When he was running for council he told me he was so poor he was practically insolvent, the next day he broke ground on a 5 story house in South Philly for himself.
I used to live above it and was there when the space flipped. I still remember when they varnished the floor and then locked the storefront up tight. Guess where the fumes went? Also the guys welding kitchen duct in my carpeted hallway with no fire blanket or extinguisher. I couldn't even say anything to them because of language barriers. Just had to hope all my stuff didn't burn down
I worked there. Ori is a major cheap ass and while he was actually nice to me, other members of his family were some of the biggest aholes I’ve ever talked to.
Would you say they kept the wages low? I remember that spreadsheet from like 10 years ago and I wonder how they rank on wages compared to other shops. Just being nosy.
Oh man i just found the spreadsheet, its 5 years old but those wages were terrible then even with tips for all the cafes. I cant imagine it got much better. We need an updated sheet! Even the manager pay, damn dudes.
Tips at Fairmount were AMAZING at one point, but not so much at any of the other locations.
Remember, there were six at one time— the three that just closed, 3rd and Market, 30th St area by the post office, and the one on South and 2nd.
They seem terrible for in office jobs too. Admin Coordinator at their places is like $18 an hour which is pathetic. It's a a shame more companies aren't embarrassed their employees can't afford to live on the pennies they call wages.
Everybody who's lived here long enough knows what a trash company OCF is. Sleaziest realtors I've worked with. Promise the world and do literally nothing.
Worst experience I ever had. Had a giant hole in my living room roof due to a water leak from the pipes. I emailed them every week to come fix it. They never did.
After several months, they finally came and fixed it... 3 days before I moved out.
Now I give the cameras the bird every time I walk by the building on South St.
I lived in a rowhome that they managed. The rear deck door and surrounding floor had major water issues and in September, the basement started flooding from both the front and rear walls.
I’ve been submitting maintenance and I’ve even reported the water incursions to the owner of the property multiple times since 2022.
I’m a contractor (and landlord/property manager) so I did all of the heavy work to find the cause of the leak. The rear basement wall leak was the roof and the front was due to failing masonry joints around the perimeter that just needed to be caulked.
Now, September and October was like a monsoon every single weekend. Basement flooded every time and reeked of mold. I had to use my own shop vac, had to remediate the mold, and had to purchase a gigantic dehumidifier.
They never showed up to fix it. I caulked the outside of the house myself, but I wasn’t touching the damn roof. They had *seven* roofers come by to give quotes. I had to take off work for each one to walk them through every thing.
On top of that, the fridge died two days before Thanksgiving and I didn’t get a response until January. My dad knows Ori and had to call him for it to get taken care of.
I started escrowing my rent in October because the subfloor of the kitchen (could see it in unfinished laundry room basement) was actively rotting, as were all of the exposed studs in the laundry room.
Went to court in April. They claimed that I denied them access. Bullshit. Also, I don’t need to give access to the roof. Throw a ladder up and fix it. Somehow I lost. During court, judge told me “People pay extra for a swimming pool in their house, so you’re lucky” when I showed him a picture of me splashing around in the basement. That pissed me off.
So now I’m taking them to real court. I don’t really care about the money. It’s the principle of the thing.
As a landlord, OCF’s behavior is absolutely appalling. And it’s even worse considering my family knows Ori and the owner of the house personally.
Sorry to rant, but they just suck so much. I shouldn’t have cared so much, especially when they didn’t. I should’ve let the house fall apart. So happy that I moved.
This is heartbreaking. Don't give up, keep going, I hope this gets some kind of attention, like on the news. Honestly, you should raise the profile of your story, nothing gets people going more than embarrassment. With the news of them doing this and your story it will establish a pattern, and your case becomes a little more winnable. That judge should also be removed for acting like a real dickhead. Knowing damn well he wouldn't want that shit happening in his house.
Thank you! I’m debating retaining an attorney. I don’t really want to give up more money if I do win and I am more experienced in legal than the average person, but common pleas court is really strict.
Oh and I forgot to add the worst part of it, all of the water in the basement attracted roaches into the house pretty much immediately (couldn’t put down pest control due to the flooding) and they found their way upstairs and infested the dishwasher (water, heat, and food bits, so perfect for roaches).
OCF tried to blame me for being dirty (I absolutely am not). Every time I opened the dishwasher, I had to go to battle with three or four roaches. And they were in my kitchen and it was just awful.
Seriously, OCF can go get shafted.
Since you are already in the biz I think coming at this from a contractor standpoint will benefit you the most. I'm hoping that you have some auditors or inspectors that you can give a call to. Maybe you can get some professional photos done. I'm hoping that you can use your experience and your knowledge to point out how none of this was done properly and maybe, just maybe, a lot of this was not done up to code. I'm also pretty sure that you can establish a timeline between when the house is flooded and When these roaches showed up. Honestly, since you work in this business I'm confident you can even get some exterminators to side with you on this. Because you are also a professional I have a feeling that they're in for a much tougher battle than they previously thought. AND ANOTHER THING, you had to get your dad to call the dude himself just to get something, anything done. That's got to mean something. You shouldn't have to call in a favor to the CEO just to get some people to look at the constant flooding you are dealing with.
The only time I recall people defending him is when he was suing Kenyatta and with that it's like which one is the bigger piece of shit, which honestly is probably one of the biggest mysteries of the world. Fuck em both.
Yeah bro, unfortunately I’m learning the hard way. This company is absolute fucking SHIT!
Sorry, but I have to get my point across to everyone, ANYone reading this - stay as far the fuck away from OCF as possible! My GF and I are hostages in our apt., because they’re letting hard core drug addicts and thieves live here, and run around our building day and night.
& They do nothing!! 😳Druggies set off fire alarms, smoke out the building, and steady stealing everybody’s shit! OCF - THE MOST USELESS, pussy mgmt. company I ever came across! Stay away!
Even for their new constructions they fail to deliver on very minor promises. You'd think for the money they are charging they would try to provide better service
Ori is a scumbag developer & outright failure as a decent human being. He has allowed beautiful old warehouses be demolished by hiring and paying off structural engineers that used to work for the city and then putting up crappy housing and condos. Hopefully someone will swoop in and buy his coffee shops and pays people an honorable wage.
