Mondragon is a political bookstore and vegan restaurant located in Winnipeg’s historic exchange district. The word Mondragon comes from the Euskadi (Basque) town of the same name meaning “Dragon Mountain” in English. Located in Northern Spain, Mondragon or Arrasate in the Basque language, is known for its extensive network of workers’ cooperatives, and has been the subject of numerous books and articles.
Inspired by this and many other examples of alternative economics and workplace democracy, our bookstore and coffeehouse is organized as a workers collective. We have no manager, and all worker members, regardless of starting skill or seniority, earn the same rate of pay. We call ours a “participatory” workplace, after the participatory economic model developed by co-authors Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert, and we feel that this structure is consistent with libertarian socialist principles.
First comment, wow!
It’s great to have Mondragon around. After having lived for four years in Vancouver, before moving back, I can say that I hadn’t
run across a restaurant like Mondragon in Vancouver. The Naam was close, but many of their vegetarian food items weren’t vegan,
which was disappointing.
Four years later, the Sunflower Roast, and African Peanut Stew are still two of my favourite dishes (bring them back sometime!)
Plus there are talks to attend, and books to buy, Mondragon has it all.
I’d recommend a small grocery section (please sell Crispy Cat vegan chocolate bars!) and it’ll be near perfect!
Thanks again,
Cory Lussier
Comment by Cory Lussier — 16/04/2009 @ 22:56
Greetings, I love your store! Just one comment.. I can’t read the text on your latest post.
Best.
Comment by Taylor — 29/06/2009 @ 07:51
Hello!
I have tried twice to send you an e-mail (to mondragon@mondragon.ca, which is the address listed on your contact page), but it was returned with a delivery failure notice. The following is the attempted e-mail:
“Hi there,
I was wondering if it would be possible to get the recipe for your house salad dressing. I absolutely love it and in between visits to the resturant I get cravings for it!”
Thanks!
Comment by Stephanie — 07/08/2009 @ 20:04
Mondragon is by far my most favorite of all coffee houses here in Winnipeg. unique in decore, food, everything!! I don’t get to eat there anywhere as near as much as I would like to, but every time I have the food and service has been top notch all the way.
Thanks for making such and AWESOME coffee house, keep on Rockin
Michael
Comment by Michael Knight — 19/09/2009 @ 10:21
Because they have no management, no one will respond to concerns when emailing. I guess the local staff that recieve emails just push it under the rug so no one finds out.
Dissapointed.
But the food is fabulous.
Comment by Vegan — 23/10/2009 @ 17:53
We do not have “no management”, we have super management. Where every member is empowered to deal with concerns. We do not push things under the rug. We deal with issues to the best of our ability.
What concerns are you referring to?
Comment by Mondragon — 27/10/2009 @ 14:22
Incredible… We had not idea about this… We were talking about alternative bookstores: I check it in the net and suddenly we find our town´s name in Winnipeg… Unbelievable! Your place looks great! Maybe we could begin a project like this here, in Arrasate-Mondragon.
Greetings from the Basque Country!
Comment by Garoharria — 29/04/2010 @ 10:04