According to an announcement from Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United, a hospitality workers-led organization, the concerned Casa Bonita staffers "delivered a letter to management outlining their demands" at an all-hands employee meeting on July 12, offering management one week to respond. But seven days later, the group, which is calling itself #WeAreTeamCasa, had heard nothing — and so launched a petition outlining its concerns.
"Of the fifty presenting the demand, we had employees from every area in the restaurant," ROC says. "This began as a bartender-led movement. ... Once the letter was presented, we have had more and more employees come forward in support. Fear of retaliation was a big hindrance for a lot of employees."
Last month, Casa Bonita said that it had decided to move to a no-tip structure, citing the fact that it uses a flat-rate ticketing system that resulted in patrons not tipping during the soft opening. But the decision to move to a flat hourly rate came before the first group of paying guests ever visited the restaurant, and while entry and the base meal are included in the ticket price, alcoholic beverages do cost extra.
According to one bartender, front-of-house staff were presented with new contracts just days before the first paying guests were set to visit and told to either sign or leave. That employee also noted that when initially hired, bartenders were told the pay would be in the $40-to-$50-per-hour range, with tips included.
ROC says that the new Casa Bonita contracts offer $30 per hour for bartenders, $28 per hour for servers, $21 per hour for bussers and $18 per hour for guest services, with no tipping allowed.
The compensation change came after months of part-time training shifts. Most staffers were hired in April, and many were told to quit their other jobs in order to be available to work at Casa Bonita full-time.
The ROC announcement offers this quote from recently fired bartender Russ Lee: “This is a bait-and-switch — we were excited about the possibility of reviving a Denver institution, but what began as a really fun adventure has turned into a real-life financial nightmare."
In response to the petition, Casa Bonita management offers this statement: “Casa Bonita strives to create the best working environment for its employees. This includes implementing the best compensation structure for all employees — not just a few. To the extent some employees have concerns about our policies, we will continue to make ourselves available to discuss their concerns, individually or as a group.”
The group's demands, written with help from the ROC, are: "to revert to what was originally promised by ownership when they were hired months ago; to clarify hours of operation — there have been a series of 'soft openings' with no clear pathway to being open seven days a week; access to health benefits; the creation of a voice in the workplace, as well as transparency and two-way communication with ownership; the ability to consider employment documents for a reasonable timeframe before signing; and to reinstate former employees lost through Casa Bonita’s contract-related disputes."
“I’d gladly take minimum wage, with tips, so that our kitchen can receive better pay, give them the $30 they deserve," employee Michelle Mendenhal says in the ROC announcement. "We also need to see more operating hours so that we can all be offered benefits, as originally promised to us. Park County (Casa Bonita’s ownership entity) needs to remember we (the hourly employees) are the ones who love this place and will take care of it with joyful enthusiasm. In return we ask them to see our humanity and let us earn a competitive wage with benefits.”
According to the ROC, back-of-house employees are largely being paid $19 per hour. "Many BOH employees were promised raises that were never seen," the organizer adds.
#WeAreTeamCasa is now "asking for community support to make management meet our demands. We are circulating a petition and will be escalating our campaign until our demands are met." In the day since the petition was posted, it has garnered over 850 signatures.
The group plans to post updates on its social media accounts, @employeesofcasabonita on Instagram and TikTok.
Meanwhile, Casa Bonita management released this memo on July 21.
TO: Casa Bonita team membersThis story has been updated to include Casa Bonita's July 21 statement.
TOPIC: As we continue charting the path for our unique entertainment and dining experience, we wanted to pause for a moment to share some updates about Casa Bonita.
· One-of-a-kind establishment. Casa Bonita has always been a place for families to enjoy both dining and entertainment in a unique environment. We have worked hard to maintain what has made Casa Bonita special while at the same time improving the experience for both customers and staff.
· Opening well, not fast. We have been intentional about opening gradually in order to refine the many complex aspects of the Casa Bonita experience – entertainment, food prep, security, dive and puppet shows, live music, bar service, cleaning, technology, animatronics, etc. While we understand this may be frustrating for some fans and staff, we have been transparent about the intention and reasons behind the pacing. We do not want to make promises to customers or staff that we cannot fulfill.
· Key accomplishments. Just since the beginning of June, with our limited schedule, we have doubled our service from 1,148 customers a week to over 2,300 last week, and we are expecting to expand to over 2,600 next week. While this is still a long way from the around 20,000 customers a week we hope to serve, it is a major achievement, as all of our staff have now been given the opportunity to work sufficient hours to have full-time benefits. Similarly, we have hired over 130 employees since May, well on our way to the over 350 staff we expect to need to serve that many guests.
· Non-traditional customer experience. One of the more significant updates to Casa Bonita is to allow guests to pre-pay for their experiences, order at a ticketing window, and carry their entrees to their tables. This has been instrumental in providing high quality food and eliminating the long wait times customers faced when coming to Casa Bonita in the past. As such, while our servers manage serving drinks, chips and salsa, and sopaipillas that are included in the ticketed price, only specialty desserts, alcohol, and additional a la carte food purchases are added to the bill customers receive at the restaurant.
· Guests weren’t tipping. As a result of our unique customer experience, we found during our soft openings that guests were leaving tips that were much lower than we expected, resulting in much lower total compensation for our staff. Accordingly, in an effort to ensure fair compensation for our staff, we increased the hourly wage for all of our service staff. As we continue to develop the Casa Bonita experience, we remain focused on providing our staff with a fair compensation and benefits package.
· Pooled tips. To be clear, Casa Bonita initially developed a policy for a tip pool in which all non-managerial service staff working on a given shift participated in tips received in that pool. With the unanticipated shortfalls in customer tipping during the soft openings, all staff were experiencing lower income than expected. That is why we moved to substantially enhanced hourly rates.
· Open-door policy. From the start we established open meetings and dialogue options with employees. Staff members are encouraged to share concerns directly with management and have multiple venues to express opinions, both individually and collectively.
· Continuing evolution. We intend to continue to experiment with changes, alterations, and improvements as dictated by our evolving business and the lessons we learn. One thing that’s certain is that Casa Bonita will keep evolving to continue providing a great place to work and the best guest experience for generations to come.
We are delighted by what the Casa Bonita team has accomplished so far, and we remain enthusiastic about what the future holds.