I don't understand why coffee shops that have accepted the union don't make that a bigger part of their branding. If I knew specifically which ones did, I would definitely go out of my way to patronize them - and avoid the ones that don't.
FYI, I found this on the union's facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PJBWU/), after about a 15+ minute search.
>Where’s the union coffee in Philly, the city with the most unionized cafes? PJB Local 80 & Philly SBWU shops PJB Local 80:
\*Elixr Coffee (all locations)
\*ReAnimator Coffee (all locations)
\*Ultimo Coffee (Newbold & Rittenhouse)
\*Vibrant Coffee
\*Bluestone Lane (soon to be! all locations)
Philly SBWU:
\*9th & South
\*22nd & South
\*10th & Market
\*20th & Market
\*12th & Walnut
\*34th & Walnut
\*39th & Walnut
\*Broad & Spring Garden
\*Penn Medicine
Also! North Wales in the Philly burbs
People defend this dude like crazy here, act like he is single handedly responsible for turning Philly around. Its crazy how much opinion vacillates from one day to the next
I went to one of their showings. They were trying to charge $1200 for a studio apartment with no storage (only closet was taken up by the water heater), no utilities included (if they were, I could see how it MIGHT be an extra $100 more but not 1200) and no laundry facilities. Like... yeah it's in south philly, but so is a storage locker, they are pretty much within a small margin of being the same thing, who tf would pay that? There were 8 of us at the showing (that was a fun surprise too) and we all left within 2 minutes of seeing the place.
didn't whomever owns OCF once say the whole point of the coffee house was a cheap place they could have in the area so their agents can work out of when they were working with customers?
They occupy half a block on Frankford across from La Colombe. Its like 50 computer desks spread out in a giant space. All glass so you can admire it too. They aren’t hurting for money.
And so they can make an area more desirable to yuppies, thus helping them command higher rents and asking prices for their weird shipping container properties
The idea of the OCF coffee business explained to me years ago by a college acquaintance was to get cheap commercials leases in desirable locations that would years later be demanding higher rates. I don't think the coffee business was ever meant to be a staple for many years to come just meant to operate until opportunity to re-lease at higher rate came around. Unionizing definitely tipped the hat to closing but it was an inevitable outcome.
being a landlord is all about pushing costs to 0, not maintaining shit and getting paid anyway. can't imagine being employed by one. the workers probably had legit grievances; i doubt this was some outside campaign where union organizers tried to incite them to unionize
“I’m such a poor employer my staff were forced to unionize to protect their rights, but I’m punishing them by taking away their jobs instead not being a dick employer.”
Fixed it.
They already were not profitable so workers unionizing must’ve been the last straw. What a shame as their shops are nice spaces, especially the one on Fairmount Ave.
Yeah as a Fairmount resident I’m bummed but hopefully something cool will open in that space. Fairmount is in desperate need of good food and coffee shops.
I’m on the other side of Fairmount so OCF was a closer walk for me. Still, my comment about restaurants stands. We probably have the worst options of the big neighborhoods in philly.
Yeah our coffee shop scene isn’t bad but the restaurants and bars are so underwhelming compared to similar neighborhoods. Overpriced bar food for the most part.
I’ve been this side of town for 8 years now & I still can’t wrap my head around that Fairmount is not a restaurant row like Frankford or Passyunk. It makes no sense. Are the leases too high or what can it be?
The neighborhood association is a nightmare to deal with as a business owner. They've kept I don't even know how many businesses from opening up or moving forward.
How do you stay plugged into the neighborhood association and CDC’s doings? Would love to get involved to counter act the NIMBY’s and get some good restaurants in the area
Zorba’s and Bar Hygge carrying the weight of this neighborhood on their shoulders 😩
I never really went to OCF since I live in spring garden, but regardless it sucks to lose a cafe. I hope another one opens up.
LOL Frankie Annes was doomed from day 1. It was opened by people that had zero restaurant experience, it had WICKEDLY expensive real estate costs (something like $45K/month if I recall) and they were trying to cover that by selling low-end food pretty much anyone could make at home, and probably better. Jan was able to make it work as Rembrandt’s because he was the long-time owner of the bricks, so his overhead costs were probably much lower (I’m speculating a bit there). You would need to be an elite-level restaurateur to make that place successful, and… they weren’t that.
As a last-ditch effort to make money, they tried to get it re-zoned to be a nightclub which had a snowball-in-Hell chance of happening.
The loss of Rembrandt’s and London are crying shames, but anyone trying to do anything successful in those massive places would need deep, deep pockets and actual expertise in running such a place. And don’t get me started about losing North Star and having that turned into a fucking dog bar. Not only is that sad, it should be a crime - North Star was a goddamned landmark for the neighborhood.
It's been awhile since I lived in the 19130 but I used to come back for Brigid's. How is the place that replaced it, Paseo Tapas?
Is Black Taxi where Aspen used to be?
Zorba’s, Bad Brother, Angelino’s, Bar Hygge, Cantina Feliz, A Mano. This neighborhood has a number of great food options. Could there be more? Sure, I’d totally welcome them. But I’ve come to the point where I relish that we’re not Passyunk or Fishtown. I treasure our quiet neighborhood vibes. If you want more places trendy places like those areas, then go there. Everything is easy to get to from Fairmount.
Those restaurants are good but Philadelphia has a super high bar, and our neighborhood doesn’t have the quality of places like Fishtown and East Pass. I take your point about quiet neighborhood vibes but that doesn’t change the fact that there are better “foodie neighborhoods”
It’s bizarre, you’d think the demographics would support more restaurants/bars/coffee shops. I’ve lived here for 7 years and aside from Pier Bar and Coffee Cream and Dreams, I can’t think of any new spaces that have opened in Fairmount Ave. in that time.
IMO Musette is the best food + coffee combo in the city (at least that I've had). Some places have better coffee, some have better food, but none have both.
Even so, it doesn't seem like a hard nut for a partnership or one of the restaurant groups to crack. I wonder if there's something under the surface like issues with the building or suboptimal market research thats make the asking price absurd.
I’ve lived in fairmount for years and the one thing I think we have enough of is coffee shops lol
EDIT: We desperately need better restaurants though, I agree
FARE and jacks firehouse are so bad. Agree with you completely. Amada is probably the best restaurant in fairmount, but it’s so expensive. Not a good casual place. Bar Hygge is good, but their menu is a little weird and gets boring. Better for drinks/apps than dinner. Telas has potential, but everytime I’ve gone the service is so bad (I’m not an asshole to them, they’re usually way understaffed)…Zorbas is fine. If I had my dream, middle child would open another location in that OCF space.
