Following lawsuits accusing it of illegal business practices, Cafe Gratitude will soon close all eight of its Northern California locations.
The founders of the chain — known for its vegan menu and dedication to sustainability — announced Tuesday that the business was forced to close the locations, including one in Berkeley, because the lawsuits would cost too much to defend in court. This closure will result in 230 Northern California employees losing their jobs.
“The bottom line is that they talk about gratitude and abundance, but they are making money for themselves,” said Stephen Sommers, an attorney representing two former cafe employees. “They are stealing money from their employees.”
Sarah Stevens, who worked as a server, bartender and line cook, is one of the employees Sommers represents. Stevens’s lawsuit — filed in August — claims the business used an illegal method of distributing tips.
“To supplement the low wages of the kitchen workers, who they refuse to pay at a market rate, they pull from the tips of servers,” Sommers said.
According to the announcement, the chain has done nothing illegal but cannot afford to go to court against what it calls the “aggressive lawsuits.”
Chandra Krinsky, a shift leader at the Berkeley location on Shattuck Avenue, said the cafe pools all of the tips collected across its eight Northern California locations and sends 20 percent of the tips to the cafe’s central kitchen in San Francisco, where the money is then distributed among the kitchen’s 60 employees.
The remaining 80 percent of the tips are distributed among employees at individual locations based on the number of hours they work, according to Krinsky.
“People would tip (Stevens) $200 in a given day, and she would walk out with $40,” Sommers said.
Ravi Shankar, Sommers’ second client and a former bookkeeper for the cafe, filed a suit in October claiming management avoided paying him overtime by paying him a salary rather than on an hourly basis, an illegal practice in California, according to Sommers.
Sommers said he is skeptical that the lawsuits are the sole reason behind the closure of stores.
“It doesn’t make any sense that they have eight restaurants but can’t pay for a lawsuit that costs less than $200,000,” he said.
Krinsky said she has not had any issues during the four years she has worked at the cafe.
“I have been completely satisfied with the way we share tips and have never been forced to work overtime,” she said. “I am sad to be losing a really great job that I enjoy and am sad that the community of Northern California is losing the great food and community offered here.”
Krinsky said employees were informed of the closures during a meeting Monday and were told that all those affected will get severance packages.
The chain was founded by Matthew and Terces Engelhart in 2004 with the opening of its Mission District location in San Francisco. In the past eight years, the chain has expanded to nine different locations scattered across the state, including locations in Berkeley and Oakland.
Each Northern California location will be closed individually in the coming months after the properties currently occupied by the restaurants are sold to new owners, a process that Krinsky estimated would take three to six months.
The chain’s sole Southern California location — in Los Angeles — will remain open despite the lawsuits, and a new restaurant is scheduled to open in Venice, Calif., this spring.
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That is a bunch of legal bull shit! The restaurant is much more than a food mill. It is a turn to vegan and healthy food.
It is an obvious attack against the vegan, organic market.
If they are successful at forcing them out of business than we are all doomed to toxic foods!
Someone help!!!
Kook alert.
I think Cafe Gratitude is amazing. I think Mathew and Terece have changed many thousands of lives for the better, by empowering people. And since when is $200,000 chump change? I’m really very disappointed in this unscrupulous lawyer… I can just guess what his affirmation is… “I am…. a real sh*thead and proud of it!”
Cafe Gratitude has been a total benefit to the communities they have been in. The food they serve is incredible. The staff has always been friendly and kind. They will be very sadly missed.
I am appalled at the vitriol in some of these posts. How about you direct your anger at the corporations like McDonald’s, Monsanto and the like who have made a joke out of nutrition in this country and around the world.
If Matthew and Terces feel it’s time to put their time and attention elsewhere and this was the catalyst then who are you to make such horrible judgments. They put their hearts into one of the most amazing healthy restaurants ever and have definitely changed many people’s lives for the better because of it. I look forward to anything they create in the future.
