When someone asks for my “Georgetown intro,” it takes everything in me not to let “Hi, my name is Julia, and I’ll be your server today!” slip out. EXPO Magazine knows why this phenomenon occurs: service work is a language, a culture, and a craft—it should be treated as such.
EXPO Magazine is a new publication designed in response to the 2025 repeal of Initiative 82, a law created to raise the wages of D.C.’s tipped workers to match the city’s minimum wage. The zine, written by service workers, for service workers, engages the full breadth of life and labor in a restaurant. For the price of $18.40—the rate of one hour of work at the minimum wage—you can get your hands on articles, narratives, comics, poems, and crosswords relating to the restaurant industry.
As someone who spent most of my formative years bussing tables and running food, I was intrigued but skeptical. Upon opening the cover, I was reminded of when my manager cut me early so I could make it to the Eras Tour, when the executive chef helped me with my college essays, and when the owner dropped donuts off for us at the expo counter on a busy Saturday morning. The stories inside inspired the collection of memories that long ago designated restaurants as “home” to come flooding back to me.
I had the opportunity to sit down with the minds behind the magazine, Gary Zottoli and Rachelle Yeung. Zottoli, a local food runner and former writer for the Democratic Socialists of America, conceptualized the project last year. After his stint in nonprofit work, Zottoli was called to return to the restaurant industry for both its unconventional lifestyle and its desperate need for organization. During his shifts behind the bar, he noticed that coworkers weren’t doomscrolling, but rather, were reading magazines and completing crossword puzzles to pass the mid-afternoon lull. That’s when inspiration struck.
“When you’re at the bar after hours or after shift, it’s a lot easier to just drop a sick-looking magazine on the table and say ‘Hey, look at this!’” Zottoli explained.
EXPO Magazine is a frank and honest portrayal of service work. Unpretentious and easily digestible, the zine highlights not only the intensity of labor—as well as the skill and talent of the industry’s employees—but also the joy found in collective organization. EXPO understands that the last thing full-time employees need is more to do, which is why the zine’s call to action lies embedded in a collection of literature that simply reminds you of how much we have to celebrate, and, alternatively, how much we have to lose.
When working on the project, Zottoli refused to shy away from its true purpose: “We Want You” propaganda. Wielding an affinity for Italian poetry and the labor organizing texts of the 1920s, he imagined EXPO’s simplistic, captivating style. Even if you don’t spend your free time consuming socialist propaganda, there is something strikingly familiar and hypnotic about the large text, sharp lettering, and contrasting color palette. EXPO subconsciously ties the struggles of today’s service workers to the plight of those who yelled, “I need hands!” long before them.
After a quick skim, my first impression was that the length of the articles is where the magazine falls short. Though as I began to sift through page after page of carefully researched information and statistics, I came to appreciate the length as something else entirely: freedom.
In our conversation, Yeung, a former journalism student turned local bartender, noted that the worker’s voice is missing in mainstream media. No wonder these contributors wrote with such depth—no one had ever given them the chance to. The endless stream of uncensored information is the key to EXPO’s charm. After years of the teacher never calling on them, writers each got their turn to admire, ramble, research, ponder, complain, and educate. Restaurants have always afforded me the luxury of being able to show up as my unfiltered self (a million things to do, last night’s makeup under my eyes, a cigarette in my hand). It’s time that we offer the same to the people who make us comfortable. In each page’s smattering of words, drawings, and colors, readers are lucky to finally get to know a community of people who work hard, struggle, persist, and find joy in the little things.
After an introduction to the zine’s conception and purpose, the issue kicks off with a piece by Yeung. “State of the Industry” offers a comprehensive overview of the crisis restaurants are facing under the Trump administration. Stories of creative co-ops, reflections on the closing shift, hand-drawn graphics, startling recounts of ICE raids, and light-hearted comics follow suit. Closing out the issue, “Sacred Work” highlights Chef Gerald Darling’s community-oriented cooking at World Central Kitchen, standing as the emotional axis of the zine. As a dedicated organizer, chef, and activist, he believes good food has the power to reaffirm humanity. When being served a good meal, people recognize, “I’m getting something nice because I deserve something nice,” as Chef G puts it. Don’t the people who craft those special meals deserve to feel the same?
Chef G argues, “Food is sacred. Food heals us, restores us, brings us closer together in community, and allows us to live another day.” EXPO Magazine is building a brilliantly rose-colored reflection that does the same. If a restaurant and the characters inside weren’t worth the heartache, the shin splints, and the shitty pay, we all would’ve walked out the door a long time ago. EXPO serves to remind us why we stick around and why the world of the service industry is one worth fighting for.
