January 26, 2015
Courtesy of Cristian Mora/AP
Euro-style Girard Brasserie and Bruncherie was designed by Otto Architects.
Girard Brasserie and Bruncherie does things differently.
The progressive no-tipping system at the two-month-old French BYO in Fishtown was born of a desire to break the rules. Everyone on staff at Girard gets paid an hourly rate of $13 per hour, and has paid sick days, four vacation days every six months, and 100 percent covered health insurance for themselves and their families.
“We started with ‘question everything,’” co-owner Cristian Mora told PhillyVoice.com. “Let’s look at how restaurants do business and question everything. Do you really need silverware? Do you really need a space?”
While Girard has both, what they’ve ditched is an industry-wide disregard for the well-being of their staff.
It's a radical break from the norm. Generally speaking, Mora, an industry veteran and electro-pop musician, when he has the time, says, “Nobody gets paid well. You never know how much you’re going to make. And we’re going to ask our staff to go above and beyond, and genuinely care about the experience each customer is going to have. So how can we ask them that if we don't take care of them?”
Mora was ready to open his own place and collaborated with chef Brian Oliveira whom he met working at Parc in Rittenhouse. Mora chose Oliveira for his talent and youthful approach to food; a contemporary twist on tuna niçoise salad combines cannelloni beans, fennel, olive oil poached tuna, green beans and rosemary-olive tapenade. Influenced by the West coast, where restaurant workers get paid living wages, the chef got the idea to invest in the people who would invest back in him - and their customers, in turn.
Their business model has brought in tons of resumes, attracting professionals who are inclined to stay for the long haul.
“We find that the people attracted to this model have higher intrinsic motivation to just be great at this profession. … Anytime you have long-tenured staff, they're going to know the food better, they're going to know the service better, there are going to be less mistakes. They know the people, they know what you like, they know how you like your coffee; the cooks, they’re not going to make mistakes."
Girard’s clientele is largely supportive. Often, the absence of a tip noted on the bill comes as a welcome surprise. Years of training in fine dining locales have prompted Mora to exceed guests’ expectations: “If there is a request and it's possible to do it, you do it.”
Mora applies that same principle to his staff, the people who make the experience.
“I worked at Union Trust [Steakhouse] for a couple [of] years … and [former owner] Ed Doherty ... would always talk about bucket filling: You always want to fill your employees’ buckets more than you're emptying them by asking things from them.”
At Girard, an unconventionally satisfying meal awaits.
