A Manhattan Diner’s New Management Has Servers Singing a Defiant Tune
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Version 0 of 1. Clutching bottles of ketchup as if they were microphones, three waitresses stood atop vinyl banquettes at Ellen’s Stardust Diner near Times Square the other day, belting out the chorus of a 1984 Twisted Sister hit: “Oh, we’re not gonna take it! No, we ain’t gonna take it! Oh, we’re not gonna take it anymore!” Customers, many of them out-of-towners there to see the singing servers for which the 1950s-style restaurant is known, put down their iPhones to applaud. Kristine Bogan stepped down from a banquette. “That one,” she said, referring to the song, “is new.” It was also a coded reference to a battle unfolding inside the popular diner, where Broadway hopefuls and itinerant performers have serenaded tourist-heavy crowds tucking into cheeseburgers and waffles for more than 20 years. Art and food service have always coexisted at Ellen’s, where actors and singers relished the chance to earn money, hone their craft and audition in their off hours. But in the last eight months, according to employees of the restaurant, a new management team has fired more than 30 of their colleagues — servers and kitchen workers — while instituting new policies that staff members said threatened their acting careers, their livelihoods and, potentially, the feature that made the restaurant a haven for aspiring stars. On Friday, workers representing a group of over 50 employees notified management that they had formed a union after months of organizing secretly. The workers are seeking a variety of changes, including higher wages for nontipped employees, protection from what they describe as a campaign of arbitrary discipline and a measure of job security, which they believe they have lost under the new management regimen. More than job security, though, the workers said what was at stake was the preservation of a performer’s utopia: a place where many would return to wait on tables between stints in regional theater or on “American Idol,” and where artists could easily pursue big city dreams and still pay the rent. “New York is a tough place to be, and Ellen’s claims to be this place where you have a home in between you pursuing your dreams, and they are trying to take that away from us,” said Meg Doherty, 31, a waitress whose specialty is jazz standards. The restaurant’s owner, Ken Sturm, said that the workers’ dissatisfaction had come as a surprise and that their concerns would be addressed. Ellen’s is named for Mr. Sturm’s mother, Ellen Hart-Sturm, a former Miss Subways beauty queen. “This is a little family business that’s been in Times Square since 1995, when Times Square was still a toilet, and we give these guys the opportunity to ply their craft in the middle of the theater district to sing,” he said. “I welcome and have always welcomed the opportunity to make their life a little bit better, because it’s a brand, and at the end of the day, you’re only as successful as your employees.” The difficulties began in January, according to a half-dozen servers and a letter sent to Mr. Sturm by the union, Stardust Family United. Mr. Sturm hired several new managers who pledged a better-run, more streamlined way of delivering egg creams and musical numbers. What happened instead, the workers said, was a mass firing of longtime servers, many for small offenses or ones seemingly beyond their control. Last week, for example, a waitress was fired when a table of customers left without paying, Ms. Bogan and others said. Servers at Ellen’s are known as Stardusters, and their head shots grace the diner’s walls and website like celebrities in a playbill. But behind the scenes, workers said, the new managers warned them that they were easily replaceable. When employees complained about a new scheduling system that prevented them from switching shifts so they could make it to auditions — the point, many said, of working at Ellen’s — they were derided as divas. “Stardust was basically our home,” said Brian Esposito, 23, a waiter known for renditions of songs from the musical “Hamilton.” “You always felt safe coming there; it was a community of artists. But now, so many people, some who have been there for five-plus and 10-plus years, they walk in and they’re crying in the back hallway.” Marianne LeNabat, an organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World, a union that helped guide the servers through the process of organizing a union, said she was stunned by the situation at Ellen’s. “I’m actually kind of shocked when they tell me what’s going on in that workplace and especially because it’s the kind of place where the staff is really, really dedicated,” she said. “A lot of workplaces throw the word ‘family’ around, but these workers really think of each other as family.” Shifts have been extended and waiters have been compelled to take on more tables, workers said, increasing customer frustration over long wait times. On Yelp, many customer reviews praise the singing and criticize the slow service. “Today I spilled water,” Mr. Esposito said a few days before the announcement about the union’s creation, “and I genuinely thought I was going to get fired.” For those who have worked at Ellen’s, one of its biggest assets was that it allowed many to go on hiatus whenever they landed roles beyond the upholstered booths, said Zak Resnick, 29, who worked there for the past decade. In his case, that meant leaving for several years at a time, for a role in “Mamma Mia!” on Broadway and a stint on “American Idol.” Now, waiters have to wrangle to get back jobs that once felt guaranteed. “Nobody else in the world lives the way we do,” said Mr. Resnick, who quit the restaurant last month as a result of the changes. “Ellen’s is so important to people like us, it gives us the fallback plan to do what we moved to the city to do.” Mr. Sturm said the policy of letting workers take time off had not changed. He cited several who are currently on the road performing and will be returning to work when their tours end. The average tenure of Ellen’s employees, he said, was 10 ½ years. Those who had not been welcomed back, he added, had performance issues such as being late or missing work. “When we’ve been in business for about 30 years at this point,” said Mr. Sturm, whose family has operated other restaurants under the Ellen’s name, “and that they would have to do something like this is kind of sad, and I feel bad for them.” Max Demers, 33, has worked for over a decade at Ellen’s, where he sings country songs, and where he met his fiancée, another performing server. Staff members’ complaints, he said, were not meant as retribution against the diner, but as an effort to protect a haven for artists. “I was always a pretty good singer and an actor,” he said, but “I blossomed into a performer through Ellen’s.” |