Thank you for bringing yummy food to the Bay Area and having gratitude be on everyone’s plates and tongues. We hope the people who are choosing to take the litigious route for their problems find whatever it is they are searching for…
I am not informed about the laws of California but if pooling tips is “illegal” , it is in the family of laws that are broken world wide every day by millions of people and that we almost all agree are acceptable to break like driving 10 miles over the posted speed limit, jay walking, and hundreds of other acceptable benign habits. Pooling tips being the least unacceptable of the bunch as servers pick and choose where they want to work as there is always restaurants where they do not pool tips.
If every single waiter who was in a tip pooling situation restaurant lawyered up – it would bring the restaurant industry to a halt. And that “law’ aside, why should of people not be allowed to self determine something like that? Is this Myanmar, North Korea or America?
Forgive me but your understanding of the law is ignorant. In fact, laws governing worker rights cannot be waived, nor should they as the rights of employees have taken a hundred years to develop to where they are today, and were hard earned. Under your reading of these rights (which include overtime rights, child labor protections, mandatory breaks, etc.) one must choose between an employer who honors these rights, and one who violates those rights. You are either a Republican, an employer who cheats your employees to save money, or you are just uneducated on labor rights. If you are in fact an employee and earn an hourly wage, you have hopefully benefitted from those rights that people literally gave their lives to earn for all Americans.
But “pooling tips” is a world wide practice and no one says anything. If we want to start enforcing this across the USA that is a whole other matter. It has nothing to do with one restaurant. While we are at it, we should start fining people who jaywalk and who go one mile over the posted speed limit. I know servers who work in places where they pool tips, this is not a suffering done by abused group of workers. The hysteria you are selling is unwarranted. All your talk about rights is just talk on this topic.
As Chris Argyris
perceptively observed, “Put simply, people consistently act inconsistently, unaware of the
contradiction between their espoused theory and their theory-in-use, between the way
they think they are acting and the way they really act.”
You talk like a lawyers I have seen on TV . Some of the most useless creatures who walk the earth.
I have had way too many friends who are servers and happy ones at that, who pool tips, to buy your fancy legalese.
If we have a troubling unworkable situation that would be one thing but we don’t, and one crybaby lawsuit that is nothing but a commoner trying to extort $ from people who have earned their $, does not equal a problem with the system. I am for people, not for idiots who want a free ride.
You sound like Mariah Yeaters lawyer defending that white trash idiot and talking about rights and paternity just because he speaks the english language. As if the girl is not a low life trying to harass another into paying $ just to shut her up.
This is my final post on this. I was just so outraged to here about the lawsuit and then CG closing. All my resentment is directed at the woman who turned an every day average concern into an attempt to extort money from others rather than earn it.
There are so many places to be a server where they do not pool tips , people really have a choice, if they have any skills and gumption and character. I have friends who will not work where they pool tips, totally valid and understandable. It’s called being an adult and making choices.
What this woman did was “common” white trash level behaviour. Most people would look down on her. Get a job and earn your money you twit. Now, who would want to hire this parasite and have her on “the team” with this on her resume’? Think she will put it on her resume’? I doubt it. Coward.
I am going to bet my life savings that all the idiotic commentary will come from people witting in their mother’s basements and who do not have two nickels to rub together and NOT from other business or restaurant owners or people who have actually worked hard and sacrificed to accomplish something great. It is all the wannabes and nobodies who wail and rail against company owners that they project their mommy and daddy onto.
Like some pathetic ex-waitress nobody with no-life to brag about who instead of changing jobs and getting on with her life , tries to make a fast buck by riding a silly complaint as far as she can with a greasy lawyer since there are so many lawyers looking for a chance to screw somebody and represent any piece of trash with a trumped up grievance. Look at the lawyers willing to argue Mariah Yeaters case (Justin Beiber story) just because….pathetic.
And only nobodys wold take issue with what I have said here.
Anyone know what’s happening with the twenty-acre acre farm they own in Vacaville?
How do these two cretins, that brought about 230 americans to be out of work, look at themselves in the mirror now? vindicated? proud? on top? ready for life and happy they punished others with the help of lawyers?
What jerks.
That a few lone unhappy people can case so much trouble for the many through the use of lawyers is disturbing to me. Why bother to exercise leadership or open a business if you have to deal with every little creep who can lawyer up or post noise on the internet with impunity? I wish only misery to the two people who took on being crybabies over tipping.
