A small Seattle coffee chain has closed its Capitol Hill location amid an ongoing labor dispute with its workers backed by former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant.
Cherry Street Coffee owner Ali Ghambari tells CHS he has reversed plans to reopen his E Pine cafe and is instead looking for a new tenant to take over the space and the lease.
CHS reported here as Ghambari said he planned to reopen the Capitol Hill coffee shop later this month after Sawant and Cherry Street workers held a one-day “strike” that temporarily shut down the four-location chain over demands for “a living wage, an end to workplace sexual harassment,” and, the group said, an end to Ghambari’s “petitioning to roll back Seattle’s historic minimum wage victory.”
Sawant and the group were angered by Ghambari’s recent testimony to the council over new efforts to change the city’s minimum wage law the former socialist city council member helped craft nearly ten years ago.
D3 leader Joy Hollingsworth, who replaced Sawant on the council last year, said she is gathering more feedback and support after backing off her proposal to extend the law’s tip credit for small businesses. The proposed legislation would respond to the coming 2025 end of the small business tip credit with a new plan to create a permanent credit by lowering the amount at which inflation would increase wages for small businesses.
Ghambari did not say if any other Cherry Street locations are planning changes. Its three other cafes have remained open following the strike.
The 320 E Pine cafe has been cleared out and a “for lease” sign is now up inside the location’s front window.
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Bye Felecia. Go to Ghost Note around the corner, much better.
Hope the workers got transferred to the other locations or a new opportunity though.
I imagine they’re now out of a job. Why transfer the employees that inspired the shutdown in the first place?
Ghost Note is spendy really spendy
Please, you don’t really care.
No jobs for whining commies.
Well done, comrades! Now on to the next job-killing, performative rampage!
And make sure to target liberal, small business owners! Because why take on the actual problem when you can bully your own? It’s the Sawant way!
“Liberal” lmao
Oh my those bad job killing bastards! For what you pay at mcd’s and others these days they should pay their staff. In the same note for 20 bucks an hour you should be able to get competent help that can strap on a fake smile and pretend to care a little. as not to erode confidence in the product
Fundamentally, if you can’t afford to run a business and pay your workers what it costs them to live, your business isn’t tenable.
When will this approach of customers being subject to 3 or 4 line items on every bill for kitchen appreciation, living wage supplement, cost of utility fee – just charge what it costs up front and compensate your workers appropriately – or, shut up and find a different business model.
When Sawant makes your business her political whipping boy, its time to find other locales to operate the store. And yes — “paying more for your coffee” is coming your way.
Preach the truth
First of all Sawant didn’t orchestrate this thing as far as I know. It was pissed off employees. She just supports them (hijacked their cause for her agenda) frankly I don’t think having her aboard helps in the least. I know I am more inclined to just write them off as soon
as I heard her name attached to this story. I think the owner should have/be working at retaining his best employees through profit sharing/ performance bonus’ etc. I think the city should butt out. No one is bring forced to work there and if the compensation isn’t adequate well the lack of good help will cure the problem on its own when customers choose to eat somewhere else.
Dude literally signed a petition to the council to let him steal wages from his employees. If you want cheaper coffee at the cost of a living wage, get lost. Your salty old man shtick in regards to sawant doesn’t justify supporting this greedy 🐴 💩 you old curmudgeon.
What a Scrooge he is. I guess I’ll be getting my morning latte from Olympia Coffee instead of the Olive Way location.
He might be a little cheap, but the owner did what he could do for his employees. You don’t know them to make those types of comments.
Oh no! People will have to go around the corner and down half a block to Ghost Note Coffee!
Or a block in the other direction to go to Victrola. Or 2 blocks to get to Starbucks Reserve. Or three blocks to go to Realfine. Or across the freeway for Monorail Espresso. Or another little bit to Ladro.
Whatever should people do????
Stop excusing every shop or cafe closing as a one off. This city is dying as empty storefronts proliferate.
Will somebody remind me how old the “Will the last one in Seattle turn out the lights?” art is?
If you think Seattle is dying, maybe you can move to Idaho?
The “Turn Out the Lights” era was 1974. Did the lights ever go out? I think not….
