Mar 20, 2009   | COMMENTS     

Gillian Clark has the distinction of being the only Queery subject to answer the book question with a real tome. She has written her memoir and it’s widely available. She originally planned to call the book “Are These Freaks Really My Children,” a threat she taunted her two teen daughters with for years. They dared her to do it, so she did. She shopped it around and got an unexpectedly strong reaction from agents and publishers, though the book eventually morphed into “Out of the Frying Pan: a Chef’s Memoir of Hot Kitchens, Single Motherhood and the Family Meal” (it’s available at Amazon and other places).

The 45-year-old Great Neck, N.Y., native has been in Washington since the mid-’80s, a period that has brought enormous change. She divorced a husband and came out as a lesbian, graduated from cooking school in 1995 and owned D.C.’s Colorado Kitchen from 2001 until last June when it closed because its lease expired. In January, Clark opened the General Store, a restaurant in Silver Spring she runs with her partner, Robin Smith, who she’s been with since 2000.

“You’d think we’d be at each other’s throats because we literally spend 24 hours a day together,” Clark says. “But we’re really not. I think we fought a lot when Colorado Kitchen first opened but we learned not to hang onto it.”

She describes the new restaurant as a roadside-type place that serves hearty American fare like casseroles, chili, beef stew and fried chicken. “I pictured it as one of these places you stop by when you’re traveling, it’s a general store but you smell someone cooking in the back so you get carryout.” Business has been astoundingly strong — they’re averaging about 60 percent above their goals. Clark calls it “Cracker Barrel only good.” Friends and regulars are affectionately calling it “The G Spot.”

A downstairs tavern area will open next month. Clark lives in D.C.’s Petworth neighborhood with her daughters, partner, two elderly dogs and a toothless cat. She likes restoring wooden boats and watching “The Biggest Loser” in her spare time.

How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?
Fourteen years and the hardest person to tell was myself.

Who’s your gay hero?
Lily Tomlin. She’s not defined by her orientation. She’s just a really funny and imaginative comedian who happens to be a lesbian.

What is Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?
My attic bedroom in a house I was renting on Kanawha Street.

If gay marriage were legal, would you tie the knot?
No

What non-gay issue are you most passionate about?
Poor quality of school lunches

What historical outcome would you change?
Our reaction to 9/11

What has been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?
When Diana Ross left the Supremes.

On what reality TV show would you fare best?
“The Bachelor”

What item of clothing has been in your closet since high school?
My Calvin Klein jeans I can no longer get into but paid a fortune for and can’t bear to get rid of.

If your life were a book, what would the title be?
“Out of the Frying Pan” (in bookstores now)

If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?
You mean they haven’t? Isn’t it called the martini?

What do you believe in beyond the physical world?
Ghosts, afterlife, reincarnation, secret life of inanimate objects.

What would you order for your last meal?
Steamed lobster and silver queen corn with two pounds of butter.

What would you walk across hot coals for?
A week with nothing to do and no one calling me on my cell phone.

What gay stereotype annoys you most?
That lesbians all get along with other lesbians. Often you have nothing in common other than you all dig chicks and that’s not always enough.

What is the best gay film ever made?
“But I’m a Cheerleader”

What is the most overrated social custom?
Marriage

What trophy or prize do you most covet?
James Beard Award

What’s your advice for gay teens?
Just be yourself. Everyone is going to judge and label you, even other gays.

Why Washington?
It is the town of my growing up in a way. I’ve been here since 1985. The home of my mid-life crisis that brought me where I am today. I feel like I can be myself and do what I think is best without any restrictions.