Alice Brock was a restaurant owner immortalized in Arlo Guthrie’s epic classic song, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” better known as “Alice’s Restaurant.”
- Died: November 21, 2024 (Who else died on November 21?)
- Details of death: Died in Wellfleet, Massachusetts at the age of 83.
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Alice Brock’s legacy
Even though Arlo Guthrie’s epic 18-minute Vietnam War protest song, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” better known as “Alice’s Restaurant,” has improbably become a Thanksgiving standard, many listeners don’t realize that the titular Alice was a real person: restaurant owner Alice Brock, who over the years owned several eateries in Massachusetts.
Brock was a librarian at Stockbridge School in Massachusetts when she first met Guthrie, who was a student there at the time. Both had an interest in left-wing politics. She opened her first restaurant location, called The Back Room, in 1965, closing a little over a year later. The stories told in Guthrie’s song originated in that location, resulting in the composition – much of which, Brock said, had no basis in reality – and the 1969 film of the same name.
She earned enough from the film and the sale of an accompanying book, “The Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook,” to open a new restaurant in the early 1970s. Originally called Alice’s Take-Out, its name was changed to match the song in 1973. Her third and final establishment, Alice’s at Avaloch, followed in 1976.
Brock never loved the restaurant business, however, preferring art. She pursued art while working as a cook in the 1980s, and also penned two other books: a 1976 autobiography, “My Life as a Restaurant,” and a children’s book, “How to Massage Your Cat,” as well as doing illustrations on another children’s book, “Mooses Come Walking,” written by Guthrie. She retired as her art sales slowed and health worsened by the late 2010s.
Tributes to Alice Brock
Full obituary: The New York Times
