The Shocking Reason Eleven Madison Park Allegedly Won’t Increase Staff Pay

It hasn’t been a good year for Eleven Madison Park, the high-end — and extremely pricey — Daniel Humm restaurant in New York City. In the fall of 2021, after closing during the pandemic and nearly going bankrupt, the restaurant reopened as a vegan establishment, serving a $335 tasting menu free of all animal products except milk and honey (via Eater). Shortly thereafter, the scathing reviews started rolling in, according to Insider, with the New York Times’ Pete Wells writing in a September assessment that the menu’s veggies were “so obviously standing in for meat or fish that you almost feel sorry for them” and revealing that the restaurant’s private dining room, in opposition to Humm’s supposed pro-sustainability views, still served meat.

Then, earlier this month, Insider published a scathing tell-all in which former EMP employees, some of them anonymous, reported weathering chaotic conditions at the restaurant, ranging from inhumane working hours to a huge amount of wasted food to low pay. Workers’ unfair compensation is the subject of a new Insider exclusive article that ran recently, reporting that the restaurant was aware that it was underpaying kitchen and dining room staff, but decided not to raise wages as planned.