We are Brassica Kitchen and Café -- a popular, award-winning, neighborhood restaurant at 3710 Washington St. in the heart of Forest Hills. Over the past 9 years, we have driven our success through a powerful combination of innovation and inclusivity. We’re a family-owned restaurant that believes in the creative guest “experience” combined with a “people-first” perspective.
Who we are?
Jeremy (Jay) Kean is the executive chef of the Brassica team. As a history buff, his cuisine is inspired by researching and combining thought processes and culinary migrations from around the globe. His professional success revolves around his tasty and thoughtful cuisine which he enjoys educating as much as creating. He's been nominated for a James Beard award and was the winner of Guy's Grocery Games, along with many local awards - but he hates when we tell people. ;)
Philip Kruta, co-chef and project manager of our expansion, began his career as a pastry chef and moved into savory cooking, partnering with Jay in the early days of Whisk. Using his background as an artist, designer, and builder, he helped create Brassica’s warm, welcoming, homegrown atmosphere with his own hands, building many of its staple fixtures. His ambition is to curate a brand new space where chefs can learn and be inspired.
Rebecca Kean, COO/CFO and "Everything Admin", began her career over 25 years ago in the front-of-the-house, and has used her many customer oriented skills to help create the unique, fun, and honest service style at Brassica. Self taught, her passion is running the business by day and working the floor at night, while nurturing her FOH team (and likely driving them a little nutty).
All of our dreams have been to change the industry for the better by supporting fair, livable wages for the whole team; a place to learn and discover who we are; to nurture a family away from home for staff and guests alike; and to have a BLAST doing it!
BUT, having enjoyed so much success and support from our community, we are extremely limited by our physical space at 3710. Our 32-seat restaurant is often at capacity and our kitchen is too small to accommodate our growing staff and their ambitions: they want to develop new menus and systems to apply their skills and advance their careers & we want to continue to support them. Our limited space precludes that... so we are EXPANDING!
Our goal is more space for our guests, more jobs for our local community, and of course, to continue to educate and entertain. We have spent the last decade in Forest Hills focused on our creativity and we are stoked to use this creativity to design and launch - from scratch - a welcoming, spacious, 90 seat family restaurant with all the lovable classics and continued innovation you have come to love and trust. (Just in a larger and newer space.)
The 20% Admin Fee & 3% Benefits Fee
We are very proud of our 20% administrative fee and 3% benefits fee here at Brassica. In lieu of traditional gratuity we will now be including these fees to all orders, both in house and takeout.
Through all of COVID’s hardships we’ve learned, most importantly, where we needed to grow and improve to protect our family here at Brassica. Aside from already creating our own environment of openness and acceptance, these fees are the next step in addressing the wage disparity & inequality of the restaurant industry as a whole.
Due to the antiquated Massachusetts state laws surrounding tipping and restaurant labor, great wage disparities between the Back of House (BOH) & Front of House (FOH) are all too commonplace. (Many restaurants may have differences of over $20 an hour amongst non-salaried employees.) We strongly believe that it is our responsibility to ensure that both the BOH & FOH are given the same care, attention, and livable wages - from our servers, to our line & prep cooks, to our dishwashers. We are all Brassica, whether you see our faces table-side or not, & we believe every role here is essential to operation.
It has always been our mission to create a space that supports and uplifts our community with equality, starting within our own walls: a space where racism, sexism, homophobia, and wage inequality have no home, and we believe this model will only help to further address these issues.
How do we use the fees?
We divide the 20% amongst each and every member of our staff, both BOH and FOH, based on hours worked, much like a traditional tip pool, except now we can include the BOH staff as well. By doing so, we can ensure that the wage gap is diminished, effectively balancing the distribution of gross pay, and making sure that each role is truly valued. Of course, any and all additional tips are always appreciated, but are not required, and will be treated as a standard service gratuity.
The 3% benefits fee will be used for additional benefits for our entire team, including helping cover dental insurance, establishing retirement funds, and more. This quality of life is something we believe every member of the restaurant industry deserves, and is far too often an overlooked privilege that almost every other industry benefits from.
Why don’t we just raise our prices?
Small family run restaurants like ours run on razor thin margins, with labor as the largest expense, and typically do not allow for standard work place benefits such as insurance, retirement, and fair wages for all. While we could simply raise our prices on our menu items across the board and use the income the same exact way, our values demand transparency in all that we do. These fees are our way to demonstrate directly where our core beliefs lie, and precisely where your support goes. Without the implementation of this model, we would still be bound by MA law, and would not be able to include our back of house staff in any gratuities or tip sharing. So essentially, we are “raising our prices,” but doing so in a way that is honest, transparent, and truly beneficial to everyone. And…it’s cheaper for everyone this way :)
More Questions?
Give us a call - we are super happy to chat about why we believe this model is necessary and what changes it can affect upon the restaurant industry!
Want to put administrative fees in your restaurant? Give us a holler! We’ll happily share our spread sheets and do anything we can to help!