W/N W/N Coffee Disrupts the Traditional Coffeeshop Model
Encounter the Disruptor: W/Northward W/N Java
Tin a democratically run, all-purpose java shop/eating house/bar in the Eraserhood be ethical and sustainable...while making coin?
Meet the Disruptor: W/N W/Due north Coffee
Can a democratically run, all-purpose java shop/restaurant/bar in the Eraserhood be upstanding and sustainable...while making money?
Jun. 29, 2015
From the sunny strip of sidewalk at the corner of ninth and Bound Garden streets, W/North W/N coffee shop, with it'southward simple freestanding sign—Coffee, Food, Beer—looks like only some other upscale coffee shop on the rapidly changing Bound Garden corridor. Simply fifty-fifty a few minutes with co-possessor Tony Montagnaro, hard at work kneading bread in the dorsum room, and it'due south clear that Westward/Northward West/N is a different animal entirely.
West/N W/N, a play on "waste material not, want not" and "win win," has been open in the Eraserhood neighborhood since Jan. It is a democratic workspace, run by consensus and collectively owned by a "core five," a motley crew of Montagnaro's friends and acquaintances from his time in the nutrient and beverage industry. 1 owner is formerly an employee of Elixr Coffee; another has legal experience and has worked in arts and crafts beer bars; another comes from a farming and microbiotic lifestyle and brings a passion for international cuisine. Montagnaro, who used to work for Fishtown's Pizza Encephalon, grew up in a restaurant, and uses his biology caste to limited his passion for food scientific discipline, wellness and nutrition.
They are the worker-owners, who all hold equal shares of the profits. But and so practise the small stable of employees. That's right—every person is paid the aforementioned hourly rate, and they will eventually all share the profit, too, separate evenly according to the hours worked. The same with the tips; those who work the higher volume shifts like Sat nights split their tips evenly with those working wearisome forenoon shifts. The only difference between owners and employees is that owners take on equal shares of the debt, behave legal responsibility, and take the correct to block consensus when making decisions.
"It'south cool that Philly is enjoying this nutrient renaissance, which is i of the things that's really bringing the city forrard," Montagnaro says. But years of working in the food industry made clear to him the inherent inequity in the business: A need for increased profit often leads to low wages and poor working conditions, peculiarly for servers and cooks who don't get tips. "The person in the kitchen does not take a smiling on their face, is not treated well, and is not protected." At W/Northward W/N, Montagnaro says, they're hoping to upend that organisation.
W/N W/N is a more than radical version of what is a growing trend nationally towards treating food service workers more than fairly—from giving fast food workers a raise to implementing sick solar day policies to no tip restaurants similar West Philly's William Street Mutual and Bella Vista's Vegan Commissary, which have slightly higher menu prices to permit them to pay all their workers a decent hourly wage. The pressing question for all of them is: Tin can this piece of work?
At West/N West/N, their beliefs made raising the necessary startup funds more than difficult. They opened the space with funding from i of Philadelphia's first Kiva loans (the domestic arm of the international assist organizations that microloans to those in developing countries) and their personal networks. They raised virtually $8,000 through a crowd-sourced model all their ain: Rather than using Kickstarter, which typically offers supporters concrete rewards like t-shirts or posters, they sold pre-paid credit that customers could redeem only by reaching a certain threshold of purchase, much similar a frequent buyer bill of fare. They were approached many times past larger pockets looking to invest in the traditional sense—a big influx of cash upfront in exchange for equity, or an ongoing piece of their profits. Every time, they passed on the offer.
"There were a lot of times when we really needed coin, merely we had to be similar, 'Pitiful, that'southward against everything we're doing,'" Montagnaro says. "If you lot own your own work, you're much more likely to be involved, stick it out, change things, experiment, and dismantle the systems of oppression that exist in eating house life."
Westward/N W/North serves no processed foods, and nothing with chemicals or preservatives; they source exclusively from local farms and companies. They compost all their nutrient waste, down to scraps, and utilise everything: Pulp from their juices goes into apple butter or other spreads. "This is literally all I'thou going to have for garbage today," Montagnaro says, pointing to a plastic grocery bag most half filled with paper towels. And when he says they source locally, he means it— they purchase no prepared foods, and everything (except the coffee beans) is grown in the expanse. (The coffee comes from local roaster Elixr.)
"If you say y'all're doing things locally, no one's gonna come and cheque that y'all actually are," Montagnaro says. "We're speaking with our actions, non our words."
During the day, Westward/North W/N sells coffee, breakfast and luncheon, every bit well as local craft beers and cocktails. Later five PM, they offering "bar snax," similar kraut cakes with tempeh or bacon and pickled peppercorns, as well every bit one menu item that can constitute "dinner," like a plate of rice, beans, and vegetables. In improver to the streamlined menu, they go along costs low by using bare bones staffing—1 person in the front end and ane in back at all times except for weekends, when they accept ii people upwardly forepart for brunch and an additional bar back at nighttime. It'due south a different vibe, perhaps more similar the laidback cafes in Europe or visiting the communal house of friends.
Montagnaro acknowledges that W/Northward W/N's strict adherence to its own rules may alter the relationship to their customers. Having a single cook means people look longer for their egg sandwiches. All-natural, local bread may be browner and denser than y'all're used to. There may be no ketchup because they haven't been through tomato season even so. At that place is no Sweet n Low because they believe information technology's unhealthy. If you come in with a big stack of event flyers, Montagnaro may email you to come dorsum and pick up the unused ones.
"We're trying to accept care of everybody instead of just pleasing the client," Montagnaro says. "If you're taking care of the earth, the farmer, the customers, the community, and yourselves, that'due south 5 pieces of the pie. Instead of 100 pct of the pie going to the client, only xx pct goes to them."
But the large challenges are financial. Restaurants take years to be profitable, and Due west/Northward West/N has merely been open up half dozen months, too soon to predict when they will "exit of the hole"—almost $150,000. "It's been harder for united states of america than we expected to stay affordable and stay attainable to poor people like usa," Montagnaro says. I of Due west/Due north W/North'southward biggest goals was to be a identify that they, their friends, and people in their neighborhood could afford, only their no-compromise model makes that even more hard. They are neither quite high terminate or quite depression terminate. A Walt Whit beer costs $4, a Tofu Po Boy $6, and a bacon cheddar scone $3.50—all reasonable prices. But even when they keep prices low, many in the neighborhood assume they are a fancy spot, Montagnaro says, while people from the industry visit and are confused by their relaxed, DIY aesthetic.
But Montagnaro and his squad remain steadfast. "It'southward not a joke," he says. "We're not trying to impress anyone, we're just doing this the way nosotros want to and the but way we know how."
Photo credit: Will Strathmann 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/meet-the-disruptor-wn-wn-coffee/
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