New Fishtown eatery hopes to make history with fair pay, no tips

CHEF Brian Oliveira and restaurant-business partner Christian Mora hope to make history by giving their employees a living wage, health care, sick leave and vacations at their soon-to-open Girard Brasserie & Bruncherie in Fishtown.

Living wage/no tips would have meant no hassles for Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean "Shady" McCoy, who was virally tackled on social media recently after leaving a 20-cent tip on a $60 tab at a Northern Liberties burger joint.

And living wage/no tips would have meant no staffer lawsuits against Chickie's & Pete's that cost the restaurant chain a reported $8.5 million in settlements.

Oliveira and Mora told the Daily News that they hope their living-wage/no-tips policy will offer their waitstaff stability instead of the roller-coaster, Jekyll/Hyde lives of $2-an-hour servers, dependent on tips to survive.

"We're in this restaurant business, where servers are required to give so much," said Mora, who, like Oliveira, knows what he's talking about from years of hands-on experience at Philly eateries.

"We want to take care of the people who are going to take care of our restaurant guests," he said.

Oliveira said: "We've been dependent on those tips and know what it's like to live off those tips.

"When you're in Rittenhouse Square or other higher-end neighborhoods, you can make some great money.

"But for the majority of servers, life is not as luxurious. If you get stiffed by the first table of the night, it sets the tone for the rest of the night."

Oliveira said he hopes to pay $12 an hour plus full benefits and profit sharing. At the eatery's "job fair" on Friday, he said, "we were flooded with applicants."

Oliveira and Mora met while working as servers at Parc, on Rittenhouse Square, where Oliveira sold his homemade soups, including his mother's-recipe taco soup, which he's been making since spending his childhood years cooking in his family's luncheonette in Point Pleasant Borough, Ocean County, N.J.

Parc staffers, including general manager Carol Anne Serena, became big Oliveira fans.

"I would hear the entire staff at Parc talk about Brian's soups," Mora said. "When I kept hearing, 'Oh, Brian's soups! Brian's soups!' - I paid attention."

Mora and Oliveira got to talking, and found they shared the same restaurant dream.

They plan to open Girard Brasserie & Bruncherie, on Girard Avenue near Marlborough Street, sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Yes, there will be "Brian's soups!" along with his fruit-and-veggie "Liquid Breakfast," olive-oil-poached tuna topped with a 6-minute egg, homemade pastas, and a different roast - from pork to fish to cauliflower - every night.

Everything's fresh, organic, local, healthy: Hey, it's Fishtown.

There's no liquor license, so: mocktails. And, from the Nuova Simonelli Aurelia II, a $10,000 espresso machine, Chef Oliveira will pour one gourmet coffee only - no macchiatos, lattes, cappuccinos, frappuccinos.

"We want to consistently do one amazing coffee, instead of trying to perfect 10 coffees," Oliveira said. "In our opinion, this is the perfect combination of milk and espresso." Brian's coffee!