Workers protest for unpaid wages at acclaimed L.A. restaurant

Former workers at the now-shuttered Otium restaurant protested in front of the shuttered restaurant in downtown Los Angeles

Sept. 26, 2024 1:21 PM PT

Otium workers are struggling to pay rent and other bills. They have yet to receive their last paycheck after the acclaimed restaurant closed this month.
Owner Carl Schuster said he is working on a solution after the cash flow to cover final payroll “didn’t materialize as we had hoped.”

Yosselin Cortés, a manager at the now-shuttered Otium, first noticed last year that something was amiss at the celebrated downtown L.A. restaurant when produce and wine vendors came to her asking why they hadn’t been paid.

Upper management told her that Otium— the ambitious showcase restaurant opened in partnership with the Broad museum in 2015 and with investment from billionaire Eli Broad, who died in 2021 — was struggling. They assured her the moment would pass.

A few months ago, however, the situation worsened. Workers told Cortés that their paychecks had bounced. Equipment — including a pasta maker and lighting — went unrepaired for long stretches. One time, she said, the restaurant was so slow they closed for the weekend.

But Cortés never imagined, she said, that the Otium’s owners would stiff her on her last paycheck after the restaurant closed on Sept. 8. She wasn’t the only one.

“It’s heartbreaking to see how they are treating their staff,” she said.

On Wednesday, about a dozen former Otium workers picketed in front of the empty restaurant, holding handmade signs that read, “Overworked. Never Paid” and “14 days late.” They marched down Grand Avenue, in sight of the Broad museum, Disney Hall and L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art, chanting “Wage theft is a crime. Pay your workers for their time.”

About a month before it shuttered, Otium’s owners announced on Instagram that it would close for good after nine years in business, stating that financial difficulties had led to the decision. The restaurant’s management hinted that they could possibly reopen elsewhere.

Back in 2015, Otium opened to much fanfare in an airy building in the Broad museum complex led by celebrity-chef Timothy Hollingsworth. In his 2016 review of Otium, former Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold said, “Timothy Hollingsworth seems to be trying to do no less than to reinvent what an American restaurant might be.” Hollingsworth himself said to former Times food editor Amy Scattergood, “To support the museum, to support the neighborhood [Otium] needs to be more than just a restaurant.”

Hollingsworth, who was Thomas Keller’s chef de cuisine at the French Laundry, co-owned the restaurant with Carl Schuster, a founding partner of Wolfgang Puck catering and CEO and founder of Cast Iron Partners. The restaurant opened with partners that included philanthropist Broad and restaurant entrepreneur Bill Chait, who owned Hollingsworth’s previous barbecue spot Barrel & Ashes.

In recent years, Hollingsworth has divided his time between Otium and the pop-up series Chain with B.J. Novak, Chrissy Teigen and other partners plus the subsequent ChainFEST, billed as “the world’s first gourmet chain food festival,” now in its second year.

In statements to The Times, Hollingsworth and Schuster said they were aware of the unpaid wages and tips.

“The Otium team has been my family for nearly a decade. I am heartsick that they have not been paid for their hard work and supportive of the action they have been taking to be heard,” Hollingsworth said in a text sent to The Times. “As an employee of Otium myself, I will not accept any payment until everyone else has been paid.”

He referred further questions to Schuster and in an earlier email to The Times, said he hoped Schuster would “provide a date for resolution on this crisis.”

In a prepared statement sent to The Times on Wednesday, Schuster said he was “trying to finalize a plan to get the employees paid as soon as possible” and hoped to have something in place by the end of the week.

“I’m making every effort to take responsibility to pay the employees their wages and the penalties associated with it,” he wrote in an email. “I feel terrible that we put the employees in this position and understand the hardships they’re going through. I know the urgency that this has to be done and it’s 100% of my focus until we have resolved and paid everyone. This is my responsibility.”

Schuster blamed economic conditions of the restaurant industry and fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic for the delay in unpaid wages and tips, which are often included in paychecks.

“What we had anticipated for our final few weeks from a cash flow perspective to cover final payroll along with anticipating selling off some of our inventory didn’t materialize as we had hoped,” he wrote in an email.

Schuster explained that the restaurant’s customer base had dropped by 30% to 40% and that a big reason for the decrease was due to fewer people downtown for lunch and a drop in event business.

He said their landlord — the Broad museum — “worked with us but the cost to run a large freestanding building in the middle of downtown” with sales down up to 40% proved difficult. “We just couldn’t catch up,” he said.

Otium’s closure is just the latest in a string of restaurants that have shuttered since the start of the pandemic. Despite a few hopeful signs as restaurants continue to open, the tumult in the industry and its fragile recovery have forced many restaurants to close with some saying they can’t afford to stay open or to close.

Former Otium workers said they aren’t confident they’ll ever get paid.

Rylee Ratcliff, a 21-year-old barista, said she’s owed up to $3,500 in wages and tips and is frustrated with management’s excuses and delays.

She said the last month of goodbye dinners meant she worked 12-hour shifts and up to 60 hours a week because of the onslaught of restaurant diners after news got out that Otium’s days were numbered.

“This pay could be an entire semester of tuition for me,” said Ratcliff, who plans to return to university.

Maria Ramos Hernandez, a 53-year-old who washed dishes for seven years at Otium, said her $1,750 check bounced. Like many restaurant workers, Hernandez lives paycheck to paycheck. She’s worried about her rent that’s due in a few days.

“One doesn’t live here for free,” she said in Spanish. “I spent so many years working for them, for the restaurant. Now look, this is the thanks we get.”

Melissa Cristina Mendoza, a server for eight years at Otium, said she’s owed at least $1,500 in tips alone because she worked six days a week — mostly without a break — during the last month of service.

Wednesday, the 28-year-old brought her 2-year-old daughter to the protest. Mendoza worried about paying rent and other expenses, such as diapers.

She said she’s tried reaching out to several managers. She’s emailed. She’s called.

“I’ve gotten no response,” she said.

Cortés, a manager, said other managers have told her that they’ve also gone unpaid. She’s owed at least $1,500 for her last week of service.

When she was told about the closure, she stepped it up and worked 15 hours a day almost every day because they were understaffed as some called out or looked for other jobs.

“To me they were family so I wasn’t going to leave them alone,” she said of the owners. “I was doing whatever to try to help them.”

Cortés said she felt like Otium was a second family to her, partly because of what she said Hollingworth would say: “We’re all family here. If you guys ever need anything, let me know.”

She said she reached out to Hollingsworth. So far, she said, he hasn’t responded.