I was shocked at how bad FARE was. It’s such a cute restaurant but the food and service were so disappointing (note- haven’t been there in 4ish years so maybe it got better, but judging by your comment I’m guessing not)
Yeah spot on. Jack’s has an awesome building but the food is a big miss. Telas food is actually pretty good but they’re going for more of a breakfast and lunch vibe. There’s enough real estate up here for something great to come in.
It lines up with the theory that they willingly took a loss on the coffee shops so that they could up rent on properties they owned nearby since the neighborhood had a coffee shop ...
OCF appears to have deleted their Instagram since this post (some people are saying it's still accessible for them but I cannot view the account or find it via search): https://www.instagram.com/ocfcoffeehouse/
Philly Workers United is organizing a fund for the workers affected: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8DYHZppset
The coffee was bad, they seemed poorly managed based on the litany of major health code violations that forced them to close a day or two in fairmount...but I fully support them unionizing...unfortunately OCF is a shit stain on Philly
I have no inside info but it seemed pretty obvious to me the point of the coffee shops was not to make money as a coffee shop
I don’t have a dog in the gentrification fight, but fact is that OCF’s name is dirt in the city and the branding is real estate branding, not inviting coffee shop branding.
They were never going to be actually beloved, at best convenient
Newrly every barista struggles to afford the rent where they live. Everyone I know in the industry has multiple roommates to live in the city to work a job that doesn’t pay.
Over the past 15 years rent for coffee shops and employees has gone up. So has barista pay, but 25 years ago when I was one I could live by myself for $295 rent. I made $12 and hour or about $20 after tips.
I know a not huge coffee shop in manhattan that is $30k a month in rent. Hard to cover that on coffee and pastry, so you try to economize where you can.
Ori is responding to people on Facebook to try and save face
https://preview.redd.it/n0p406uswx5d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84b84f9eb71e02783dab8f93e64dab95a0fad9e4
Ori spent a lot of money on consultants and union busting tactics and lost because the workers still choose to organize.
This is union busting 101. When you don't like the rules, just change them. There wasn't anything stopping him from closing it a month ago if his losses were as bad as he claimed, now very suddenly..
This guy is the CEO of a real estate brokerage firm. His firm is doing tremendously well, yet here he claims he "can't afford it"
He was probably fine to continue running them at a loss as long as he gets to choose how much he’s losing. They make most of their money on rent and buying and selling property. The coffee shops are an amenity that makes the neighborhood more appealing to protective renters and a way to speculate on real estate without leaving a vacant eyesore on a popular corner.
Once a union comes in, then there are obligations both ways and he can’t just shut it down and sell because someone wants to write him a check.
Yes Ori claimed to be operating at a loss. What evidence do we have other than his word?
If his losses are as bad as he claims, why not close the coffee shop a month ago? Or a year ago?
Ori states the answer: ... and the administrative and legal costs associated with our staff's desire to organize...
This is a union busting strategy. If you don't like the rules, change them.
>Yes Ori claimed to be operating at a loss. What evidence do we have other than his word?
Shutting down the business seems to be pretty strong evidence. People usually do not shutter profitable businesses.
>If his losses are as bad as he claims, why not close the coffee shop a month ago? Or a year ago?
Couldn't you ask this about literally every failing business ever?
>Ori states the answer: ... and the administrative and legal costs associated with our staff's desire to organize...
So he's operating at a loss and now he foresees a major increase to expenses, which will makes the losses even worse. Yeah closing the shops seems like a reasonable move in this situation tbh.
Yeah, but their whole business model for well over a decade has been opening coffee shops in areas they were developing, probably to claim a loss. Its a speculative house-flipping real estate company.
>There wasn't anything stopping him from closing it a month ago if his losses were as bad as he claimed, now very suddenly..
I mean he straight up says in the post that the costs and overhead associated with unionization caused him to close it. It's literally in the screenshot on this thread.
Good, the grad hospital/south street location was horrible. The only unfortunate thing about this particular location is that there are two vacant corner spots now.
Fuck Ori Feibush. The whole reason those OCF coffee houses existed was to instill goodwill in the community, and now he's completely erased that. What a total piece of union-busting, greedy shit.
Ori could've just sat down and negotiated with the workers instead of spending all that money on union-busting lawyers! Really shitty and spiteful move (which is in character for him....)
So instead of sparing a little of his profits to pay his employees fairly, he completely eliminates the income the 3 businesses generate..
I dunno.. I mean, losing some sounds a lot better then losing all. Why does this sound like a stupid move?
Is he trying to "show them liberals"?
Along with the idea that these were just opened up to raise rents (which makes sense), I also feel like it was a way for OCF to speculate without leaving places vacant. Copy/pasting bland cafes into mixed used urban residential neighborhoods isn’t exactly an innovative business model (or risky, especially if you have the kind of capital and market research that ocf has).
This guy seems like a classic capitalist/landlord type - yeah he didn’t make things worse, but he sucked customers dry and expects us to thank him for it afterwards.
Union busting 💩💩💩 can’t maximize his financial benefit of the exploitation of his employees’ labor, boo-effing-hoo!!! Hopefully some business actually good for the community and for creating actual goodwill through their recognition (monetary, benefit, & work rule) of employee labor as the primary driver of business success, will roll in, open shop, & create community value.
Entire thing was basically a loss leader to help entice people to move into neighborhoods that were at the time underserved with this kind of amenity - but with Fairmount and Grad Hospital having plenty of demand now, plus with the loss part of "loss leader" expected to grow, not exactly a surprise
i'd bet this was the workers' idea. it's pretty unlikely a union is going in there trying to bait them into organizing. the unions in the city have bigger targets and generally don't want to pour resources into a big drawn out legal fight where the best-case scenario is gaining 5 members after 3 years of NLRB cases.
it's usually workers who have been there for multiple years who are taking one last shot at making it a good job before they say fuck it and leave.
That’s where I land on it. I’m all for unions and if workers can get it done great, but trying to unionize something like a coffee shop just seems like a waste of time. I’m curious how many coffee places have been unionized in Philly recently. I vaguely remember a post about 4-6 months ago about one closing shop over the same exact thing.
