A vibrant purple building near the beginning of Manayunk’s Main street, The Volstead by Unity is the newest addition to the lively town, having opened earlier this month. But The Volstead is unique, and not just for its 100% vegan menu and alcohol-free bar.
The Volstead has four goals, according to their website: sustainability, wellness, community and social investment. The vegan dishes are a pledge to “long-term ecosystem sustainability.” The zero proof libations pertain to their focus of wellness, leaving customers “feeling great in the morning.”
The commitments to community and social investment are reflected in who the restaurant hires. Branding the restaurant as a “recovery-friendly” business, owners Robert and Arielle Ashford, who are in recovery themselves, aim to hire those also in recovery or those returning from incarceration, and to provide a conducive work-place.
“Philadelphia reentry programs, prison society, our community center, our community partners that have worked with us at all the different concepts, they certainly refer people over,” Robert Ashford said. “And then, also the people that we’ve hired at other restaurants, they have their own recovery networks and know people in reentry. [They] will send people by word of mouth and others just happen to find us on social media. We try to keep it as low barrier as possible.”
The Volstead, named after the 1919 act prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol, is the most recent social enterprise of the Ashfords. Their business concepts include Unity Recovery, Unity Yoga, Unity Taqueria and Unity Java, all of which are recovery-friendly.
TJ von Oehsen is a coordinator for the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition, an organization that brings reentry agencies and partners together to offer better support to returning citizens. Von Oehsen said second chance employment, offered by businesses like The Volstead, is a powerful way for businesses to invest in and contribute to the communities they operate in.
“I really believe that everyone in the world deserves a second chance,” von Oehsen wrote in response to written questions from The Hawk. “Actually, we all deserve a third, fourth, fifth, however many it takes. When a person comes home from jail / prison, we need to understand that they are a person who has made a mistake, served their time (sometimes way more than is necessary), and should be viewed as much more than their mistakes.”
The Volstead not only seeks to offer community members employment, but also a support system, Robert Ashford said. This includes paying a living wage, providing an opportunity to create a professional development plan, and offering free recovery support services.
“The goal is no matter what somebody needs, as long as they can identify and articulate it, we’re going to help them find it,” Robert Ashford said.
The atmosphere for employees is unique to other restaurants, Robert Ashford said, because they strive for the place to be a “sanctuary for being supportive.” This means minimizing the drama and stress that typically come from working in a restaurant.
“We’re purposely trying to go away from some of those old norms and basic cliches of working in the kitchen, [so] there’s no yelling, there’s no fighting, there’s no fussing,” said Frederick Morris, a chef at The Volstead. “Anything can be settled with a conversation or a talk with me or talk with Rob, so we try to definitely avoid those aspects of working in the kitchen.”
Morris said that in his 20 years of experience, this is his first time working at a recovery-friendly restaurant.
“You have to be a little more understanding that there are some outside issues that they have to deal with, that they are dealing with, being in recovery,” Morris said. “So [it’s] just a little more vigilant, a little more careful around that aspect.”
Stephen Forzato, director of the Center for Addiction and Recovery Education (CARE) at St. Joe’s, applauded the Ashfords for their people-oriented business model.
“Most of our awake time in life is spent with people at work, right? Even more than our own families,” Forzato said. “So what better place is there to be among a community of people that are supporting you than where you’re employed?”
The Volstead is open Tuesday to Thursday, 4-9 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Saturday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Reservations are recommended.
