Yosselin Cortés, manager of the now-closed Otium, first noticed something was wrong at the celebrated downtown Los Angeles restaurant last year when produce and wine sellers approached her to ask why they hadn't been paid.
Top management told him that Otium, the ambitious showcase restaurant opened in partnership with the Broad museum in 2015 and with an investment from billionaire Eli Broad, who died in 2021, was struggling. They assured him that the moment would pass.
However, a few months ago the situation worsened. The workers told Cortés that their paychecks had bounced. Equipment, including a pasta maker and lighting, was left unrepaired for long periods. Once, he said, the restaurant was so slow that they closed for the weekend.
But Cortés never imagined, he said, that the Otium owners would be scamming him out of his last paycheck after the restaurant closed on September 8. She wasn't the only one.
“It's heartbreaking to see how they treat their staff,” he said.
On Wednesday, about a dozen former Otium workers picketed outside the empty restaurant, holding handmade signs that read: “Overworked. Never paid” and “14 days late.” They marched down Grand Avenue, within sight of the Broad Museum, Disney Hall and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, chanting “Wage theft is a crime. Pay your workers for their time.”
About a month before it closed, Otium's owners announced on Instagram that it was closing for good after nine years in business, stating that financial difficulties had led to the decision. The restaurant's management hinted that they could possibly reopen elsewhere.
In 2015, Otium opened to much fanfare in a spacious building in the Broad Museum complex run by celebrity chef Timothy Hollingsworth. In his 2016 Otium review, former Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold said, “Timothy Hollingsworth seems to be trying to do nothing less than reinvent what an American restaurant could be.” Hollingsworth himself told former Times food editor Amy Scattergood, “To support the museum, to support the neighborhood [Otium] It has to be more than just a restaurant.”
Hollingsworth, who was Thomas Keller's chef de cuisine at French Laundry, co-owned the restaurant with Carl Schuster, founding partner of Wolfgang Puck catering and CEO and founder of Cast Iron Partners. The restaurant opened with partners that included philanthropist Broad and restaurant entrepreneur Bill Chait, owner of Hollingsworth's former barbecue spot Barrel & Ashes.
In recent years, Hollingsworth has split his time between Otium and the pop-up series Chain with BJ Novak, Chrissy Teigen and other partners, as well as the subsequent ChainFEST, billed as “the world's first gourmet chain food festival,” now in his second year.
Speaking to the Times, Hollingsworth and Schuster said they were aware of the unpaid wages and tips.
“The Otium team has been my family for almost a decade. It pains me that they have not been paid for their hard work and have not been supported in the measures they have been taking to be heard,” Hollingsworth said in a text sent to The Times. “As an employee of Otium, I will not accept any payment until everyone else has received their payment.”
He referred further questions to Schuster and in an earlier email to The Times said he hoped Schuster would “provide a date for the resolution of this crisis.”
In a prepared statement sent to the Times on Wednesday, Schuster said he was “trying to finalize a plan to get employees paid as soon as possible” and hoped to have something ready by the end of the week.
“I am doing everything I can to take responsibility for paying employees their salaries and associated penalties,” he wrote in an email. “I feel very bad for putting employees in this position and understanding the difficulties they are going through. I know the urgency of this being done and it is 100% my focus until we have everyone resolved and paid. This is my responsibility.”
Schuster blamed the economic conditions of the restaurant industry and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic for the delayed payment of wages and unpaid tips, which are often included in paychecks.
“What we had anticipated for our final weeks from a cash flow perspective to cover final payroll along with the anticipation of selling some of our inventory did not materialize as we had hoped,” he wrote in an email.
Schuster explained that the restaurant's customer base had decreased by 30% to 40% and that a major reason for the decline was due to fewer people downtown for lunch and a drop in event business.
He said its owner, the Broad museum, “worked with us, but the cost of running a large free-standing building in the middle of downtown” with sales down as much as 40% proved difficult. “We just couldn't catch up,” he said.
Otium's closure is just the latest in a series of restaurants that have closed since the start of the pandemic. Despite some hopeful signs as restaurants continue to open, tumult in the industry and its fragile recovery have forced many restaurants to close, with some saying they can't afford to stay open or close.
Former Otium workers said they are not sure they will ever get paid.
Rylee Ratcliff, a 21-year-old barista, said she is owed up to $3,500 in wages and tips and is frustrated with management's excuses and delays.
He said the last month of farewell dinners meant he worked 12-hour shifts and up to 60 hours a week because of the rush of diners into restaurants after it emerged Otium's days were numbered.
“This payment could mean a full semester of tuition for me,” said Ratcliff, who plans to return to college.
María Ramos Hernández, a 53-year-old woman who washed dishes for seven years at Otium, said her check for $1,750 was bounced. Like many restaurant workers, Hernandez lives paycheck to paycheck. She is worried about the rent that is due in a few days.
“Here you don't live for free,” he said in Spanish. “I spent many years working for them, for the restaurant. Now look, this is the thanks we received.”
Melissa Cristina Mendoza, a waitress for eight years at Otium, said she is owed at least $1,500 in tips alone because she worked six days a week, mostly without a break, during her last month of service.
On Wednesday, the 28-year-old brought her 2-year-old daughter to the protest. Mendoza was worried about paying rent and other expenses, like diapers.
He said he tried to contact several managers. She received an email. Her name is.
“I have not received a response,” he said.
Cortés, a manager, said other managers have told her they haven't been paid either. He is owed at least $1,500 for his last week of service.
When he was told about the closure, he stepped up and worked 15 hours a day almost every day because they were short-staffed as some called or looked for other jobs.
“To me they were family, so I wasn't going to leave them alone,” he said of the owners. “I was doing anything to try to help them.”
Cortés said she felt like Otium was a second family to her, in part because of what she said Hollingworth would say: “We're all family here. If you ever need anything, let me know.”
He said he approached Hollingsworth. So far, she said, he has not responded.