And the Lights Out era also had a revitalization as Capitol Hill underwent the massive changes just after Amazon and just before the light rail.
So you’re satisfied with the current state of Capitol Hill – empty stores, graffiti, trash, roaming drug dens? Perhaps instead of telling me to move to Idaho we should be doing more to help this city thrive. It has been better than this and it should be. Sawant and her cronies add nothing to the conversation.
Y’all keep up with this tired trope “ooh sooo sad X closed (insert perfomative jargon du jour), there is Y around the corner that is better anyway (in your opinion we didn’t ask for)”, but one by one things keep closing without replacement. That IS a dying city.
Harrell era has a lot more dying than Durkan and Sawant
Things keep closing without replacement? On Capitol Hill? Sure…
The Cherry Street location that is now permanently closed was there less than a decade. It opened in November 2014. https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2014/11/cherry-street-coffee-home-of-the-us-barista-champion-opens-on-e-pine/
The only reason Cherry Street is even there is because Bauhaus Coffee had the best coffee location in the history of the city pulled out from under them for redevelopment in 2012 (keep me honest).
The biggest reason that storefronts are staying closed is because landlords are seeking unsustainable amounts.
It’s funny how the people griping about things closing without replacement probably have probably forgotten the history of the neighborhood and its rapid change from grungy home of gays, outcasts and addicts to now. I found this Seattle Times article from 30 years ago talking about the funky neighborhood with low rents and low incomes called the Pike Pine corridor (median incomes were 20% lower than the city) and the erection of the Wintonia Hotel for addicts and alcoholics. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19940717&slug=1920709
Change is inevitable. And if this business owner can’t support his workers and the neighborhood values, he can get the fuck out.
Uh you’re about 40 years off there
the facts remain
So where else on Cap Hill do I go if I want Persian food? Cherry Street Cafe made and served Persian food out of its location.
really? It’s everywhere. You’ve never eaten Persian anything if you don’t know that answer yourself.
You really are a bad liar. I see right through you.
Cafe Suliman and Mamnoon are both like a block away.
Seattle Geek… Arabic cuisine and culture != Persian cuisine and culture. Have a good day.
You’re just mad that people got mad about a business owner trying to dismantle the minimum wage bill.
If you absolutely need to support that type of business owner, you can always go to the other locations, including the Cherry St location that is 0.6 mi away by foot. The other locations will stay open because they are more reliant on tourists who don’t know what a piece of shit business owner they’re supporting.
This money is supporting poorly run businesses. It’s supporting wildly successful businesses. They are “essential” in every owners eyes.
When in fact>? We all agreed that labor was in fact “essential”. Until 4 months after the end of the pandemic. They clawed that back in a hurry.
Also? This “not a living wage job” is code for “black jobs” et ilk. I really want to work for an ass pinching self righteous asshat. It’s greed.
They want it both ways. They are losing money due to labor costs and inflation. So we have to raise prices. We still keep $2.75 an hour due to labor casts and inflation.
It’s old school pit Boomers and the rest of them against each other through empty lies and threats.
Or, if you’re looking for someplace that’s more sandwiches / falafel wraps, there’s Garlic Crush / Mediterranean Express up on Broadway (like 5 blocks), or if you also go over a couple blocks, there’s the falafel joint on Denny and Broadway. And, I think there is the falafel truck at Broadway and John (in the parking lot of the dry cleaners).
There may be more that I’m missing, especially on the other side of I-5.
Make your own coffee…
Sawant wants small businesses to simply not be in business…she is awful… I was paying my staff a total of $29/hour, tips included, 10 years ago, free food while on shift, and she thought that wasn’t enough and harassed me on a regular basis…she is the worst…
What else did she want you provide? I mean being paid 29/hr with tips and being served a free meal and snack during the work-day seems like a great place to work. Was she wanting you to purchase their health insurance and vacation/sick time?
All of those things drive up the cost of meals for your patrons and potentially your tax obligations as an employer.
You can’t see it? It’s a false statement. It makes zero sense.
Not false at all…she was awful, just awful…this is the early days when she was set to destroy Seattle
So, labor exists to bear the burden. You need a more fundamental understanding of how capitalism survives and functions as a serial exploiter.
