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Nonprofit One World Cafe on Shaky Ground

by Terri Potratz | November 10, 2008 at 12:17 pm

325 views | 6 Recommendations | 5 comments

The One World Cafe in Salt Lake City has fallen on troubling financial times after their nonprofit model has caught up with the hard realities of forging a successful business establishment.

The restaurant was created on the "pay-as-you-can" premise that customers could pay what they thought their meal was worth, or what they could afford. And they chose exactly what foods they received on their plates - food that was crafted from organic and locally grown ingredients wherever possible. There is no menu, and no prices, and cooks are free to create daily dishes of their choice.

“As the restaurant grew, I didn't have the expertise at running a kitchen,” acknowledged Cerreta during a media teleconference call on Friday. “We needed more structure and a more professional kitchen.”
A recent review of the business showed the restaurant was overstaffed and management of employee time was poor. It never even had an employee time clock. The restaurant also had failed to keep concise records of food costs and fixed costs. All told, mismanagement cost the restaurant $8,000 to $10,000 a month, Cerreta said.
“There just wasn't a system in place so that it would work as a professional establishment,” added Steve Lyman, a longtime restaurant manager from Squatters, Red Rock and Bambara, who is volunteering his time to help get One World in order.

After the One World Cafe gained national attention last year when they shifted gears and became a nonprofit organization with a board of directors, founder Denise Cerreta became a sought-after public speaker and traveled the country helping to launch other community kitchens. Bo Dean, the longtime manager who was recently fired, credits Cerreta's continual absence to the restaurant failures, citing that there was little leadership or organization without her there:

“It's hard to implement changes when I was the only one around,” said Dean, who heard that he had been fired from a fellow employee - not Cerreta or the board.

Numerous staff walked out on the job after Dean was fired, especially as employee cheques had been bouncing over the last 3 months as the restaurant bank account ran dry.

One World Cafe has recently hired an executive chef and sous chef to replace Dean, and installed new management procedures. Cerreta insists there is no danger of closure, and that while their financial situation is rocky they will survive the current turmoil.

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Yuliya Talmazan

at 12:45 on November 10th, 2008

very interesting concept

Paschen

at 19:52 on November 10th, 2008

We had a coffee shop like this in Le Chambon sur Lignon in France about 20 years ago and it worked well to a point, however the intend was mainly to help the young and deprived to have a place to call their sanctuary of sort and safe house. The main problem there where other local businesses that really did not like the fact that we did not charge a fixed price nor did we intend to make profits either and those businesses did trough us many sticks into the wellsso to speak even complained to Police and government making our life rather difficult. I still think that non profit can work though, yet it does have to stand up to the establishment wish can be fatal.

Jelena (not verified)

at 09:35 on November 12th, 2008

another failed experiment in socialism

SLCgirl (not verified)

at 08:16 on March 9th, 2009

I've volunteered at One World - it was a great place, with great ideals and the kind of environment where people wanted to go to work, where neighbors mingle and everyone that walks in the door is a friend. This great place was created, however, all on the hardwork of the so called 'non-professional' employees (Bo Dean, et. al) that put so much of their time and effort into making the dream of One World, a reality. From my understanding of the situation it was Denise and partners, through their mismanagement (refusing to communicate financial realities to the staff, and being so out of touch with the business model and clientel of the restaurant) that almost caused the place to close. Don't you think it's a little bit coincidential that nearly the entire staff quit after one employee was fired - that's the kind of solitarity of this place. That speaks to the failures of Denise rather than those of her staff if they were willing to lose their jobs rather than see one of their own thrown out. Afterwords a staff of temporary employees was hired, which caused the food to suffer greatly. I hope that One World regains its former glory and again becomes one of Salt Lake City's great experiments in community kitchens.

Don Merrill (not verified)

at 15:35 on June 28th, 2009

Fortunately, under Denise's and the board direction, the kitchen is returning. But it must be noted that in the wake of the staff walkout, the board discovered its own basket of surprises, to include drugs and money hidden in walls, beer bottles and unaccountable mileage on the company van, unpaid invoices (which were the responsibility of supervisory staff), and a large quanity of missing food stuffs. The walkout, admittedly, was a failure of management to manage due to its own inexperience and over-optimism; a truth they have publicly admitted as they have sought more experienced help to correct it. The surprise, however, is that self-appointed spokespeople for the much "maligned" staff, or the staff itself, have not admitted to any mistakes of their own, which, in itself, is probably all that needs to be said.