A leaked Memo from Eleven Madison Square restaurant, which reopened in June 2021 with a new vegan tasting menu priced at $330, showed that those workers were underpaid.
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As per Business Insider, Eleven Madison Park restaurant was exploring the option of raising workers’ hourly wages in September by 33%. It, however, scrapped the plans after New York Times gave a negative review.
As per Bloomberg News, the three Michelin starred Eleven Madison Park was ranked No 1 restaurant among the world’s 50 best restaurants in 2017 and had plans to increase the menu price and wages. The draft memo said that it was unjust and absurd to find that people working in dining rooms and kitchens of some of the world’s finest restaurants could barely afford their rent and own food. The restaurant was to ensure that everyone working in Eleven Madison Park received a living wage of at least $20 per hour.
Most kitchen workers working in a $335-a-person restaurant earn $15 per hour. Although the draft was not published, labor shortages and inflation led to discussions of workers’ rights getting highlighted as movements for workers’ unions gained across the US.
The spokesperson of Eleven Madison, in a statement to Bloomberg, said that the restaurant’s backbone was its team, and it was only through their hard work, partnership, and dedication that the restaurant could lead to healthy eating and sustainability. However, the restaurant workers are also being inappropriately compensated historically, and the management was on the right path to take forward this compensation issue.
The restaurant was closed duringthe coronavirus pandemic for 15 months and reopened with Chef Daniel Humm offering a vegan-only menu in June 2021. According to Humm, he was not sure a year back whether the restaurant would survive as he was laying off staff and looking at bankruptcy.
When the restaurant reopened with its vegan menu debut, there were some 15,000 people on the waitlist. A review by Bloomberg for the reopening night vegan menu saw them praising a cucumber dish that consisted of minutely chopped and compressed cucumber and that involved two cooks to chop and prep all day.
However, a Times review in October 2021 noted that beet courses smelt like burning joints and tasted like lemon Pledge.
Request for comment from the Restaurant regarding wage increase did not elicit any response.