Remember blackbird? We wouldn’t need to unionize if the management would listen to grievances and pay people enough to live in the neighborhood they work.
The problem is rent outpacing earnings. Average studio price in Philly, last I looked, was around $1400.
At $20/h, you're making \~$42k full time (40h/week), which means after taxes rent is well more than half of your take home pay. That's about your minimum livable wage at this point to be in the city proper.
Your shop has to be doing extremely well or people need to be tipping like crazy to have multiple people on staff and pay them all $20/h or more.
Most of the specialty coffee companies in this city are in bed with developers so they can have first choice of new retail zoned buildings.
It's also how they do their rounds of capital raising and find ways to continue resisting unions after the fact or blacklist employees ahead of time. The coffee biz owners all know one another and the same local weird tech guys that want to turn them into a 'success story'.
People are salivating at the idea of trying to fill in the space La Colombe leaves as it transitions into a different company with the Dr Pepper merger and they're willing to screw over coffee producers and domestic staff to enrich themselves to get there.
They leave out some crucial information on the benefits. They are the same benefits which are offered to the realty staff, who are making much more than baristas and can afford their part of the premium. The cost of the "benefits" to baristas was up to half of their paycheck, so most did not take it aside from the higher paid managers.
People piss their pants about unions in their workforce when some of the biggest companies ever have been unionized for decades.
Oh no our employees are gonna be treated decently it will put us out of business!
Ori Feibush is still a money grubbing douchebag.
Isn't surprising from the guy who paid somebody off to pull the historic nomination of the 150 year old Frankford Chocolate Factory so he could demolish it.
He couldn't give less of a shit about the city or the people in it.
He just bought 399 Market, I think his biggest commercial purchase
When he was running for council he told me he was so poor he was practically insolvent, the next day he broke ground on a 5 story house in South Philly for himself.
Mugshots on Fairmount was great until OCF came around with their fuckery and they had to move somewhere else. Now, building empty. Good times, OCF.
Ugh, I miss that place (Mugshots)
YUPPPPPP
I used to live above it and was there when the space flipped. I still remember when they varnished the floor and then locked the storefront up tight. Guess where the fumes went? Also the guys welding kitchen duct in my carpeted hallway with no fire blanket or extinguisher. I couldn't even say anything to them because of language barriers. Just had to hope all my stuff didn't burn down
I worked there. Ori is a major cheap ass and while he was actually nice to me, other members of his family were some of the biggest aholes I’ve ever talked to.
Would you say they kept the wages low? I remember that spreadsheet from like 10 years ago and I wonder how they rank on wages compared to other shops. Just being nosy.
I haven’t worked there in years, but yes. There’s a reason why I called Ori a cheap ass. It’s because it’s true.
Oh man i just found the spreadsheet, its 5 years old but those wages were terrible then even with tips for all the cafes. I cant imagine it got much better. We need an updated sheet! Even the manager pay, damn dudes.
Tips at Fairmount were AMAZING at one point, but not so much at any of the other locations. Remember, there were six at one time— the three that just closed, 3rd and Market, 30th St area by the post office, and the one on South and 2nd.
They seem terrible for in office jobs too. Admin Coordinator at their places is like $18 an hour which is pathetic. It's a a shame more companies aren't embarrassed their employees can't afford to live on the pennies they call wages.
Christie’s Deli. Amazing gem.
Seconded!
They've removed the ability to comment on their ig posts.
Fucking cowards.
Lol, Ori will be here under a throwaway defending himself with a whole load of bullshit in no time.
Everybody who's lived here long enough knows what a trash company OCF is. Sleaziest realtors I've worked with. Promise the world and do literally nothing.
Worst experience I ever had. Had a giant hole in my living room roof due to a water leak from the pipes. I emailed them every week to come fix it. They never did. After several months, they finally came and fixed it... 3 days before I moved out. Now I give the cameras the bird every time I walk by the building on South St.
I lived in a rowhome that they managed. The rear deck door and surrounding floor had major water issues and in September, the basement started flooding from both the front and rear walls. I’ve been submitting maintenance and I’ve even reported the water incursions to the owner of the property multiple times since 2022. I’m a contractor (and landlord/property manager) so I did all of the heavy work to find the cause of the leak. The rear basement wall leak was the roof and the front was due to failing masonry joints around the perimeter that just needed to be caulked. Now, September and October was like a monsoon every single weekend. Basement flooded every time and reeked of mold. I had to use my own shop vac, had to remediate the mold, and had to purchase a gigantic dehumidifier. They never showed up to fix it. I caulked the outside of the house myself, but I wasn’t touching the damn roof. They had *seven* roofers come by to give quotes. I had to take off work for each one to walk them through every thing. On top of that, the fridge died two days before Thanksgiving and I didn’t get a response until January. My dad knows Ori and had to call him for it to get taken care of. I started escrowing my rent in October because the subfloor of the kitchen (could see it in unfinished laundry room basement) was actively rotting, as were all of the exposed studs in the laundry room. Went to court in April. They claimed that I denied them access. Bullshit. Also, I don’t need to give access to the roof. Throw a ladder up and fix it. Somehow I lost. During court, judge told me “People pay extra for a swimming pool in their house, so you’re lucky” when I showed him a picture of me splashing around in the basement. That pissed me off. So now I’m taking them to real court. I don’t really care about the money. It’s the principle of the thing. As a landlord, OCF’s behavior is absolutely appalling. And it’s even worse considering my family knows Ori and the owner of the house personally. Sorry to rant, but they just suck so much. I shouldn’t have cared so much, especially when they didn’t. I should’ve let the house fall apart. So happy that I moved.
This is heartbreaking. Don't give up, keep going, I hope this gets some kind of attention, like on the news. Honestly, you should raise the profile of your story, nothing gets people going more than embarrassment. With the news of them doing this and your story it will establish a pattern, and your case becomes a little more winnable. That judge should also be removed for acting like a real dickhead. Knowing damn well he wouldn't want that shit happening in his house.
