Age: 34
Camilla Marcus is seeking to set a new standard for responsible foodservice.
Her California-inspired cafe, West-Bourne, debuted last year in New York, and is carving out a niche in terms of its social mission. “We’re starting to see conscious capitalism rise in retail and consumer goods, but no one is doing it quite as integrated and quite as thoughtfully when it comes to dining out or hospitality broadly,” says Marcus.
West-Bourne’s all-day menu features vegetable-forward dishes such as the Mushreuben, which includes roasted maitake mushrooms, sauerkraut, Peppadew peppers, Swiss cheese, and a special sauce on toasted caraway rye bread.
“We like to say we are accidentally vegetarian, decidedly wholesome,” says Marcus, who has a culinary and business background, and was formerly director of business development for Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group.
West-Bourne’s mission is reflected in its operations. It donates 1 percent of revenues to The Door, an organization focused on providing hospitality training for local youth, through which West-Bourne also hires workers. It also has a unique labor structure, in which everyone is cross-trained on every position, and all receive the same rate of pay.
The restaurant is also hoping to be the first certified zero-waste restaurant in Manhattan. “My generation looks at philanthropy and community building quite differently than the generations before us,” Marcus says. “It’s about a need to live our values every day in every decision that we make, and when you think about it, you make more decisions in your life about food than pretty much anything else.”
Mark Hamstra is a regular contributor to Specialty Food Magazine.
Photo Credit: West-Bourne
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