Back in 1987, a tiny corner restaurant opened on slanted West State Street in Athens, Ohio. It was different from the other eateries in Athens in one very important way: the cooks, dishwashers, servers and hostesses weren’t just hired help at Casa Nueva, they owned it as members of the Worker-Owned Restaurant Corporation. Were they a big family? Simply a group of old friends? No and no. They were restaurant workers, ready for a different type of job, a different type of future. They were eight strong, mostly in their early 20s, and they had begun a cooperative business of which they were each owners, not just employees. A few of those original owners from the first few years of the operation still work at Casa today, but most of the current 20 owners are new to the business.

Following a girlfriend who had a graduate assistantship at Ohio University, David “Rex” Hartman stumbled across Casa Nueva in 1990 after asking around Athens for a spot to get vegetarian food. He liked the food at Casa so much he filled out an application right after eating his first meal; although, he says, smiling, he didn’t get the job. “I didn’t know that!” Nancie Buerkel laughs at Rex’s recollection of his first time at therestaurant. Between the two, Nancie and Rex have over 30 years of experience at Casa. Both are worker/owners, have served as board members, and are now acting coordinators, Casa’s preferred term for managers, since they try to keep things equal amongst the employees, as much as possible. When Rex first came around, Casa had been open for just three years, and Nancie came to Casa when it was only two years old.

Nancie and Rex explain how the cooperative restaurant works: when it opened, Casa Nueva was owned by the eight individuals who ventured into the coop business and wanted to work there as well. Quickly, the worker/owner positions grew, as Casa became a successful local restaurant and drew a loyal customer base from the community. Initially, there were two types of positions at Casa—member of the coop (worker/owner) and trial member of the coop (when someone completed the trial membership phase, she was expected to either become a member or phase out of the business). But, eventually, this limitation of options for people working with Casa required a more diverse solution. Some individuals were desirable members of the work crew but weren’t interested in or cut out for membership (worker/owner) status. For a while, Casa referred to these individuals as outside labor, but when the number of Casa employees reached close to 70 in 2000, it became apparent that a change in the structure of the cooperative was required.

Up to that point, the business had been entirely worker-owned. For Nancie, it was a trying time when the basis of the organization—that all workers would also be owners—was shifted to make room for the associate position. “But,” she says, “it was necessary and ended up working out well for the cooperative in the long run. With that high an employee number you just couldn’t have everybody being an owner.” The associate position made way for those individuals who believed in Casa and wanted to work there but were not prepared to take on worker/owner responsibilities. Rather than being required to come to committee meetings, the associates, unlike the members, have the option to participate or not. They are free to attend these and other meetings to provide input, but, and this is one of the primary advantages afforded worker/owners and not associates, they do not have a vote. They do, however, have the opportunity to take on additional responsibilities, such as learning to and then conducting research in order to support their business ideas. Associates, as well as members, are paid for time spent developing the business in this way.

The cooperative still makes its decisions the way it always has. Ideas are considered by committees, a recommendation is made by the seven-member board and the members vote on each issue. “As an associate you still have a say, but you don’t get vote,” Katie Drummer, a Casa associate explains. “You can lobby. But it comes down to the people with the votes.” Katie hasn’t taken the step yet to become a member of the cooperative, and she may never take that step. She’s worked at Casa for a year and a half, working her choice of positions, as all Casa employees do, primarily on the production side of the business, making and delivering jarred salsas. “I really appreciate that I can still have the benefits of being a self-managed worker but not have to take on the responsibilities of becoming a worker/owner when I don’t feel like I’m interested in taking on that responsibility right now,” she says.

Katie feels the opportunities she is afforded by working at Casa are unlimited. “There’s nothing you can’t do [just] because you’re not trained or because you don’t have a certain amount of previous knowledge,” she says of the ease with which both associates and worker/owners find learning new skills from their fellow employees at Casa. “Everyone’s really willing to show you the ropes,” she says. She hopes to take the knowledge she’s gained from working at the restaurant and start her own business someday, likely a food-industry business. And she wouldn’t be the first. Casa has proved to be an entrepreneurial incubator for the Athens area and beyond, with dozens of former associates and worker/owners going on to open their own businesses, regionally and nationally, after gaining skills and experience from their time at Casa.

Alicia Cordell, a trial member, on her way to a worker/owner position after working for four years at the co-op while in school at Ohio University, agreed that the opportunities to learn and grow at Casa helped her to decide she wanted to make the commitment to become a member. “It made sense to get all I can out of it and learn as much as I can,” Alicia says of her decision to stay on at the cooperative, even after finishing her degree. “I felt I had made a contribution. The worker/owners already treated me as a member of the family.” By making the commitment to membership status, she agrees to a two-year obligation with the cooperative, and by late September she will be granted full worker/owner status. She continues: “I’m looking forward to learning more about what I already do and progressing more in that role. It’s a great opportunity. People that are very young and don’t have a lot of other experience can come in and have a steady, secure job, plus all the benefits that come with long-time membership.

And that opportunity for the young is one of the very unique aspects of the Casa Nueva cooperative. When it began in the late 1980s, Casa’s average worker/owner age was early to mid 20s, making it a very youthful enterprise. Even now, though the age of the average worker/owner has increased slightly, and with older members like Nancie and Rex still around, the younger generation is still very young, in their late 20s to early 30s. “I was amazed when I got here how young most of the people running the place were. I was about to turn 30, and virtually everyone who was a worker/owner was 21 to 23,” Rex recalls of the original group of worker/owners. And the youthful energy and atmosphere of the place is evident. The chic design of the cantina, the brightly colored walls of the sunny dining areas, and the vibrant artwork peppered throughout give patrons the feeling that Casa Nueva isn’t your grandmother’s restaurant.

The staff gives off the feeling of unfettered youth, regardless of age. Nancie still resists authority, all these years after she first came to Casa. “I don’t know if I could go someplace else now,” she says laughing. “I’d probably get fired if I had a boss.” But Nancie enjoys the joint decision-making that occurs with her fellow member/owners, like Leslie Shaller, the last remaining original founder of Casa and its current Business Director. Leslie also works at Appalachian Cooperative (ACEnet), which was around during Casa’s genesis, and assisted the small group as they struggled to define and develop their new rare-breed cooperative business. Working now with both organizations, Leslie has the benefit of participating in community-wide initiatives, while still enjoying her roots with Casa Nueva.

“It’s in our DNA to be part of a network of innovators within a network of local food systems,” Leslie says of ACEnet’s current work. And, of Casa’s role in this local food system, Leslie points out that the cooperative is a “key leverage point to promote local purchasing and agriculture,” as the restaurant utilizes local farmers to supply much of the food on its four seasonal menus and in its line of salsas (12 on the menu, and 6 for jarring). And the co-op doesn’t intend to stop there. Just in the last few years Casa expanded at its current location to include the large storefront space next door (now the Cantina). But Leslie says other plans are on the horizon, as the group considers diversifying its manufacturing, as well as offering more peer learning opportunities to local entrepreneurs. Between working with these two organizations, and serving on the Athens Chamber of Commerce, Leslie works an average 70 hours a week, so it’s safe to say she’s still sharing in the youthful energy to be found at Casa. She has big plans, not just for the business or the non-profit, but for all of Athens, and for her ideal society. She says of her long weeks, “It takes a lot of work to change the world!”

Written by Aubrey Videtto, Photography by Chad Stevens