For brothers Seth and Zach Pacleb, all you need to know about their new eatery is in the name: Pidgin Cooperative. The employee-owned, pan-Asian restaurant and bottle shop that opened last fall in Fishermen’s Terminal represents a level playing field where people come together to fulfill a collective culinary vision. Fittingly, it’s inspired by the simplified speech that’s used to bridge the gap between two different languages and pays a beautiful homage to their childhood growing up in the cultural melting pot of Hawai’i.

The project—a departure from the hierarchical kitchen status quo—was many years in the making, built with the support of close friends and longtime employees from their past businesses, Brothers & Co. catering company, and Ramen and Tacos (a local farmers market favorite until the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to close). Before that, Zach cut his teeth at Canlis and the London Plane, while Seth was involved with Heavy Restaurant Group and Quinn’s Pub on Capitol Hill.

With the help of a lawyer who shared their passion for food and community, the brothers took the time to educate themselves on how co-ops succeed here and elsewhere in the world, despite being located in overarching capitalist systems rooted in extraction and exploitation. “There needs to be better, more sustainable models for people to live and work within because the food industry is not going anywhere,” Seth says.

“We’re providing sustenance,” Zach adds, “and for so long that nourishment of others has been at the expense of the people behind the line or on the floor. It just became clearer and clearer as we went through this process for so many years; it can’t just be this way.”

In terms of day-to-day operations, Pidgin Cooperative still has managers, but the operation is much more balanced and equitable, with the goal of creating a team greater than the sum of its parts.

Zach and Seth admit that the system is a work in progress, and will be for the foreseeable future, but it’s a learning opportunity for everyone involved, even the consumer—paying slightly more for your chili-crisp noodle or fish and chips is much
easier to swallow when you can count on your support making a direct impact.

So, what comes next for the brothers? Nothing is certain, but ideally, more positive disruption to the local food ecosystem.

“We had a lot of conversations with some of the growers at the markets about their needs for amenities and shared resources that they maybe don’t have the capital for,” Zach explains. “What could we do to help improve, not only consumption, but also production, to bolster and benefit both sides?”