Once upon a time, it was the Age of Ultron and the Epoch of Wealthy, White people who were Woke.

The TITANS succeeded until they crossed the wrong POCs who kept their promise to leave.

Wells Stellberger and Molly McIver are our protagonists and or our villains (TITANS). Their hired star power couldn't be enticed into indentured servitude. There was no conversation about ownership and sustainability. Retention was apparently never part of their business model. They had three majorly talented minority-majority chefs at (at least) two different points in time serving from 100 to 300 different plates nightly in good weather only.

The owners spoke vaguely of there being no problem they couldn't solve. Well, that must be code-speak for "We own the space and the people, so nothing could possibly go wrong." Besides, we are making boatloads of money which should keep us stakeholders happy. But there is no mention of chefs as stakeholders. They are given passing mention as Uber-talented and expendable hired help. THAT IS the PROBLEM.

"NY Wrongful termination occurs when an employee is fired for an illegal reason. But NY wrongful terminations are rare. This is because most all New York employees are employees-at-will. An employee-at-will can be fired for any reason or no reason at all.Jan 23, 2020" - Google Search Result

Money was not the problem. The quality of the food was not the problem. The restaurant space was 100% COVID COMPLIANT. The restaurant was DOA, literally and figuratively, in spite of its owners, Wells Stellberger and Molly McIver.

The three culinary wizards left en masse and intend to continue their collaboration in a more sustainable environment. They will bring simple, fresh, and affordable to the masses and not the Uber elite of NYC. They will survive.

If Wells Stellberger and Molly McIver embrace a permanent status as a training ground for multi-chef collaboration and make that a pathway to ownership, their empowering business model is sustainable.

All they have right now is infamy in a stupid battle for control of the means of production. Their capitalist model failed; they lost the battle. Long live sustainable co-operative models with socialism driving sustainable collaborative culinary arts!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/dining/outerspace-chefs-depart.html?smid=url-share

(C) VernonNickersonSchoolcoach 2021.