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Former Windows on World workers open own NY eatery

Posted on: Thursday, 5 January 2006, 21:00 CST

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former workers from the opulent Windows of the World eatery, which once graced the 107th floor of the World Trade Center, saw a dream become reality on Thursday with the opening of their own restaurant in Manhattan.

More than four years after the September 11 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and killed 73 of their co-workers, chefs, waiters, bartenders, busboys and dishwashers who worked at Windows have come together to run an upscale restaurant named Colors.

"This restaurant is about diversity, bringing together different cultures," assistant chef Francesco Palmieri said as he stirred a Caribbean style conch stew.

The restaurant, a few doors down from Greenwich Village's Public Theater, is about a 20-minute stroll from where Windows on the World was located.

Colors' decor is modern with a colorful map mural running along one wall.

There are no tributes to the scenic Windows restaurant that once seemed to float atop the trade center's north tower, but the old haunt was still on the minds of many.

"Sometimes I think about it," said line cook Kissima Saho of Gambia, West Africa, as he chopped lobsters and pulled out the sweet meat. "I miss my crew members who lost their lives. I miss them. I miss the money I used to make."

Sous chef Jeane Pierre said, "There are a lot of Windows people here. ... We were tight. From 9/11 we have a bond."

Pierre, a native of Haiti, said the 50-member cooperative of former Windows on the World employees was "trying to help New York build another restaurant, a new kind of restaurant."

Immigrants from about 25 countries are represented in Colors' 50-member cooperative, which will split up any profits.

"Here, this is a democracy," said bartender Patricio Valencia of Ecuador, who worked three years at Windows on the World. "We make decisions together.

"We are trying to change the system, which is unfair. Some places only pay you $10 for a shift and a share of tips. We are getting regular wages and eventually we hope to get benefits and sick days and holidays and overtime."

Helping to finance the project is New York-based advocacy group The Restaurant Opportunities Center, which raised $500,000 and helped the restaurant secure a $500,000 investment by Italy's Good Italian Food consortium. Another $1.2 million was lent by the Nonprofit Finance Fund.

Restaurant employees were asked to make culinary contributions. Recipes from the workers' homelands can be found on the eclectic, international menu that includes Philippine Lobster Lumpia (lobster and minted sweet potato filled spring rolls for $15) and a Congolese Seafood Bowl (tuna, clams, mussels and lobster in a coconut-cream smoked fish broth with edamame and chayote for $33).

Pierre said Windows on the World had a big influence on Colors.

"I learned discipline and a strong work ethic," he said. "Over there they made you a better chef, a better person, a better cook. I took a lot out of there."

Source: REUTERS

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