WTF we're here to do.

Rebel Rebel is a no-rules natural wine bar in Somerville's Bow Market. We give a fuck (about wine and about you). We believe a wine bar can be a place for the community to engage, grow, and communicate. We also believe in the power of natural wine to bring us back to the foundations of our connection to farmers, to women, and to the planet. Think that sounds like a bunch of woo-woo bullshit? Come hang out and let us show you what we do. 

Some nitty-gritty.

We’re a bar. We’re JUST a bar. You know how sometimes you go out for cocktails or hang at a pub? Maybe you get a snack, maybe you just chill and talk about how Carol at work is JUST THE WORST? It’s like that, but with wine.

We don’t take reservations. We don’t have a full menu (but our cheese tray from Formaggio Kitchen is bomb, our olives are salty, and our olive-oil-fried potato chips come all the way from Spain). We don’t do flights or pairings. We’re a small bar (20 seats inside, 20 outside), so don’t roll through with your whole office unless you’re cool rubbing up against each other (even Carol).

We do have bomb-ass wine, badass woman and non-binary bartenders who know a thing or two about a thing or two, more than a decade of experience in natural wine, and a no-bullshit attitude that guarantees you’ll get the best of what we’ve got, no matter what.

Leave your misogyny, your homophobia, your racism, your classism, your ableism, your patriarchy, your gender bias, and all your other bullshit at the door, ‘cause that shit will get you kicked out real quick.

ANTIRACISM ACCOUNTABILITY

Below, you’ll find a 5-step plan we developed in response to the civil rights crisis occurring in across the country and in our industry. We believe, as a white-owned business, that it's our responsibility to fix the systemic oppression our whiteness causes to BIPOC and POC, both in our industry and in our community. This is a living document.

UPDATE: This document was created in early 2020. The pandemic’s lengthy disruption of both our business and daily life slowed the pace of a few of the below-mentioned initiatives. Those initiatives are marked with asterisks, and notes on their delay or progress are provided.

First, Rebel Rebel has instituted a collaborative hiring process. All members of leadership will be responsible for collectively voting on all new potential hires. This is not a big step, but we believe a collective of voices will open communication around needs for diversity and encourage internal feedback in service to long-term diversity goals. 

Second, Rebel Rebel has instituted a non-referral hiring policy. This means that we will not give employment preference to friends and family of team members. Employment opportunities will be posted publicly via social media, community bulletins and relevant industry job sites. As an equal opportunity employer committed to shifting our current racial demographic, we will prioritize BIPOC candidates for all available positions. When selecting candidates for interviews, 75% of those candidates selected will identify themselves as BIPOC. We will not proceed with the interview and hiring process without a 75% BIPOC applicant presence. This will be practiced until the Rebel Rebel team is at least 50% BIPOC, and will continue indefinitely thereafter. 

How does Rebel Rebel intend to step away from organizational white supremacy without participating in tokenism, as a white-owned business?

Rebel Rebel is committed to both passively supporting BIPOC (and other non-dominant communities) through fundraising and no-fee space-sharing, and actively supporting those communities—through lobbying, public policy support, and the organization of industry-centered racial education programs. We are also committed to responding to feedback from BIPOC and other non-dominant communities about necessary improvements to our space, our practices, and our team. When called upon to make adjustments, we will do the work to explore how we need to evolve in service to equity without burdening the communities asking for change with stewardship of our education. 

How does Rebel Rebel define tokenism?

Tokenism is the practice of inclusion for the sole purpose of creating an appearance of diversity without engaging in active work to dismantle oppressive systems that are barriers to equity. Rebel Rebel acknowledges that tokenism serves only to assuage white guilt and is not a meaningful step away from white supremacy. 

Third, we recognize that physical access to our space from what we see as the Boston area’s unofficially segregated neighborhoods makes it difficult for us to be a realistic place of employment for many BIPOC and POC. In order to remove this barrier to access, we will offer travel compensation for any hired employee living more than 2 miles away. As public transportation is often burdensome, travel compensation will include car service fees from Lyft. Travel compensation will be in addition to equitable wages—not taken out of wages. Long-term, Rebel Rebel is committed to working with the state in the development of public policy to improve transportation access for restaurant/bar industry workers, whose long shifts at late hours make access to jobs requiring public transportation impossible. 

Fourth, we recognize that our industry is in its very essence extremely problematic. Wine is a luxury product historically consumed primarily by white, upper-class men. Rebel Rebel’s work to dismantle class and gender access to the wine industry will continue, but we also commit to breaking down racial barriers that prevent BIPOC access to knowledge, resources, and information. We will do this two ways:

1. *** We intend to provide a paid (or for-credit, whichever is preferential) internship program to BIPOC Boston-area public high school students (age 18+) interested in learning more about hospitality as it relates to the wine industry. We understand that if we had considered careers in hospitality viable longterm employment options when we were in high school, we could have avoided the crippling student loan debt associated with college degrees, developed important skills at a younger age, and focused more clearly on this industry as a serious path to financial security. We hope sharing our experience, knowledge, resources, and networks with younger BIPOC will create more opportunities for open access to employment opportunities in the wine industry in the future. Along with this internship, we’ll offer drug and alcohol abuse awareness programming (from a licensed BIPOC health professional), as we also recognize this industry as a breeding ground for unhealthy behavior. *** The closure of BPS to in-person education for the duration of the pandemic halted this initiative. We intend to pursue this effort for the 2023 school year.

2. *** We have chosen to invest $25,000 in a specific Black-owned business in the wine industry that will remain anonymous unless they choose to announce the investment themselves. We see this investment as reparations for the harm white women have done to BIPOC throughout history and in our industry in particular, which was built on the backs of enslaved Black people. We also hope that contributing to this business’ continued success will encourage sustained and expanded representation of BIPOC in our industry. We believe that our industry will benefit greatly from a more diverse group of national thought leaders and standard-bearers. *** This step is currently on hold, as our original investment project’s needs have changed. Instead, we’ve directed interim fundraising efforts to Industry Sessions, an organization providing free wine education to BIPOC.

Finally, we intend to maintain our practice of wealth redistribution, but adjust the direction of its output. In 2019, we donated approximately 30% of our net income to organizations supporting abortion access. We will continue to focus our distribution efforts to organizations that benefit survivors of intimate partner violence, reproductive rights access, and the queer community.

last updated 3.23