Comrades, the business would work in glorious Cuba or Venezuela.
Via MLive:
The end has come for a popular Grand Rapids restaurant known as much for its creative vegan dishes as its progressive business model.
For much of its five-year existence, the eatery went by the moniker Bartertown Diner, until it was rebranded in September to The Garden Diner and Cafe.
The offbeat 30-seat eatery announced this month that its last day would be Wednesday, Nov. 30.
After a strong summer, the restaurant with about a dozen employees had struggled in recent months, said Thad Cummings. He took it over in March with Crystal Lecoy, who left two months later.
“I was an original investor in it,” Cummings said. “I wanted to push it to see if the model could be done.”
A farewell message on the diner’s Facebook page indicated that the business, at 6 Jefferson Ave. SE, and the former Cult Pizza, at 10 Jefferson Ave. SE, are both up for sale for $60,000 and $40,000, respectively. The price tag doesn’t include the lease for the three units that each come with a monthly rent of $1,650.
Both Bartertown and Cult Pizza, which opened in 2013 and closed earlier this year, were started by Ryan Cappelletti, a vegan chef with a plan of creating a sustainable restaurant model with baker Roxanne “Roc” Aguilar. Before Bartertown’s 2011 opening, he created vegan menus for Stella’s Lounge and The Viceroy, and also helped with Brick Road Pizza on Wealthy Street SE.
Bartertown’s initial menu was described in a 2011 MLive review as an “imaginative” array of veggie, vegan and raw dishes that came with names like Dirty Dirty Beans & Greens and Raw Trash salad.
In its first year, Bartertown landed on VegNews’ list of “10 Hot New Vegan Restaurants,” sharing the spotlight with eateries in London, Toronto, Vancouver and Las Vegas.
Not only was the menu unconventional, so was the business model. Bartertown was a collective, which meant there were no bosses, according to Cappelletti. The inspiration for the worker-owned restaurant was based on Cappelletti’s own restaurant experience.
“Because of our economy, people are working 12- to-15-hour shifts, servers take home $200 to $300 a night in tips, the cooks are making $10 an hour and the owner takes whatever he takes, ” Cappelletti told MLive in 2011. “We’re going to have equal pay and equal say across the board. Everyone working together.”
Employees would be expected to join the union, Industrial Workers of the World, he said.
In keeping with the worker empowerment theme, he commissioned a mural depicting Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong and other provocative leaders tackling restaurant duties.
In the end, the restaurant failed to achieve the employee business model it envisioned.
“It had never been a worker-owned restaurant,” said Cummings. “That was a misnomer. We still bought locally and paid living wages.”
The living wage, no-tipping model required the restaurant to do a high level of sales to sustain the higher operational costs, he added.
While the restaurant’s menu garnered a loyal following and hefty praise, there were complaints about 40-minute waits for sandwiches and limited hours of operation.
HT: EA24