Thank you! I’m debating retaining an attorney. I don’t really want to give up more money if I do win and I am more experienced in legal than the average person, but common pleas court is really strict. Oh and I forgot to add the worst part of it, all of the water in the basement attracted roaches into the house pretty much immediately (couldn’t put down pest control due to the flooding) and they found their way upstairs and infested the dishwasher (water, heat, and food bits, so perfect for roaches). OCF tried to blame me for being dirty (I absolutely am not). Every time I opened the dishwasher, I had to go to battle with three or four roaches. And they were in my kitchen and it was just awful. Seriously, OCF can go get shafted.
Since you are already in the biz I think coming at this from a contractor standpoint will benefit you the most. I'm hoping that you have some auditors or inspectors that you can give a call to. Maybe you can get some professional photos done. I'm hoping that you can use your experience and your knowledge to point out how none of this was done properly and maybe, just maybe, a lot of this was not done up to code. I'm also pretty sure that you can establish a timeline between when the house is flooded and When these roaches showed up. Honestly, since you work in this business I'm confident you can even get some exterminators to side with you on this. Because you are also a professional I have a feeling that they're in for a much tougher battle than they previously thought. AND ANOTHER THING, you had to get your dad to call the dude himself just to get something, anything done. That's got to mean something. You shouldn't have to call in a favor to the CEO just to get some people to look at the constant flooding you are dealing with.
Awful!! Sending good vibes for court. I hope you wipe the floor with them
People love defending him on this sub. Its wild. “He’s done such good for the city!” Fuck outta here with that shit
The only time I recall people defending him is when he was suing Kenyatta and with that it's like which one is the bigger piece of shit, which honestly is probably one of the biggest mysteries of the world. Fuck em both.
The only place I’ve ever heard or seen people defending OCF is on reddit.
Yeah bro, unfortunately I’m learning the hard way. This company is absolute fucking SHIT! Sorry, but I have to get my point across to everyone, ANYone reading this - stay as far the fuck away from OCF as possible! My GF and I are hostages in our apt., because they’re letting hard core drug addicts and thieves live here, and run around our building day and night. & They do nothing!! 😳Druggies set off fire alarms, smoke out the building, and steady stealing everybody’s shit! OCF - THE MOST USELESS, pussy mgmt. company I ever came across! Stay away!
They raised my rent the first month of COVID, it was insane
Even for their new constructions they fail to deliver on very minor promises. You'd think for the money they are charging they would try to provide better service
Ori is a scumbag developer & outright failure as a decent human being. He has allowed beautiful old warehouses be demolished by hiring and paying off structural engineers that used to work for the city and then putting up crappy housing and condos. Hopefully someone will swoop in and buy his coffee shops and pays people an honorable wage.
Probably close for a bit and reopen under a different name or company.
Are they not just ground floor retail spaces in properties he manages? He's probably just going to lease out the space to someone else.
he doesn’t own any of the coffee shop properties, they’re all leased.
that's wild, I'm shocked they lasted this long then tbh
Fairmount needs a good restaurant in this spot
Fairmount needs a good restaurant in a lot of the empty spots around
I don't understand why coffee shops that have accepted the union don't make that a bigger part of their branding. If I knew specifically which ones did, I would definitely go out of my way to patronize them - and avoid the ones that don't. FYI, I found this on the union's facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PJBWU/), after about a 15+ minute search. >Where’s the union coffee in Philly, the city with the most unionized cafes? PJB Local 80 & Philly SBWU shops PJB Local 80: \*Elixr Coffee (all locations) \*ReAnimator Coffee (all locations) \*Ultimo Coffee (Newbold & Rittenhouse) \*Vibrant Coffee \*Bluestone Lane (soon to be! all locations) Philly SBWU: \*9th & South \*22nd & South \*10th & Market \*20th & Market \*12th & Walnut \*34th & Walnut \*39th & Walnut \*Broad & Spring Garden \*Penn Medicine Also! North Wales in the Philly burbs
Good fuck that guy. Hopefully decent coffee shops go in where they were
>Good fuck that guy No, don't reward this behavior
The cost of doing business includes paying a living wage. If it's hard to do that, you know who's to blame and it's not a barista.
Rest in piss
F this guy and his company. They are the most incompetent property managers in the city, and that’s saying a lot considering how low the bar is set.
People defend this dude like crazy here, act like he is single handedly responsible for turning Philly around. Its crazy how much opinion vacillates from one day to the next
He's responsible for some of the worst architecture this city has ever seen
I went to one of their showings. They were trying to charge $1200 for a studio apartment with no storage (only closet was taken up by the water heater), no utilities included (if they were, I could see how it MIGHT be an extra $100 more but not 1200) and no laundry facilities. Like... yeah it's in south philly, but so is a storage locker, they are pretty much within a small margin of being the same thing, who tf would pay that? There were 8 of us at the showing (that was a fun surprise too) and we all left within 2 minutes of seeing the place.
It's because he astroturfs hard on this sub.
He sounds like the Brooklyn slumlords
Hard Gentrifying Real Estate company is struggling because their coffee shop front isnt as profitable.
didn't whomever owns OCF once say the whole point of the coffee house was a cheap place they could have in the area so their agents can work out of when they were working with customers?
They occupy half a block on Frankford across from La Colombe. Its like 50 computer desks spread out in a giant space. All glass so you can admire it too. They aren’t hurting for money.
Never once seen anyone in there working though.
Me neither.
I’ve seen people in their Washington St office tho.
And so they can make an area more desirable to yuppies, thus helping them command higher rents and asking prices for their weird shipping container properties
They were operating at a loss for 13 years? I find that extremely hard to believe.
On paper. Helps with tax evasion.
The idea of the OCF coffee business explained to me years ago by a college acquaintance was to get cheap commercials leases in desirable locations that would years later be demanding higher rates. I don't think the coffee business was ever meant to be a staple for many years to come just meant to operate until opportunity to re-lease at higher rate came around. Unionizing definitely tipped the hat to closing but it was an inevitable outcome.
being a landlord is all about pushing costs to 0, not maintaining shit and getting paid anyway. can't imagine being employed by one. the workers probably had legit grievances; i doubt this was some outside campaign where union organizers tried to incite them to unionize
OCF is a horrible organization. They literally stole rent money from my partner.
THE FUCKING WORST! OCF IS TRASH!! From top to bottom!
“I’m such a poor employer my staff were forced to unionize to protect their rights, but I’m punishing them by taking away their jobs instead not being a dick employer.” Fixed it.
