Two years ago, a group of Windows on the World employees opened a new restaurant not far from ground zero — a symbol of their survival after the attacks of September 11, 2001 that decimated the 107th-floor dining room atop the World Trade Center.

But New York’s dog-eat-dog restaurant industry is itself about survival, and by last fall, their business venture, Colors, was faltering.

In a turnaround this spring, the restaurant launched by 9/11 survivors and named for the ethnic dishes the workers brought to the menu from their homelands appears to be coming back to life.

“I walked in and I was asked to pick up the pieces,” Christopher Faulkner, who took over as Colors’s chef in November, said. “I walked into a disaster.”

The previous chef had left months earlier along with almost half the original staff of 58. The remaining employees hadn’t been paid in weeks. Dishes on the menu were deleted, one by one, and there wasn’t enough money to order food supplies.

With an almost $1 million loan looming over tables that were often empty, Colors was fading fast. The restaurant got lots of public attention when it opened in January 2006 on Lafayette Street. No doubt it was due in part to the memory of the 73 restaurant workers killed on September 11 while breakfast was being served for the last time.

In the first months, the 125 seats were often filled. Then the trouble started.

Founded with a grant from a labor advocacy group, the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, the restaurant was meant to be a place where workers’ rights would be protected.

Waiters, busboys, bartenders, and chefs all owned a share of the cooperative. The restaurant was to offer fine dining on white linen, with no one making less than $13.50 an hour — double what was then the minimum wage.

But in a cooperative, with all workers equal, everyone wanted to be in on the decisions. Service and organization slumped while employees huddled in meetings. And the food was expensive, with entrees going for $30 to $40.

At Colors, business was so slow last year that the owner-workers couldn’t always make the monthly rent of more than $20,000.

The workers went into emergency mode, voting to lower their own minimum wage to $9.45 an hour and to slash menu prices; some took second jobs.

It took the whole winter for the turnaround to show results. Now bills are paid on schedule and there’s a tighter chain of command.

The restaurant serves dinner only, turning over the space during the day to ROC for free classes in bartending, basic cooking, and other marketable skills for low-income workers.

One telling detail of Colors’ struggle remains: the white linen tablecloths are still missing. They cost too much to launder and iron.

But with Mr. Faulkner at the stoves, there’s a growing stream of customers.

“I looked around one night and it was busy, and they were tasting each other’s dishes and enjoying themselves,” he said.

“This is one of the good things left after 9/11. People are tired of hearing about death and victims,” he said. “Colors is about food, nurturing, and life.”