I think they were driven out of business by Gather.
To those who are downgrading hippies: I became a “hippie” in 1967. I still am a hippie. Being a hippie is a philosophical way of looking at the world. Throughout human history different names are given to groups of people such as myself. You who are condemning hippies need to do some homework. Look at me today and you’d think I was a straight, middle class person. It’s what’s inside.
The politics of Cafe Gratitude I don’t know, as I’m not involved intimately. I did volunteer at Thanksgiving when 100′s of meals were served, free, to the community. Other than that, who am I to say what’s what.
I’m merely defending “HIPPIE”.
[To those who are downgrading hippies: I became a "hippie" in 1967. I still am a hippie.]
So you spent nearly half a century without ever growing up. Talk about a life wasted…
Wow… You have a negative attitude. Maybe you should waste a little time thinking nice thoughts.
Try this one on for size. Years ago Cafe Gratitude’s managers received $16- $18/hr. and paid vacations. Then the paid vacations went away because the company could no longer afford it. We opened another restaurant. After years of service many of the managers voiced we’d like to be paid more. The company said they couldn’t afford it. They opened another restaurant. And then they came up with a solution. Our titles changed, we were called shift leaders, our hourly wage dropped to $11-$13/ hr. and we were thrown in the tip pool (thus taking more from our servers). Now we made more. They opened another restaurant. The vote they speak of when “we the workers voted to tip pool” went like this. Keep things the way they are or lose your benefits and reduce your wages. Not a very powerful choice. Eventually, I got fed up and quit. In the beginning CG was an amazing place to work, but as we expanded many employees felt less like we were being taken care of. They always taught us to live in integrity. Of coarse no one does it all the time. The lesson was when it was broken, take responsibility and clean it up. I see now their version of cleaning it up is blaming the plaintiffs, the lawyers and closing down. Who is responsible for putting over 200 employees out of work? It is a choice they are making to close. They will expand in LA, where they don’t tip pool. That location sells $12k a day and yes like every other restaurant, it pays it’s back of the house minimum wage. Apparently, Sacred Commerce is practiced differently in Southern California.
”The vote they speak of when “we the workers voted to tip pool” went like this. Keep things the way they are or lose your benefits and reduce your wages. Not a very powerful choice.”
Thats is your spin, and not a fact or reality. Too many Cafe Gratitude employees have spoken up and completely contradict you and so many ranters on the Internet and they are all conveniently ignored or marginalized. I will lean on the disproportionate # of employees expressing that they loved working there and were happy with the tipping system that was created by the group. Don’t give a damn what anybody else says.
Try this one on for size. Years ago Cafe Gratitude’s managers received $16- $18/hr. and paid vacations. Then the paid vacations went away because the company could no longer afford it. We opened another restaurant. After years of service many of the managers voiced we’d like to be paid more. The company said they couldn’t afford it. They opened another restaurant. And then they came up with a solution. Our titles changed, we were called shift leaders, our hourly wage dropped to $11-$13/ hr. and we were thrown in the tip pool (thus taking more from our servers). Now we made more. They opened another restaurant. The vote they speak of when “we the workers voted to tip pool” went like this. Keep things the way they are or lose your benefits and reduce your wages. Not a very powerful choice. Eventually, I got fed up and quit. In the beginning CG was an amazing place to work, but as we expanded many employees felt less like we were being taken care of. They always taught us to live in integrity. Of coarse no one does it all the time. The lesson was when it was broken, take responsibility and clean it up. I see now their version of cleaning it up is blaming the plaintiffs, the lawyers and closing down. Who is responsible for putting over 200 employees out of work? It is a choice they are making to close. They will expand in LA, where they don’t tip pool. That location sells $12k a day and yes like every other restaurant, it pays it’s back of the house minimum wage. Apparently, Sacred Commerce is practiced differently in Southern California.