Nobody has that kinda time to “harass” one person.
Also? If that’s truly what you paid? Then I seriously doubt you were anyone’s concern.
Asking Taylor Swift to answer you on that one. Or any of the City Councilpersons who Sawant led marches up to their front doors.
Odd comment. You seem to have plenty of time to “harass”, many people.
I “harass” people? How so?
Also? My time is mine. I do not need to explain it to anyone.
You have plenty of time to tell people what to think as well right? I mean, you are here.
Oh she did…the moment she found out that I didn’t agree with all of her thoughts… she had it out for me…
“…the moment she found out that I didn’t agree with all of her thoughts…”
Such as??? You dodged the question from another commenter and you offer nothing other than “Sawant was mean to me.”
I’m no fan of Sawant, and wish we didn’t have to hear from her ever again (wasn’t she going to launch some national crusade?), but your comments offer no backing or proof of your claims. They make it seem like you’re just trolling.
(wasn’t she going to launch some national crusade?)
Workers Strike Back. If you want to know how they plan to subvert govt.? Subscribe.
I am a liberal to mainstream progressive. I vote a straight blue ticket. Have for decades. I am not a fan of hers. I am definitely not a fan of corporate city councils. The policy is always screw labor. Bailouts and other tax payer related schemes. Trumps tax cut, 83% of that went to the top incomes. They now have record profits. So I’d vote for her again in the general. Lucky I do not have to make that choice.
Connecting anyone they disagree with to Sawant is all they have as a political weapon.
That’s a little spooky. Not unsurprising though. She empowered a lot of people that’s for sure. She’s also very anti democratic. No different than the MAGA crowd in that regard.
She was took everything she has in life and doesn’t know any better
This guy has always been a greedy anti-worker prick, going back to the paid sick-leave mandate.
F*ck Sawant and her trail of destruction through Capitol Hill. Is she going to campaign against Harris for Trump/Stein in Pennsylvania again this year?
The far-left/Socialists/anarchists don’t want Harris. They’d basically remain and/or become irrelevant with a Democrat in the White House. They’d also continue to look like entitled groveling spoiled brats protesting against Democrats b/c they’re not magically snapping their fingers to ideas and programs that require well-running infrastructure and support networks in place.
They discovered on Nov 2016 that Trump in office means that they can stay relevant and get a pass to continue being themselves from angry Democrats.
Right…Your savior has “Concepts of a plan”…LMAO!
Quite an elaborate fantasy you’ve constructed. I’m sure it will serve you well … until it doesn’t.
“Reality” is she’s not in office. What is your candidate doing should be the question.
Sawant’s no longer in office but her legacy and the venomous mindset that she’s left is still pervasive, which is still evident today.
mkay…the cops got a giant retroactive pay raise.
Saying anyone on the left is a socialist is silly.
Of course she will. She hates Democrats far, far more than Republicans. The way she trashed Hillary, I always got the sense that she kind of admired Trump.
Nailed it! Sawant and Trump read from the same political playbook. Trump to market his brand, Sawant to tear down America. They deserve each other, arms embracing.
You make a great point.
Doesn’t he have a history of throwing a fit over changes that benefit the worker? I stopped going after the sick leave law passed and he had signs up complaining about it.
Yeah, this isn’t the first time.
You have to scroll down a bit, but the Stranger gets into the substance of the staff’s letter at this link. I think that adds some pretty critical context.
Basically, they want an anti-harassment policy (because Ghambari has allegedly been sexually harassing his employees); three weeks’ notice about their schedules; and for a promised $1 an hour raise to be made permanent rather than for one pay period.
Hardly the apocalyptic doom for small business that so many people in this thread are whining about, unless their concept of small business has sexual harassment intrinsically built in, I guess.
I used to work in one of the coffee shops around the corner and wow, wow, wow, their turnover was high on employees. Seemed like an awful place to work
Owner is a baby
Such nonsense. He closed it because of the sexual harassment claims.
If a one day strike is enough to bring down a business? Then it needed to go.
Taking $3 an hour from the poorest labor group is sick. “I WANT FISH TEMPORARILY!” now it’s “I WANT FISH PERMANENTLY! WHAAAA!
