8. The Allium

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The Allium is an elevated plant-based, worker cooperative restaurant focused on ethical, local, and creative food and libations in the heart of Calgary’s central Beltline community. Not only is The Allium serving up delicious drinks and dinners, but it is having a positive impact on the economy, changing the way we think about the structure of restaurants, and breaking down social stereotypes we’ve come to know.  

Through collective ownership, worker cooperatives help provide individuals with self-empowering work and offer an alternative to our society’s dominant paradigm about what it means to be a business owner and an employee in today’s economy. 

In this episode, we chatted with two dynamic individuals, Laura and Jared Blustein, co-owners and workers at The Allium. We talked about: 

  • What worker cooperatives are

  • How The Allium differs from a ‘traditional’ restaurant

  • What’s worked and has proved to be more challenging throughout their journey

  • What they are most hopeful about as they look ahead


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Recording and production by Elise Martinoski of ABSI Connect. Music by the Fort McMurray youth of the SoundForce Collective.