement for creating a life on one’s own terms.

“La Copine is my favorite neighborhood restaurant despite the fact that it’s in the middle of the desert far from where I live. Claire and Nikki’s food is beyond delicious, simple in the most sophisticated ways. This book is one you will want to cook out of for years to come. A brilliant tome from two of my favorite humans who make magic with their restaurant every day.”–Andrew Zimmern

“La Copine is like a mirage in the desert in both a literal and metaphorical way. In a food landscape of capitalistic sameness, this wellspring of deliciousness and authenticity is one of the great discoveries of my foodie adventures. Several people yelled at me for spreading the word about La Copine because it’s truly a secret gem. Thank god they wrote a book so I can relive my perfectly yummy experience there.”–Olivia Wilde

“It is amazing to see what Nikki and Claire have built! When I first met them they told me of their dream to own a restaurant where people came to eat delicious food in a great environment filled with community…that is exactly what they have created. Watching dedicated, talented, disciplined individuals live out their greatest dreams is a privilege. La Copine is a special place…anyone who passes thru or lives in the neighborhood will tell you the same.”–Antonia Lofaso

“This place is a ten!” –Natasha Lyonne

Pre-Order the La Copine Cookbook

Why is pre-ordering our cookbook so important? It helps us secure the sales and funding to get this book in every store, and helps with production planning and signals success to retailers, boosting the chances of getting our book stocked and promoted! SO, thank you for all of your support.

Lots of love,

Claire and Nikki of La Copine