Thanars heard a new bar and restaurant called Velveteen was hiring, and went in for an interview. While she was there, the owners explained that the stylish spot—on the corner of Bayou Road and Broad Street, formerly home to Pirogues—had been founded with the express intention of becoming a worker-owned cooperative. If her trial period went well, the position could lead to part-ownership of the business. She left the interview with a new job and literature on cooperatives that the founding owners, Amber Rowley and Brendan Gordon, had given her.