NYT: A Hyphenated-American Dream

[mcscajun]

A group of immigrant workers (formerly of Windows on the World, lost in the WTC attacks) are opening a worker-owned restaurant, with a very progressive outlook. Nice reading.

(snip)
Restaurants open in New York all the time, but there has never been one like this. Mr. Moog and 50 other waiters, busboys, bartenders and dishwashers, many of them immigrants who worked at Windows, have formed a cooperative that will run one of the city's first worker-owned restaurants.

Each one of them will claim a piece of the restaurant, called Colors, as their own and share in any profits. Each one submitted a family recipe to help shape the restaurant's eclectic menu - which they describe as American fare with a global twist. And each one has pinned lifelong dreams on an idea formed in the crucible of disaster.

(snip)

Nobody in the restaurant, not even the dishwashers, will receive less than $13.50 an hour, far higher than average restaurant wages. They will share tips and be eligible to receive overtime and vacations. Eventually they will be covered by health insurance and have pensions. And, of course, each will share in the profits of the restaurant, if and when there are profits.

(snip)

A successful co-operatively owned restaurant could become a powerful symbol. Juan Galan, an organizer with Local 100 of Unite Here, which represents hotel and restaurant workers, is trying to persuade co-op members to join the union because it would show owners how treating workers well can actually help increase profits.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/29/nyregion/29colors.html

[silverweb]

1. Beautiful!

I wish them much success. I'll be in NY in a few months and will make a point of seeking out this restaurant for a meal. In the meantime, I'll be looking for for NY DUers' "reviews" here!

On edit: I found the following very distressing: "Saru Jayaraman, executive director of the Restaurant Opportunities Center, which gets support from the restaurant workers union, said she thought workers would be eligible to receive the 9/11 financing available for rebuilding Lower Manhattan. But except for wage subsidies from Catholic Charities, they have not received any of that financial help."

Haven't we all heard about Subway and Dunkin Donut shops and the like receiving tens of thousands of dollars in business aid because of 9/11 -- even when they were nowhere near NYC and had not been impacted at all -- and survivors getting all kinds of financial compensation, like that greedy, neurotic bitch on Oprah who went through $5 million in four years but was still whining?

So how come these people got nothing?!? :grr:

[mcscajun]

2. Colors Is Open.

Previous threads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=181888
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=169&topic_id=4996

It has an inspirational back story, a genesis in tragedy, an arc of resurrection. Colors is where dozens of surviving workers from Windows on the World, the restaurant that was atop the World Trade Center, have regrouped. And they not only work there but also have a financial say and stake in it. It's a cooperative venture, owned and run by its waiters and waitresses, bus boys and cooks.

Getting it off the ground took sweat equity, creatively engineered loans, optimism, patience and more than four years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Early this month, that perseverance paid off, and Colors at last opened its doors on Lafayette Street, just south of Astor Place.

(snip)

Many of the recipes were derived from favorite dishes of the families of the workers themselves. That's another movie-ready detail, another prompt to root for this place.

Colors, 417 Lafayette Street, between Astor Place and East Fourth Street, East Village; [phone]. Appetizers, $11 to $17. Entrees, $18 to $33.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/13/dining/13jour.html