Try this one on for size. Years ago Cafe Gratitude’s managers received $16- $18/hr. and paid vacations. Then the paid vacations went away because the company could no longer afford it. We opened another restaurant. After years of service many of the managers voiced we’d like to be paid more. The company said they couldn’t afford it. They opened another restaurant. And then they came up with a solution. Our titles changed, we were called shift leaders, our hourly wage dropped to $11-$13/ hr. and we were thrown in the tip pool (thus taking more from our servers). Now we made more. They opened another restaurant. The vote they speak of when “we the workers voted to tip pool” went like this. Keep things the way they are or lose your benefits and reduce your wages. Not a very powerful choice. Eventually, I got fed up and quit. In the beginning CG was an amazing place to work, but as we expanded many employees felt less like we were being taken care of. They always taught us to live in integrity. Of coarse no one does it all the time. The lesson was when it was broken, take responsibility and clean it up. I see now their version of cleaning it up is blaming the plaintiffs, the lawyers and closing down. Who is responsible for putting over 200 employees out of work? It is a choice they are making to close. They will expand in LA, where they don’t tip pool. That location sells $12k a day and yes like every other restaurant, it pays it’s back of the house minimum wage. Apparently, Sacred Commerce is practiced differently in Southern California.
I’ve visited the southern california location multiple times and seen some wonderfully familiar faces while there. Southern California shares tips just like northern California but you dont see them suing.
people pool tips all around the world and it works well and is part of that culture – all we have here is a few losers who tried to make some $ by suing instead of getting a life – losers losers nothing but losers
we now live in a world of masses that feel entitled to the america dream rather than working for it
don’t like tip pooling? ok start you own restaurant loser. oh that is too much work and sacrifice? I am sooo sorry for you.
Usually when tips are shared with the kitchen workers, it is a sign that the cooks, chefs, etc. are underpaid. I bet if you checked the incomes of the 1%, the owners would be found to be making outrageous incomes.
By the way, are the owners sharing in the profits??? I think not.
they are sharing profits by offering Health benefit to all employees, which is about $250,000+ a year, a grateful bowl program fed the whole community on donation basis and is barely break even the cost. A clearing benefit that also cost about $250,000 a year which employees VOTES and REQUEST to have and acknowledged that this is one of the greatest benefit they can get which no company provides. kitchen workers are mostly making between $10 – $12/hr rate, plus sharing tip, go ask employees, not one, not two, but hundreds and thousands and you’ll see how many percent of them praised their work/job and give this company the credit of changing their life. The outrageous incomes happens to be all the life changing experience most of the employees have. Please don’t just bet and think, but ask, ask people who have experience the company on many level. Do you ever go there? do you have any friends and family who work/dine there? Are you sharing your opinion base on things you read online? What are you committed to?
If you like it so much, volunteer to take it over and pay workers the wages that the law requires.
Is it true the real story behind the story is that there have been numerous incidents of putting uncooked fecal matter in the salads?
The Solution is found in Core Values
What we have here is a failure to understand what each party is truly committed to. When Mr. Sommers states, “It doesn’t make any sense that they have eight restaurants but can’t pay for a lawsuit that costs less than $200,000”, it indicates that he doesn’t understand how committed Matthew and Terces are to their principles of leadership and community. The community of Cafe Gratitude employees voted to implement Tip Pooling, and the Engelharts are standing in full support of this decision. They are also committed to acknowledging each and every employee who contributes to a customer’s excellent experience. Settling the lawsuit comes at a cost much greater than $200,000, because you are also asking them to withdraw their support of a decision made by their community of employees, and to abandon their principals and core values.
I find it hard to believe that any of the parties involved are committed to the disintegration of the Cafe Gratitude restaurants in the Bay Area. Ms. Stevens, I’d invite you to share with the Cafe Gratitude community and with the Engelharts, exactly what you are committed to, and allow them to show their support for you. Mr. Sommers, I’d invite you to “craft a solution” that allows both your client and the Cafe Gratitude community to thrive, even if that solution does not come in the form of a legal settlement. Terces and Matthew, I would invite you to continue your love and support for your employees and customers by staying open, literally and figuratively, so that a truly imaginative, inspirational, and collaborative solution can emerge from this crisis.
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=10150388366445677#!/note.php?note_id=10150388366445677
So is your core value to make up your own laws and screw the employee?
nope, THAT is your core value and 2 cents.