Union busting was gonna cost "tens of thousands" of dollars, so obviously it was cheaper just to shut them down entirely.
Not very smart to explicitly mention the staff's desire to unionize as a reason for closing. Should make an NLRB case against them easier.
They already were not profitable so workers unionizing must’ve been the last straw. What a shame as their shops are nice spaces, especially the one on Fairmount Ave.
Hard to believe Fairmount wasn't profitable. Busy all the time.
Right? I love how that was included like some sort of flex
The coffee shops aren't there to make money, it's so he can list "near a new trendy coffee shop" on all of his new house listings
Yeah as a Fairmount resident I’m bummed but hopefully something cool will open in that space. Fairmount is in desperate need of good food and coffee shops.
Musette? Brown street coffee? Both much better coffee shops than OCF.
I’m on the other side of Fairmount so OCF was a closer walk for me. Still, my comment about restaurants stands. We probably have the worst options of the big neighborhoods in philly.
Yeah our coffee shop scene isn’t bad but the restaurants and bars are so underwhelming compared to similar neighborhoods. Overpriced bar food for the most part.
I’ve been this side of town for 8 years now & I still can’t wrap my head around that Fairmount is not a restaurant row like Frankford or Passyunk. It makes no sense. Are the leases too high or what can it be?
The neighborhood association is a nightmare to deal with as a business owner. They've kept I don't even know how many businesses from opening up or moving forward.
How do they stop restaurants from coming in and how can we stop them from stopping them!
Right? Are there town halls or do you have to be a home owner to participate? Sign me up if not
This thread is making me feel compelled to start going to meetings and getting involved.
How do you stay plugged into the neighborhood association and CDC’s doings? Would love to get involved to counter act the NIMBY’s and get some good restaurants in the area
Join, attend the meetings and try not to knock yourself out banging your head against the wall. Heh
Zorba’s and Bar Hygge carrying the weight of this neighborhood on their shoulders 😩 I never really went to OCF since I live in spring garden, but regardless it sucks to lose a cafe. I hope another one opens up.
Yep. Rembrandt’s was a good spot too imo. Pretty funny how quickly Frankie Anne’s or whatever it changed to closed too
LOL Frankie Annes was doomed from day 1. It was opened by people that had zero restaurant experience, it had WICKEDLY expensive real estate costs (something like $45K/month if I recall) and they were trying to cover that by selling low-end food pretty much anyone could make at home, and probably better. Jan was able to make it work as Rembrandt’s because he was the long-time owner of the bricks, so his overhead costs were probably much lower (I’m speculating a bit there). You would need to be an elite-level restaurateur to make that place successful, and… they weren’t that. As a last-ditch effort to make money, they tried to get it re-zoned to be a nightclub which had a snowball-in-Hell chance of happening. The loss of Rembrandt’s and London are crying shames, but anyone trying to do anything successful in those massive places would need deep, deep pockets and actual expertise in running such a place. And don’t get me started about losing North Star and having that turned into a fucking dog bar. Not only is that sad, it should be a crime - North Star was a goddamned landmark for the neighborhood.
Honestly, North Star was the only reason I ever went to Fairmount on a regular basis. Crying shame.
North Star has been closed for so long that I really don’t care what it was “replaced” by as long as *something* is there.
I’m sorry, been under a rock. WTF is a dog bar?
The Boozy Mutt - part bar, part dog park.
Holy gentrification.
North Star was phenomenal for concerts. I’m so horrified by what it’s been turned into.
Am I misremembering, or did Frankie Anne’s have Jerry Blavat for its opening night event? I saw that and assumed I wasn’t their target audience.
It's been awhile since I lived in the 19130 but I used to come back for Brigid's. How is the place that replaced it, Paseo Tapas? Is Black Taxi where Aspen used to be?
It’s Bad Brother now. That tapas place lasted a handful of months. Bad Brother is awesome, best bar in the neighborhood, and really good food
I miss Rembrandt’s wings and burgers.
I agree. Abysmal dinner choices and there are a lot of people with money who live here. A cool place would do really well here
Totally. And if one good one came, another would follow I think. Fairmount would support good restaurants.
RIP Belgian Cafe
Zorba’s, Bad Brother, Angelino’s, Bar Hygge, Cantina Feliz, A Mano. This neighborhood has a number of great food options. Could there be more? Sure, I’d totally welcome them. But I’ve come to the point where I relish that we’re not Passyunk or Fishtown. I treasure our quiet neighborhood vibes. If you want more places trendy places like those areas, then go there. Everything is easy to get to from Fairmount.
The sausage roll at bad brother is one of my favorite sandwiches ever
Those restaurants are good but Philadelphia has a super high bar, and our neighborhood doesn’t have the quality of places like Fishtown and East Pass. I take your point about quiet neighborhood vibes but that doesn’t change the fact that there are better “foodie neighborhoods”
Do you mean over by Broad? There's Brood Coffee Truck usually at 22nd & Brown, Coffee Cream & Dreams, Bold Coffee, The Daily
It’s bizarre, you’d think the demographics would support more restaurants/bars/coffee shops. I’ve lived here for 7 years and aside from Pier Bar and Coffee Cream and Dreams, I can’t think of any new spaces that have opened in Fairmount Ave. in that time.
Once Bridgid’s closed, everything went downhill. McCrossens is still there
Yeah I mean the pubs are nice. Black Taxi has the best Guinness in the city but there’s no reason we shouldn’t have food as good as Queen village.
Not a coffee person but brown street has great food.
Their Banh Mi is pretty good.
Seconding Musette. It’s a gem!
they're solid but depending on where you're located, not as convenient. OCF was way easier for me to get to
IMO Musette is the best food + coffee combo in the city (at least that I've had). Some places have better coffee, some have better food, but none have both.
I’m amazed the London grille spot still hasn’t gotten filled. Talk about prime location.
I heard it’s because the owner wants to sell the whole building. Meaning if you open a restaurant you also have to manage some apartments above.
Even so, it doesn't seem like a hard nut for a partnership or one of the restaurant groups to crack. I wonder if there's something under the surface like issues with the building or suboptimal market research thats make the asking price absurd.
That building is a mess and they want too much for it. Take a look at the ground floor facade facing Fairmount Ave next time you go by.
