DAWNING OF A NEW AGE-Colors brings harmony, bliss to the restaurant biz (NY PRESS)

With it’s dark mahogany walls, crisp white tablecloths, double-digit prices and art deco decor, Colors seems like any other upscale Manhattan restaurant. But underneath its veneer of luxury, a revolution’s brewing.

Colors is one of the first worker-owned co-operative restaurants in New York. Every employee at this brand new restaurant—from the busboy to the executive chef—owns an equal percentage.

Salaries start at $13.50 an hour and all decisions are made democratically. The name itself represents the diversity of the staff—which comes from over 25 different countries—and the menu, an elegant sampler of fusion recipes, is built around organic, seasonal produce.

I can almost imagine the activists panting and drooling at the windows, but they aren’t dining there because—hey, let’s face it—they can’t afford it. But that’s exactly what sets Colors apart from your average dirty-hippie co-op. The restaurant shows that progressive values don’t have to clash with luxurious living.

Colors is a project of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY), an organization that advocates for restaurant worker rights. The group was formed after 9/11 to provide support to displaced restaurant workers and their families; in particular, those who worked at Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center. Very quickly the organization evolved a larger mission—to improve labor practices across the board within the industry.

“It’s a very high exploitation industry—very low wages, very poor working conditions,” says Saru Jayaraman, the executive director of ROC-NY. “One percent of workers are unionized, 60 percent don’t make proper overtime wages and 90 percent don’t have health insurance.”

According to ROC-NY’s research, workers wages have stagnated at a median annual income of $19,500 over the last 20 years, while profits have simultaneously soared. Many workers are forced to work up to 80 hours a week in unsafe conditions and are forced to work when sick.

To make matters worse, discrimination is rampant throughout the industry. Seventy percent of restaurant workers in New York City are foreign born, yet the majority of high-paying “front of the house” jobs are filled by Whites, while the majority of low-paying “back of the house” jobs are filled by immigrants of color. Promotion from the back of the house to the front of the house is virtually impossible.

“The co-op is about showing that you can treat your workers well and pay them well and still make a profit. And also that workers can be owners and be successful” says Jayaraman.

“We want this to be a model for the rest of the restaurant industry,” says Stefan Mailvaganam, the stylish Sri Lankan-American general manager. “We are trying to establish a different way of doing things.”

In fact, ROC-NY’s research has shown that poor labor practices actually hurt profits. “[Frequent] turnover because of low wages and poor working conditions ends up costing employers,” says Jayaraman. “It also costs employers when workers are forced to come to work sick, which leads to sanitation and health issues. Our research shows that the same restaurants that egregiously violate labor laws egregiously violate the health code.”

Despite all the talk, Colors is still a long way from making a profit (though it’s only been open a little over a month). But its innovative practices are already making a difference in the lives of its workers.

“When I was working at T.G.I. Fridays,” says Alphonse Nzengui, a dishwasher originally from Congo, “I was doing my job, but sometimes it was very hard to be motivated because the salary was very low. I was doing what I had to do. Now it’s different. As an owner, I am very excited and motivated. Here, it’s something else.”

“Around here, everybody respects each other,” says Raymond Mohan, the executive chef. “At other restaurants, we had a front-of-the-house thing, back-of-the-house thing; everybody was separated. Here, it’s like we’re all in it together. So that helps a lot, when everybody’s in the same boat.”

And yet, the process of creating Colors hasn’t been all love, peace and good times. It took the group two-and-a-half years to find the necessary start-up capital, and a portion of the original group left the project because they felt the process was taking too long. Eventually, an organization of Italian co-operative restaurants decided to put up a large chunk of money, and a non-profit finance fund contributed the rest through a variety of different social purpose lenders.

“It’s been long and hard and challenging,” says Jayaraman. “I think most of us are happy, but the challenges continue. It’s not like we’ve been able to stop and celebrate. Now we have to keep a restaurant open, and we have to do it democratically, and that’s a huge, huge challenge. Already issues have come up about being a manager in a situation when the people under you are owners. It’s difficult. It’s a difficult balance.”

“The bottom line is that there are so many good things going on about this restaurant,” says Mailvaganam, “but really what we have to focus on is providing good food, great service and wonderful ambience. We need to get people to really love us just for what we are, as opposed to all the other things going on because that’s the only way you can survive.”

And that’s the big question: Can a restaurant like this survive? Only time will tell. But in the meantime, executive chef Raymond Mohan is serving up some Congolese seafood stew and some slow roasted pork; and Raphael Duran and Edgar Gutierrez, two eager and elegant waiters, are waiting to pour wine. Expect to spend a pretty penny for a taste; the warm and fuzzy feelings are on the house.



Colors
417 Lafayette St. (betw. Astor Pl & 4th St.)
212-777-8443