Vegan rebellion: Business and labor troubles jeopardize Austin bistro’s future

Amid an employee-led boycott over wages and a slowdown in business, Austin’s Rebel Cheese is considering whether to close its vegan cheese restaurant in the Mueller neighborhood.

Tensions between employees and the shop’s owners – who got a 2023 financial boost from Shark Tank – blew up recently as workers petitioned the owners for higher pay.

Employees told Austin Free Press that the owners then laid off workers in an effort to put down an employee uprising that included calls to unionize.

“$7.25 plus tips just doesn’t cut it,” said Jacqui Sabino, who said Rebel laid her off in retaliation to the workers’ demands.

Rebel restaurant owners tell a different story, saying finances prompted the layoffs as the eatery’s business fell off in recent months.

Rebel Cheese owners Kirsten Maitland and Fred Zwar did not respond to multiple Austin Free Press requests for comment. In a statement on the company’s website, they explained company cuts this way: 

“Like any small business, Rebel Cheese runs on ever-fluctuating margins throughout the year, and over the recent months, we’ve experienced a reduction of customers at our restaurant,” the statement said. “Combined with historically slower summer traffic, our restaurant is not able to sustain the same level of staffing or open-hours as prior.”

The owners’ statement said that the Mueller bistro’s future is in jeopardy.

“Though Rebel began as a restaurant, since COVID (and as a way of surviving it) our Rebel brand expanded to include e-commerce and wholesale,” the statement said. “We’ve kept the bistro and have enjoyed serving our customers because we felt it meant a lot to the Austin community but, to be fully transparent — given the economic challenges and present circumstances — we have to evaluate whether or not our bistro is sustainable.

Curdling relations

In all, five of 14 employees were laid off last month following a June petition by workers asking for a $2 per hour raise for all employees of Rebel’s Mueller neighborhood restaurant. All but one of Rebel bistro’s 14 workers signed the petition.

Although the workers are not formally unionized, the Restaurant Workers United union filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board over the layoffs.

Since the layoffs, workers have held two picket lines in front of the store. Council Member Zohaib “Zo” Qadri, who represents Mueller, joined workers and union representatives in meetings Rebel Cheese owners to ask them to reinstate the laid off workers. Union representatives said Rebel Cheese owners Maitland and Zwar did not approach the negotiations in good faith and they do not expect the workers to be reinstated.

Maitland and Zwar dispute such characterizations in their website statement, saying that “a wide stream of misinformation, falsehoods, and truly hurtful comments” about the restaurant have circulated since the layoffs.

Shark Tank bites

In addition to its Austin bistro, Rebel Cheese operates a New York City restaurant and a North Austin shop that takes online vegan cheese orders, shipping nationwide. That shop employs 50 workers. Inc. Magazine reported in February that Rebel Cheese is on track for its biggest year yet.

Maitland and Zwar opened the company in 2019. In 2022, Rebel Cheese earned $2.5 million and was projected to earn $3.5 million by the end of 2023, CNBC.com reported. The couple got a further boost when they appeared on the TV show Shark Tank in 2023, landing a $750,000 investment from Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner for their vegan cheese company. After sampling the vegan cheese on the TV show, Cuban, a vegetarian, called it, “really good.”

Like many service workers, Austin’s Rebel Cheese employees rely on tips for substantial portions of their income. Rebel Cheese pays its “Cheese Ambassadors” $7.25 per hour and shift leaders $8.25 per hour.

Restaurants often include tips when estimating worker pay in employment ads. A 2024 job ad that Rebel Cheese ran on Indeed advertised an hourly wage between $17 and $23. Sabino said that the pay that she and other workers received was not “a livable wage,” leading to the June petition for a restaurant-wide raise.

A Rebel Cheese statement said that bistro employees averaged $21 per hour since the beginning of the year. Documents acquired by Austin Free Press show that a shift lead averaged just more than $20 per hour between January 1 and the June 22 layoff date.

The clash between the Rebel Cheese bistro’s workers and management comes at a time when polls show 70 percent of the public supports unions – the highest level since the 1960s.

Although filings for union election petitions rose by 27 percent from 2023 to 2024, actual U.S. union representation remains stagnant at around 11 percent. By contrast, union representation in Texas falls below 6 percent. Texas is one of 26 right-to-work states, where neither businesses nor unions can require employees to be union members.

Nonetheless, Austin service and retail industries have seen a surge in union activity and worker strikes at places that include REI, Via 313 Pizza, Alamo Drafthouse, Juiceland and Starbucks. Construction unions also are pushing for more representation in Central Texas.

“Cheese Ambassadors”

Workers say Maitland and Zwar also retaliated against their petition by increasing enforcement of workplace rules. Sabino said that management wrote her up for being behind the counter in street clothes on her day off, which she said employees had done in the past without reprimands. Ratcheting up disciplinary enforcements in response to worker organizing efforts is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act.

Sonora King is one of several workers who has quit Rebel Cheese since the June layoffs. She said the bistro has been severely understaffed since the layoffs, creating a stressful work environment.

“Overnight, the atmosphere changed,” King said, “and it’s been a much less enjoyable place to work.”

She said that the bistro’s busy weekend brunch shifts typically were staffed by four or five front-of-house employees. Due to layoffs and resignations, King said that she was one of just two front-of-house staff during the last weekend brunch shift she worked before quitting.

Ironically, Rebel Cheese understaffing resulted in fewer employees sharing the pool of tips. King’s post-layoff paycheck was the largest she received during her short Rebel Cheese tenure. With tips, she grossed more than $27 an hour in that period.

Austin-based Restaurant Workers United President Elyanna Calle said restaurant worker mistreatment is far too common in Austin.

“As service industry employees, we’re used to being mistreated, being underpaid, being overworked,” Calle said. “That’s just the norm.”

The website statement by Maitland and Zwar states that they have sought to encourage good working conditions, noting Rebel Cheese’s membership in Good Work Austin, a local restaurant owners association that promotes high industry standards.

“We care deeply about each and every member of our team and have always strived to be a good employer and make Rebel Cheese a meaningful place to work,” the statement said. 

But Calle said that many business owners prioritize profits at the expense of the employees who keep their businesses running.

“They need to be focused more on the workers,” Calle said. “Because without the workers, they have nothing.”

Patrick Davis is a Texas Intercollegiate Press Association award winning journalist and longtime Austinite. His work can also be found on NPR and Religion News Service.