It is completely UNTRUE to say they don’t pay their “kitchen workers” market wage!
It’s a shame, the experience of everyone I personally know who’s spent time at Cafe Gratitude is one of empowerment and enrichment.
Sounds like a greedy lawyer found a meal ticket and is milking it for all it’s worth.
lol if you think belonging to a cult is “empowering and enriching”
I’ve never understood why people think Landmark is a cult.
Lobbing the “cult” word around is easy to do. Because there are no consequences for anonymous phantom ID’s slandering others on the web. The human race is a “cult”, countries are “cults”, the catholic church, most elite sports teems, high performing business teams, al “cults”. The very weird and strange and harassing anti-”cult” groups like “Anonymous” VERY “culty”. Blah blah blah , people use the “cult” word just because they can and because it casts doubt. Like the term ”pedophile” and “bi-polar” and a bunch of other charged words which became very popular and enthusiastically misused on-line in the 90′s.
I definitely think that they are closing it because they were over the whole SF scene and wanted their sons to do film stuff in LA and get out of the restaurant industry as a whole. They were tired of their employees and dealing with the restaurants and this is a perfect time to put a different spin on closing the restaurants and make it seem as if they are the victims. There are a LOT of shady things they did to their employees. The company that they hired to formally manage their HR was really, really poor. They did massive layoffs a while ago that were very unjust.
Just because an organization is being accused of exploiting their employees doesn’t automatically mean its true. Very saddening to see that the demise of this incredible organization that has touched so many peoples lives is garnering cheers.
Honestly, why the exaggerated praise and loyalty to this place? Sounds kind of cultish.
What really bothers me is the comments saying that the restaurant serves poop and that the restaurant owners are cultish and hippees. I think that people who are writing in must have never eaten there, because it is food that makes you feel good, truly healthy. The restaurant has very original ideas and recipes, and the people who do eat there have a very nice customer service experience, which is very rare in this rude Bay Area. Why shouldn’t we try to be healthier and have a positive dining experience? It sounds like people wanted to share their tips with the kitchen workers to supplement their salaries, and perhaps people are putting a negative spin on a kind gesture that is completely in line with the company philosophy. I think ambitious employees are being exploited not by their employers so much as by an opportunistic lawyer. They should do something constructive rather than destructive to advance themselves. Otherwise, we all lose as a community.
My six-year-old says, “I think it is mean to close one of the loveliest, yummiest restaurants I ever ate at.” My picky little eater would regularly eat julienned vegetables and think they were ‘noodles.’ I will miss you, gratitude, and guess I’ll try to be grateful at home with my cookbook.
veganism IS a cult, that’s why it sounds that way. It’s a view predicated on pseudoscience, ignorance, ridiculous anthropomorphization, and just plain silliness.
I’d love to know where you got this idea, I’ve never heard of it before! I’m always looking for new research about veganism….working on understanding it better myself.
['d love to know where you got this idea]
That’s easy. Look and listen to your average vegan, and it’s clear you’re dealing with someone who doesn’t play with a full deck…
Do you belong to the cult that sacrifices animals for the taste of their flesh? Now that sounds cultish. Maybe you think vegans should keep there views to themselves… Maybe you should consider doing the same…
It’s a restaurant, where’s the cult in that? You either chose to eat there because you like what they do or you don’t. And they do what they do so well that a lot of people REALLY like that, so how exactly is that a cult? People go crazy spraying other human beings with pepper spray to get a deal on an XBOX, but we don’t say video games are a cult. But if we praise how others are being empowering it’s a cult? I’m really lost on the whole cult thing…
So right. But if it isn’t true, then what they need to do is defend themselves in court, not complain about being betrayed.
“The founders of the chain — known for its vegan menu and dedication to sustainability…”
Unfortunately they are also known for exploiting and proselytizing their workers. If they are going to play this dumb with labor laws, they don’t deserve to be in business.
Glad to hear it. It’s about time.
isn’t this the business that has been forcing employees into “landmark?” over the years? i stopped going when i read about it a few years back. there are enough good cafes that don’t impose religion or their own beliefs on how to live (like ‘landmark’). it IS RIDICULOUS. sad that they couldn’t change their ways for the community and it’s customers, but in my experience, it would have never been longtime successful as a “landmark” business. anyone involved in that company (landmark) has truly lost it a little.