How about buying yourself a pole? How about competing on a level field?
It’s all about greed. Maximise profit. Clawback labors gains.It’s right to work laws in disguise.
Don’t think for a second it’s just a local thing. Seattle is on everyone’s target list for attacks on labor. If they kill it here, it will weaken America’s chances for fair wages.
Business owners need to be responsible for themselves and no more handouts!
I’m not surprised Sawant forced another business in D3 to shutter its doors. How many other POC-owned small businesses must be shuttered if they don’t agree with her?
SHE’S GONE!
Get over it. Are you that easy to rent space in?
she’s gone but she still inserting herself into things like these protests.
Right…Non violent protests. That’s America coast to coast. He is not special. Public scrutiny is essential.
Okay, Ali…we get it. You’re upset.
POC don’t like Sawant!
LOL
Distilling a movement to a single person. There’s a term for that
Running a business is hard in this city. I have had a handful of friends who either own and maintain a small business here or have shuttered theirs and left the region due to the burnout they experienced and the lack of support from city officials.
Sawant’s performative protests do nothing but drives businesses out of D3 and Seattle. If we hear more people complain about the lack of employment opportunities on Cap Hill and the Central District, let’s start looking at what she’s doing behind the scenes to prevent small businesses from being successful here.
You ever think that this imaginary “handful of friends” are simply poor business persons? Also? If “a handful of your friends” packed up and left? That’s be big news. We would be a ghost town right? 20 businesses closed.
This notion that it’s some kinda hardship on labor is feigned concern. You could, not only care less. You root for their demise.
America is at full employment. Meaning? I can quit a job, and get a job, all in the same day. Same area. Same pay. Same work.
So your butthurt and make up one imaginary story after the next to justify your being butthurt.
That’s what I see. You have a friend or lived situation for everything. Every minute detail. I bet you were an only child or a middle child.
Good for him. To all the small business owners out there, do NOT let organized labor push you around.
Obvious troll is obvious. Unions ftw.
Literally no one is listening to you lol. Have fun being on the L side of history.
We don’t want Sawant.
I want Sawant and not Hollingsworth, speak for yourself.
Well, the owner shut the place down permanently. I’m sure there are hundreds of coffee shops all across the state that pay more than minimum wage – right? Hint: that’s a joke. Closing them down did nothing to help these employees. And all these customers that say they will just go to a coffee street down are naive if they think other coffee shops are paying more. Starbucks and big companies can whether these things, tiny local business can’t. Nobody accomplished anything by this. So what is the owner really being punished for here? Because he dared to express an opinion top his city government that is shared by the majority of food/coffee small businesses? And people and Sawant are proud of that? Workers have a right to work wherever they want and they have the right to strike anytime they want. But this accomplished nothing for anyone, and anyone who thinks that the next coffee shop down the street is able (or in some cases willing) to pay more is naive. Typical Sawant BS. Like Trump, if you’re not with her, you are an enemy and you will be ruined. They’re exact same people.
You do understand the owner closed it. Not anyone else.
You dismiss the sexual harassments then?
The truth is this location was no longer profitable. If it were profitable, it’d remain open. Plain and simple. Businesses often try to score political points when they close a store that is failing for economic reasons. It’s a fact that most small businesses fail in time; it’s a competitive world out there.
Thats it right there.
The $2.75 business welfare is ending. He has sexually harassed himself out of a business. They have 3 businesses all doing the same thing under different names.
40+ years flat wages. Tiered contracts and the ilk. The new generations aka not boomers, are not playing the same game. The playbook is thin. People are wise consumers of business. I mean. The cops are mad they can’t run it like a kingdom. Things are changing for the better imo.
Record profits and full employment is something. It’s greed on top of a great economy. Of course they want more. Of course they look down on labor as peons not worth what they are paid. It’s what they’ve always done. Treat people like shit because the Boomers flooded the job market and cut each others throats the entire time. Gave back everything their parents and grand parents fought for.
Now we have them bum rushing the capitol because they think an election was stolen and immigration/civil rights progress.
Noam Chomsky – Requiem for the American Dream on youtube
The American Middle Class Crisis | Real Stories Noam Chomsky Wealth Inequality Documentary