Explore opportunities for creating, or transitioning to, a cooperative and community ownership business model
As Watershed Pub and Kitchen continues its journey towards becoming a worker-owned cooperative, it wants to help other interested businesses understand and explore the possibilities. If you are truly interested in such a model for your own business, you are invited to attend a cooperative and community ownership learning series presented by King County Communities of Opportunity on Monday, March 23rd. The event takes place at Watershed Pub and Kitchen in Seattle’s Northgate neighborhood. Ben Curran (Watershed Pub) says he hopes to see some of his fellow industry folks at this one.
The craft beer industry is evolving on all fronts: brewing, retail, and hospitality. Many folks who own bars, restaurants, breweries, or bottleshops are considering what lies ahead. For some, that involves ownership restructuring. Join other curious biz owners and learn about the opportunities. Here is the event info from the Eventbrite website, which is where you can sign up.
- Monday, Mar 23 from 5:50 pm to 7:30 pm
- Cooperative & community ownership models: 2026 COO learning series
- Session: Worker-owned restaurant transitions & financing, March 23rd, starting at 5:50 pm
Join the Communities of Opportunity (COO) Learning Community & the Seattle Co-Operators Meetup group on March 23rd to learn about three worker-owned restaurant journeys (Watershed Pub & Kitchen, Pidgin Restaurant, Jude’s/Rosettes) – including financing structures for each business’s transition and growth! Attendees will also hear about the “preferred shareholder” investment process from a guest speaker and investor into one of the worker-owned restaurants – his motivations to invest in the local cooperative economy and independent governance of worker-ownership. We will also hear about the legal process and the design of bylaws and operating principles for employee ownership and investment. Following these short presentations, and a round robin moderated among all panel speakers, there will be time for audience Q&A and participant discussion on creating more worker-ownership opportunities and strengthening the cooperative eco-system in Seattle and King County.
Please register so we have an accurate count for food and space constraints! If you have questions or interest in future topics/speakers for this series – please let us know in the registration form!
SPEAKERS
Ben Curran, Co-Owner/Operator of Watershed Pub & Kitchen
Ben Curran (he/him): My wife Kelsey, parents Liz and Craig, and I opened Watershed Pub & Kitchen in 2014. As a lifelong member of the service industry, empowering workers and honoring community have been our core values since the beginning. We originally became interested in the cooperative model as a form of employee ownership that would institutionalize these values, and while Kelsey and I intend to keep working at the Watershed, we see it as a way to make the business more sustainable in the long term, whoever is leading the way. We have high hopes of establishing a legacy of service and community in our pub and believe that by converting to a worker owned cooperative we’ll be setting everyone involved up for success.
Cheryl Markham, Peoples Community Law
Cheryl L. Markham J.D., MMCCU is the founding attorney of Peoples Community Law (PCL), a cooperative law practice in the Seattle Metro area, serving all of Washington State. PCL serves the legal and advocacy needs of cooperatives, social enterprises, and community members desiring to form cooperative structures, participate in building cooperative networks, and steward a cooperative economy that respects a healthy interconnection between people and the natural environment.
Cheryl began her journey as a cooperative enthusiast when her son was born, and she met a wonderful group of fellow parents in her community with whom she joined to open a community-based childcare co-op. The experience of this venture was incredibly fulfilling and life changing. Prior to opening Peoples Community Law in 2022, Cheryl was a legal aid attorney providing vital legal services to communities and served as a Senior Policy Advisor for King County regional government where she collaborated with an interdepartmental staff team and community-based partners to create innovative new policies and programs for equitable community development.
Mark Paschal
Mark Paschal has been working in bars and restaurants since 2005, when he started at a graduate student bar. After taking some time off to pursue a Ph. D, he discovered that people are often more interested in talking about what matters to them while holding a drink than while attending classroom lectures. He has dedicated himself to tending bars (in the same sense as tending a garden) ever since and can’t imagine fulfillment in any other occupation. Twined to the idea that tending a bar has community value is the belief that workplaces should be sites of democratic activity. Mark helped Jude’s transition to a worker-owned operation in 2021 and we’ve been learning what that means ever since!
Nathan Britton
Nathan Britton has more than 20 years of professional experience in the culinary, nonprofit and communications fields. He got his start doing nonprofit grassroots advocacy. On Capitol Hill he worked as a speechwriter and press secretary, and then used his experience to train nonprofits in effective political communication. Changing fields, he went to culinary school. After graduating at the top of his class from the Culinary Institute of America and working in some of the best restaurants in Seattle and the SF Bay Area, he is now focused on how to build more restaurants that are owned by their employees and how to mobilize capital to make that happen. A devoted fan of English football, Nathan lives in Seattle with his wife, their daughter Tabitha and their cats, Frank and Miles.
Zachary Pacleb, Pidgin Cooperative
Zachary Pacleb is one of the head Chefs, the Culinary Operations Manager and a founding member of Pidgin Cooperative(formerly Brothers and Co.). He is also a multimedia visual artist and amatuer writer whose work is commonly themed or documents his time in the food industry. He was born and raised in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains near Bothell, WA and spent many a summer with family on O’ahu during his childhood. He currently resides on Occupied Duwamish Land, also known as the West Woodland neighborhood of Seattle, WA.