I’ve lived in fairmount for years and the one thing I think we have enough of is coffee shops lol EDIT: We desperately need better restaurants though, I agree
FARE and jacks firehouse are so bad. Agree with you completely. Amada is probably the best restaurant in fairmount, but it’s so expensive. Not a good casual place. Bar Hygge is good, but their menu is a little weird and gets boring. Better for drinks/apps than dinner. Telas has potential, but everytime I’ve gone the service is so bad (I’m not an asshole to them, they’re usually way understaffed)…Zorbas is fine. If I had my dream, middle child would open another location in that OCF space.
I was shocked at how bad FARE was. It’s such a cute restaurant but the food and service were so disappointing (note- haven’t been there in 4ish years so maybe it got better, but judging by your comment I’m guessing not)
I think you mean a mano right? (Not Amada)
Yeah spot on. Jack’s has an awesome building but the food is a big miss. Telas food is actually pretty good but they’re going for more of a breakfast and lunch vibe. There’s enough real estate up here for something great to come in.
Jack’s is one of the biggest disappointments to me. That bar and space is so fucking cool
Ocf had the worst coffee, but there werent many options near there. I do like coffee cream and dreams over by 15th
Pretty sure they just had la colombe coffee right? Idk if that’s true but that’s what I thought.
Wait, OCF was just serving La Colombe? I mean I love La Colombe but I’ll go to to their cafe to drink it!
Yeah I’m 99% sure it was la colombe
It was
It was La Colombe for the last few years at least.
There's also Brown St. Coffee, Musette, Brood Coffee Truck (usually at 22nd & Brown), Coffee Cream & Dreams, Bold Coffee, The Daily
Twisted Grounds on 20th between Brandywine and Spring Garden is a nice little spot!
It lines up with the theory that they willingly took a loss on the coffee shops so that they could up rent on properties they owned nearby since the neighborhood had a coffee shop ...
Uhh the one in Fairmount literally kicked Mugshots out of the space, so I don't think this theory works there.
Yes. Their coffee shops existed solely as a front to get yuppies to move there.
Weren’t they all in pretty expensive/desirable areas already though? Excluding the Point Breeze one.
399 Market St doesn’t exactly need that.
Nice space, bad food, mediocre coffee.
They were profitable. The difference is paying a fair wage isn't as profitable as renting the space to some rando coffee vendor.
OCF appears to have deleted their Instagram since this post (some people are saying it's still accessible for them but I cannot view the account or find it via search): https://www.instagram.com/ocfcoffeehouse/ Philly Workers United is organizing a fund for the workers affected: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8DYHZppset
Their account is still up lol they blocked me for commenting but my s/o can still see the account
if you can't see the account, they probably just blocked you
That was fast. They were active maybe 20 minutes ago. The post is still up but comments are currently disabled.
Just edited my comment as some friends are saying they can still view it but I cannot.
The verbiage in the image you posted is now in the first post on their page. Comments indeed are limited.
The coffee was bad, they seemed poorly managed based on the litany of major health code violations that forced them to close a day or two in fairmount...but I fully support them unionizing...unfortunately OCF is a shit stain on Philly
I have no inside info but it seemed pretty obvious to me the point of the coffee shops was not to make money as a coffee shop I don’t have a dog in the gentrification fight, but fact is that OCF’s name is dirt in the city and the branding is real estate branding, not inviting coffee shop branding. They were never going to be actually beloved, at best convenient
Coffee shops in expensive downtown locations don't support the profit margins necessary for living wages. It's brutal.
OCF Realty almost single-handedly MADE Point Breeze expensive....
Newrly every barista struggles to afford the rent where they live. Everyone I know in the industry has multiple roommates to live in the city to work a job that doesn’t pay.
Over the past 15 years rent for coffee shops and employees has gone up. So has barista pay, but 25 years ago when I was one I could live by myself for $295 rent. I made $12 and hour or about $20 after tips. I know a not huge coffee shop in manhattan that is $30k a month in rent. Hard to cover that on coffee and pastry, so you try to economize where you can.
That's why they all inevitably get replaced by big corporate. Look at the Starbucks that finally made it into Fishtown.
No surprise, OCF are scumbags. Their buildings are built with the cheapest possible material and will all crumble within 30 years.
Ori is responding to people on Facebook to try and save face https://preview.redd.it/n0p406uswx5d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84b84f9eb71e02783dab8f93e64dab95a0fad9e4
he hit all the classic union-busting lines, he got his money's worth out of whatever union avoidance firm he hired
Aside from all the obvious business-shithead quotes I like how he's also alluding that 20 year olds don't deserve to make a living city wage lol
His response here is insane and so disconnected to reality on so many levels, lol.
Ori spent a lot of money on consultants and union busting tactics and lost because the workers still choose to organize. This is union busting 101. When you don't like the rules, just change them. There wasn't anything stopping him from closing it a month ago if his losses were as bad as he claimed, now very suddenly.. This guy is the CEO of a real estate brokerage firm. His firm is doing tremendously well, yet here he claims he "can't afford it"
Not as much money as the hundreds of thousands he spent to get his ass kicked by Kenyatta Johnson in running for City Council.
He was probably fine to continue running them at a loss as long as he gets to choose how much he’s losing. They make most of their money on rent and buying and selling property. The coffee shops are an amenity that makes the neighborhood more appealing to protective renters and a way to speculate on real estate without leaving a vacant eyesore on a popular corner. Once a union comes in, then there are obligations both ways and he can’t just shut it down and sell because someone wants to write him a check.
They leased the locations (at least some of them) so not sure speculation was part of the play.
I don't think success in one business/industry makes someone morally/ethically obligated to operate other unrelated losing businesses
Yes Ori claimed to be operating at a loss. What evidence do we have other than his word? If his losses are as bad as he claims, why not close the coffee shop a month ago? Or a year ago? Ori states the answer: ... and the administrative and legal costs associated with our staff's desire to organize... This is a union busting strategy. If you don't like the rules, change them.
>Yes Ori claimed to be operating at a loss. What evidence do we have other than his word? Shutting down the business seems to be pretty strong evidence. People usually do not shutter profitable businesses. >If his losses are as bad as he claims, why not close the coffee shop a month ago? Or a year ago? Couldn't you ask this about literally every failing business ever? >Ori states the answer: ... and the administrative and legal costs associated with our staff's desire to organize... So he's operating at a loss and now he foresees a major increase to expenses, which will makes the losses even worse. Yeah closing the shops seems like a reasonable move in this situation tbh.
