Gorilla Reopens
As both the New York Times and Brooklyn Paper reported, the Gorilla Coffee shop at 97 5th Avenue in Park Slope reopened yesterday. To recap, a couple of weeks ago (16 days to be exact) workers united in a walk-out to protest the “perpetually malicious, hostile and demeaning work environment” created by one of the…
As both the New York Times and Brooklyn Paper reported, the Gorilla Coffee shop at 97 5th Avenue in Park Slope reopened yesterday. To recap, a couple of weeks ago (16 days to be exact) workers united in a walk-out to protest the “perpetually malicious, hostile and demeaning work environment” created by one of the owners. The next day, the owners posted a sign promising to reopen. Yesterday’s scene at the shop was more subdued than normal, noted The Times, but hardly dead. One of the owners, Darleen Scherer, acknowledged that her partner could be “like a drill sergeant,” but declined to dwell in the past: We’re kind of just getting back to basics. I said to everybody, ‘Let’s learn about coffee and do a good job and be happy.’ “
Really?? Again?!?!
Gorilla Coffee sucks.
I should probably leave this alone, but, what the hell…I’m bored.
WineLover, how do you know that it was “the hassids…who didn’t answer [the census]?”
in defense of hipsters – the non hassidic parts of WB, the same percentage answered the census as elsewhere. the hassids are the ones who didn’t answer it.
that totally sucks because it will underestimate the number of children in the area.
Opportunity to overpay for a basic, undifferentiated product returns to Park Slope, further cementing its place as the number 1 neighborhood in New York for conspicuous consumers that read NY Mag. Hooray!!
The former employees did speak out after they quit. They posted on a couple of blogs about what happened.
Basically it’s what’s been written, that one of the owners was a real piece of work and the employees asked that she be removed from day to day business and when that didn’t happen they figured the job wasn’t worth dealing with her anymore and all quit.
As someone said, it’s just coffee, which is probably why they just quit.
@TrampleZone
1) “The former workers have been utterly silent”
Personally, I find this commendable. They made their statement, they took the action they thought they needed to take, and then they shut up about it. A rare case of restraint in the blog age.
2) “What have they gotten out of it?”
Sometimes leaving a crap situation is its own reward.
I like their beans but that free cup of coffee they give you with the purchase of a pound tastes like sludge. Or is that just me?
a bunch of workers decided to do the same thing at Atari back in the day. it turned out being, for some of them, the best decisions of their lives. granted video game programmers are talented and baristas not so much…, but who knows! they could all be working swank jobs at whole foods right now!
*rob*
The workers who walked out have been utterly silent on the matter. I can’t find a quote from them anywhere. Having had tyranical bosses before, I have empathy for them. But this has been about the stupidest protest I’ve ever seen. What have they gotten out of it? a) mean boss is still there, b) they don’t have jobs, c) there’s no will for the public to boycott the place because nobody’s told us why we should.
It reminds me of the article from a week or so ago saying that W-burg hipsters have the lowest census response rate in the city. “I’ll show that mean old boss. She’ll wish she had never messed with me. Oh f@$k it. I don’t really feel like getting out of bed.”