Landmark Education is not associated with Cafe Gratitude, even if the employees have taken classes there. It’s not a belief system, so if people who work there support people in their lives going through that education then it’s because they have truly gained something from their lives, not lost it. And it’s totally legit to create a business that requires a particular kind of training, and in fact, I’ve gone up on the pay scale at the school where I work because I get certified continuing education units for the classes I’ve taken at Landmark. It’s been instrumental in helping me to develop professionally as a teacher. You’re right, there are plenty of cafes that don’t encourage empowerment, community, peace, and love. I’m not sure why “hippy” has to be associated with these ideas, but I would rather go to Cafe Gratitude than any other cafe BECAUSE of how I feel when I’m there–inside and out.
Landmark education — are you talking about “life coach” education? What a fucking joke. Why is it the screwiest people I know become “life coaches”…as in the ones who are in most need of life coaches themselves? Kind of like the blinder leading the blind.
That also seems to be the case with psychotherapists. So many truly nutty and damaged people trying to help others (and in the process projecting so much of their own crap on the vulnerable).
Where do you get this information about psychotherapists? Or are you making a generalization, a stereotype based on the people you know in your own life?
But if I am going to go out to dinner with one of these nutty borderline “therapists” or “coaches,” where am I going to take them to dinner now, to show that I am ever so hip and in touch with my inner chakra? Oh, I think that’s my chi you just distributed among the cooks. Oh yeah, they don’t cook…whatever you call people who make food without cooking it….
I’ve never had life coach education, that’s not what I believe Landmark Education is–even though there is coaching involved if you’re open to it. But I don’t think you’re really looking for an explanation of what Landmark is, it seems you’ve already made up your mind based on whatever experience you’ve had.
“forced”?
Unfortunately, the hospitality business is rife with employee exploitation. of all kinds.
As a former hostess, waitress, cashier who worked my way up to general manager, then in the 1980′s opened my own restaurant and catering business.
The major difference between then and now is ‘employer entitlement’, to many employers (not all) nickel & dime their employees to the point that there is no way they can ever get ahead.
As an actual employee of Cafe Gratitude, having worked for this company for five years, and having experienced the practices and mission of Cafe Gratitude in it’s actuality I would love to be heard. Let me assure all readers that Cafe Gratitude is of the highest integrity and has the highest generosity of any employer I have ever worked for and is the most compassionate and truly wonderful company that I have ever come across.
Cafe Gratitude is a radical company that actually cares about all workers and created a context for all employees to share tips– a revolutionary way to distribute the wealth that recognizes the work and impact of all workers in the kitchen. Because every item on the menu is made from scratch, that means that your pizza bread actually took 48 hours to make, not kidding. That’s 48 hours of someone in the kitchen’s time. The tips are shared to recognize that. I am grateful for a company that addresses the inequalities in the mainstream restaurant structures, and dared to break the norm on several accounts, to HELP employees and to revolutionize food, workers rights, and capitalism. I fully stand behind the owners as they are nothing but the kindest, most generous people, and they have put their money, their hearts, their land on the line. So much so that they don’t even have a home on their property and live in a yurt. THERE IS NO PILE OF MONEY SITTING ANYWHERE. Every dollar went either to employees, our training, our health, our wages or farmers and local businesses with their integrous groundbreaking products, or they lowered the prices to make the food more affordable. There is no profit, nothing hiding. The owners have given this community their all.
This job has changed my life. This community has healed countless people around me both in body (cancer, MS, diabetes, depression and so much more) and soul (reuniting with parents, healing heartbreak wounds, inspiring the creation of countless other companies and organizations…).
What I can tell you is what is true for me, and true for hundreds of employees that work with this company, which is that we are deeply saddened by this news, and only wish that their 8 years of free Thanksgiving meals, 37,000+ annual organic meals given by donation, flexible healthcare and personal coaching/counseling is celebrated by the general community and news sources.