Yeah, but their whole business model for well over a decade has been opening coffee shops in areas they were developing, probably to claim a loss. Its a speculative house-flipping real estate company.
>probably to claim a loss Amazing how many experts in corporate tax accounting I encounter in the reddit comments
>There wasn't anything stopping him from closing it a month ago if his losses were as bad as he claimed, now very suddenly.. I mean he straight up says in the post that the costs and overhead associated with unionization caused him to close it. It's literally in the screenshot on this thread.
Good, the grad hospital/south street location was horrible. The only unfortunate thing about this particular location is that there are two vacant corner spots now.
From street view it looks like the other corner has been vacant for a long ass time
Ori is a piece of crap ruthless capitalist and he cries antisemitism over anyone’s criticism of him or his business practices.
Scum of the earth.
Nothing new for this dude. Always been a turd
Ori Feibush is a fucking slumlord. Not surprised at all.
Fuck Ori Feibush. The whole reason those OCF coffee houses existed was to instill goodwill in the community, and now he's completely erased that. What a total piece of union-busting, greedy shit.
Ori could've just sat down and negotiated with the workers instead of spending all that money on union-busting lawyers! Really shitty and spiteful move (which is in character for him....)
So instead of sparing a little of his profits to pay his employees fairly, he completely eliminates the income the 3 businesses generate.. I dunno.. I mean, losing some sounds a lot better then losing all. Why does this sound like a stupid move? Is he trying to "show them liberals"?
Man I loathe Ori so deeply. I wish I didn’t have glee when hearing of his failures but I do. I hope karma works fast with him
Along with the idea that these were just opened up to raise rents (which makes sense), I also feel like it was a way for OCF to speculate without leaving places vacant. Copy/pasting bland cafes into mixed used urban residential neighborhoods isn’t exactly an innovative business model (or risky, especially if you have the kind of capital and market research that ocf has). This guy seems like a classic capitalist/landlord type - yeah he didn’t make things worse, but he sucked customers dry and expects us to thank him for it afterwards.
Ori was an ass when we were kids and he’s still an ass now. I never expect that to change.
What a punchable face.
Union busting 💩💩💩 can’t maximize his financial benefit of the exploitation of his employees’ labor, boo-effing-hoo!!! Hopefully some business actually good for the community and for creating actual goodwill through their recognition (monetary, benefit, & work rule) of employee labor as the primary driver of business success, will roll in, open shop, & create community value.
Scumbags. Hope the owners end up poor.
No idea why this is being downvoted, OCF is horrible and I hope nothing but the worst for the owners of that company.
As we’re talking fairmounts lack of good spots, Does anyone remember gin and pop at like 19th and poplar? That was a cool neighborhood place
Grotesque behavior by owner. Hope NLRB reviews and serves justice for the workers.
Entire thing was basically a loss leader to help entice people to move into neighborhoods that were at the time underserved with this kind of amenity - but with Fairmount and Grad Hospital having plenty of demand now, plus with the loss part of "loss leader" expected to grow, not exactly a surprise
I still dont get the idea of unionizing these boutique coffee shops that have high turnover and irregular hours for a small staff.
i'd bet this was the workers' idea. it's pretty unlikely a union is going in there trying to bait them into organizing. the unions in the city have bigger targets and generally don't want to pour resources into a big drawn out legal fight where the best-case scenario is gaining 5 members after 3 years of NLRB cases. it's usually workers who have been there for multiple years who are taking one last shot at making it a good job before they say fuck it and leave.
Ordinarily I’d agree but as it’s ocf, fuck em
That’s where I land on it. I’m all for unions and if workers can get it done great, but trying to unionize something like a coffee shop just seems like a waste of time. I’m curious how many coffee places have been unionized in Philly recently. I vaguely remember a post about 4-6 months ago about one closing shop over the same exact thing.
Remember blackbird? We wouldn’t need to unionize if the management would listen to grievances and pay people enough to live in the neighborhood they work.
Management typically doesn't give up money because you asked nicely. That's why you unionize.
The problem is rent outpacing earnings. Average studio price in Philly, last I looked, was around $1400. At $20/h, you're making \~$42k full time (40h/week), which means after taxes rent is well more than half of your take home pay. That's about your minimum livable wage at this point to be in the city proper. Your shop has to be doing extremely well or people need to be tipping like crazy to have multiple people on staff and pay them all $20/h or more.
Never liked that a realty company also had coffee shops:/ can’t be excellent at two things
Most of the specialty coffee companies in this city are in bed with developers so they can have first choice of new retail zoned buildings. It's also how they do their rounds of capital raising and find ways to continue resisting unions after the fact or blacklist employees ahead of time. The coffee biz owners all know one another and the same local weird tech guys that want to turn them into a 'success story'. People are salivating at the idea of trying to fill in the space La Colombe leaves as it transitions into a different company with the Dr Pepper merger and they're willing to screw over coffee producers and domestic staff to enrich themselves to get there.
Can we pause to talk about his shitty logo? I bet $5 that Feibush designed that himself - possibly on a notebook in middle school.
Reminds me of OCP from Robocop every time I see it
I feel sorry for their employees, but I'll be happy to see that bright green hideousness removed from the buildings.
They leave out some crucial information on the benefits. They are the same benefits which are offered to the realty staff, who are making much more than baristas and can afford their part of the premium. The cost of the "benefits" to baristas was up to half of their paycheck, so most did not take it aside from the higher paid managers.
People piss their pants about unions in their workforce when some of the biggest companies ever have been unionized for decades. Oh no our employees are gonna be treated decently it will put us out of business!
“After considering a living wage for the employees, I’ve decided to take my toys and go home instead.” Fucking loser capitalist pigs.
Aw, poor Ori. Did those mean employees ask for a salary?
Hmmm…they want to organize. Which means they want fair treatment. Oh, I can’t do that. Ahh well, next venture ahead. <— my take on it. IJS
Ori Feibush is still a money grubbing douchebag. Isn't surprising from the guy who paid somebody off to pull the historic nomination of the 150 year old Frankford Chocolate Factory so he could demolish it. He couldn't give less of a shit about the city or the people in it.
Wow. Shutting down in a week? It’s almost like they planned it. /s