Local farmers that depend on us, employees who call this home, customers who couldn’t afford healthy food until the “Grateful Bowl” came… we are all feeling a lot of loss and heartbreak. Please everyone, be mindful and respectful of the impact of your words. I request that readers and critics take a hard look and recognize that they don’t actually know the facts, so please be humble in your “knowing” of how it is.
Employee quotes just today and yesterday as the news hit:
“Thank you for the amazing leaders you are for our community. We are forever changed.” – M.V.
“Thank you for being a beautiful strong elder for me to respect and love! Thank you for the gifts of wisdom, time, and words you have shared with me, you make a difference in my life every day. I am so grateful that your crazy cafe project was so succesful for so long and that it awakened so many people to share their gifts. ” -H.M.M
“I am very saddened by the news, it’s almost impossible to believe that something so good be done this way. I am grateful for these 5 years of working with you, I and my family are very grateful to you by CAFE GRATITUDE” -L.S.
“M & T, we love you and what you’ve gifted us SO much and are SO VERY grateful at the miracle of getting to be a part of your vision which is only getting more bright and living in more hearts every day. Thank you for daring to LOVE so big that you’ve caused a revolution!” -Y.J.
“I hope that Cafe Gratitude employees come together and buy each location and keep it as beautiful in spirit, mission, and quality!” – S.S.B.
“I just want you and Matthew to know how grateful I am that I had an opportunity to be a Gratitude employee and to receive so many generous gifts and transformational opportunities. You guys created something the world has never seen and I hope you continue to share this with the world! I would happily stand up in court for you guys! Sending my love, gratitude, and appreciate for all you do!” -A.W.
“Your cafes have made such a huge impact on my life. The friends, support, love and of course good food I’ve experienced have been more than I can say in words. Just know that you have made a giant contribution to my happiness and well being, and that I love you!” -E.L.
“The past 7 years, at Cafe Gratitude, have been the best of my life. I got my sobriety. I stepped onto my spiritual path. I met my father after 31 years. I found my life partner. I have loving relationships with my ex’s and all of my family members. I could go on and on and on! None of this would have been possible without the gift of GRATITUDE!” -B.S.
“Thank you for providing me the space, community, food, encouragement and imagination to create my life is the best ever! Thank you for helping me let that cancer leave my body. Thank you for supporting me in seeing how beautiful my family, friends and myself are. Thank you for EVERYTHING. I love you endlessly.” -C.M.
This restaurant is a gift to the community, and to my eating habits. Definitely the best, cleanest, most delicious food available. Each time I’ve been there has been an exceptional experience, and any excuse to go to the bay area (from Sacramento) is just cause to eat at Cafe Gratitude. I’m still hopeful that this issue gets worked out and they are able to remain in business. Other restauranteurs should eat here and take note. THIS is how it should be done.
I agree with Joel. I’ve eaten at CG hundreds of times and it is my favorite food. It’s a shame that they are closing. Those that have a problem with Cafe Gratitude are truly sick; need a cleanse of their bodies, minds and souls; and are ignorant of the value of raw food and a positive environment. Also, my husband is a waiter and accepts tip sharing as a democratic way to do business.
Listen, I don’t buy into their hippy shit either but the food is solid and they do provide jobs and is a thriving business for the local community.
On the other hand, lawyers just fucking suck. This asshole and his bottom feeder cronies do nothing but destroy. What a wonderful litigious society you live in when some scumbag lawyer can close a business and add 230 to the unemployed ranks.
FUCK YOU Stephen Sommers!
When your job illegally takes money you earned out of your paycheck, who are you going to call?
The employees all voted and agreed to pooling, what part of that do you not understand?
One cannot “voluntarily” give up your rights as a wage earner in the USA. Be happy for that. If you’ve ever earned overtime, you’ve benefitted from those rights, for one example.
Employers try to skirt around established wage and hour law all the time. It’s great to be represented when your magical hippy manager is actually stealing from you by shorting your pay, docking you illegally, trying to get around overtime exemption guidelines, etc. Businesses that don’t deal with these things honestly and do right by their employees, and follow the law, get what they deserve.
Dumb. If it weren’t lawyers, the State would have moved in. The owners of this business obviously felt it was more important to expand quickly and then to close down and leave workers unemployed than to pay what every other restaurant and business has to pay their workers. Even if I made great food, and had a great rap about my being holier than thou, that wouldn’t justify breaking child labor laws or any labor laws. In fact, without decently-paid workers, there are no consumers who have money to pay for every other job and service in this economy – so it hurts everyone when someone shorts their workers. I once worked as a young “hippie” at a restaurant in Arcata that paid its workers in meal credits instead of cash. Wasn’t legal then, isn’t legal now. My $2.00 in pay would pay for a meal that cost it 40 cents. The owner made the same kind of fuss when the State moved in. She said that all of the young hippies would be out of work unless she could pay effectively at 1/4 the minimum wage. People – you are taking your eye off the ball if you think that is progress.
There are individuals in every industry that reflect poorly on the whole. Sommers appears to be one of the bad ones. How some people sleep with themselves is a mystery to me.
I started going to the first cafe two weeks after it opened and have been going every day (literally, with the exception of traveling) since. It is my second home. Matthew has called me their “best customer” a few times. I share this history, because I think it speaks to the very educated assessment I have made of the organization. When people call it a cult it blows my mind. The whole damn idea is BE YOU. The central opportunity, if you CHOOSE to participate, is to share your most authentic gifts and infuse them with love. That’s it. Not in a manner that Matthew & Terces dictate but in YOUR way. You have to be looking the other direction to miss that point. Nobody is kidnapping you and taking you to (god forbid) a Landmark meeting or forcing you to order with the affirmation. If you say, “I’d like the tacos” nobody is going to stand staring at you burning incense and banging a gong until you correct yourself and sing kumbaya. The staff just wants you to feel as good and as YOU as possible inside those walls. I have plenty of skeptic and “don’t believe the hype” running through my veins – I think with the amount of exposure I’ve had to the organization I would have found the bullshit. Honestly, when I think of Cafe Gratitude words like inclusion, acceptance, fun, democracy, support, openness, unconditional love, opportunity, authenticity, generosity, high standards, employee empowerment, leadership, flexibility, community and FAIRNESS easily come to mind. The food and the culture have saved my life. That isn’t an exaggeration. I was very sick when I first walked in those doors. Today, I have a beautiful life and a functioning body and mind. The formula went like this: Sick me – add Cafe Gratitude = WELL ME (notice the formula doesn’t include the word brainwash). I have attended most of their workshops multiple times and with the practical tools I have learned there – I found my career, healed chronic physical illness that at times had me bed-ridden and grown truly successful relationships of every kind…including with myself. Again, no brainwash just the tools and nutrition to clear my fog and heal my body.It’s the real deal. I’m here to tell you, with eyes wide-open, that the lawsuits and gossip are nonsense. Their restaurants are where people come to eat the highest quality food and engage with their highest selves….or not…that’s my point…what you want to create at Cafe Gratitude is what you will create at Cafe Gratitude. It breaks my heart to think some multi-year members of the staff drove the whole thing off a cliff expecting to land in pile of cash. And I have come to a place of peace about that and them. This is the beginning of a newly inspired adventure for all of us. I choose to be grateful that we have a new opportunity to grow. You’ve got my heart and my support always and forever, Cafe Gratitude. I love you.
I have no idea what you’re talking about, so here’s a pic of a bunny with a pancake on its head:
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Gawd, you need to get a grip and get a life. Really scary when someone can become so obsessed with a money making enterprise.
Yeah, you’re 100% correct, however, would you consider the placement of fecal matter in the food to be an appropriate vegan practice? I believe all should have the right to eat fecal matter, but it should be a personal decision. Do you prefer fecal matter in your soup or in your salad?
Adrienne is a mouthpiece for the “fecal matter movement.” The fecal matter seems to be spewing out of your mouth.
“It is my second home. Matthew has called me their “best customer” a few times.”
That’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard. Your second home? Really? A for-profit business? Doesn’t it tell you anything that the owner called you their “best customer”? Not their best friend, but best CUSTOMER. Wake up.
yay fuck those hippy stores
maybe they can replace it with a super awesome bbq place