Interesting. https://www.businessinsider.com/portland-restaurant-swapped-tipping-for-a-22-service-fee-2022-1 A Portland restaurant eliminated tipping, added a 22% service fee, and raised its lowest wage to $25 The owners of a nationally recognized Russian gourmet restaurant in Portland, Oregon, have ended optional tips on their guest checks in favor of a 22% service charge on all orders. In a statement on its website explaining the policy, Kachka says "tipping, at its most innocent, creates inequity between 'front-of-house' and 'back-of-house' workers, and at its most sinister, continues a tradition of racism." The new policy began last week after several months of planning, co-owner and head chef Bonnie Morales told Insider. The move smooths out the ordinarily variable revenue from traditional tipping, and helps her provide a minimum wage of $25 and health insurance to all employees........(CONTINUED)
When tipping I have always based it off the service I received. Bad service, bad tip. Now to just tack on a 22% service charge no matter what. We don't eat out often, and will even less if this becomes the norm. Just raise your prices if you want and pay your help more, but this is a joke.
I was in London over Thanksgiving and restaurant service was terrible. They had service charges. I would rather they just hide it in the menu prices like they do in Europe with no expectations to tip. I usually tip well, but 22% for everyone seems kind of extreme. That's just a start, eventually someone will make it 25% or higher. Everywhere is raising their prices too, restaurant prices have gone up very aggressively the past year. I probably eat out lunch/brunch 7 days week and eat dinner out 4 or 5x a week. And the dining experience with COVID has sucked more. It's not as relaxing and fun to dine out. If it gets more expensive and service doesn't improve (it's been shitty too lately), then a lot of restaurants will die off because it won't be accessible. Are they doing other surcharges as well, I've seen a lot like Healthcare surcharges, back kitchen gratuity, and other fees.
So, among other factors, this policy levels the playing field for minorities? That's what I'm gathering. Sad, if that's what they've been experiencing.
I don't know if you've been to Kascka, but it's a bunch of white hipsters running it and working there and eating there. I mean it's an awesome spot, but it's definitely a woke vibe in that spot. It's elevated Russian food presented for yuppie palates, with prices to match. They have vodka and caviar flights for fucks sake.
I loved it. We got trashed and ate well. Bunch of appetizers to share, and they paired it with various vodkas, some infused, different types and qualities. Wasn't cheap, I think it was about $100 per person after it was all said and done.
I love how it's meant to combat racism, but doing something like this will probably keep more ethnic minorities out of restaurants that do this. Tipping well is some cracka azz shit. Why don't they put more minorities in the front of house, then?
Eh. It's a small part of it. But really, it's just evening up things between front and back of the house. They really just need to up prices and pay the staff in back better.
I think another restaurant tried this a few years back and gave up because they couldn't get people to stop tipping on top of this
Seems silly. It shouldn't matter if people still want to tip. As long as the back is making a good wage.
Why not a bit of both? As an example, reduce the service charge to, say, 12% and the establishment could use those funds to create some type of compensation (front-to-back) equity within. Additionally, if any patron wanted to tip above and beyond the 12% for great service, then have at!
I mean on paper it sounds good but tipping is just out of control and ingrained in our society, most people will end up tipping the normal 20%+ on top of the 12% service charge and not even think about it. Look what happens on larger parties with they add the 18% automatically often it's a double tip and people figure their tip with by the total bill not the portion that doesn't have the auto tip.
My favorite system was Colombia's. They add a 10% tip to all restaurants but clearly state on the bill that this is an optional fee. There is no other option for adding tips to the bill and servers just assume the 10% is theirs unless otherwise directed by you. We tested this once with exceptionally bad service and didn't have to pay the 10%. Edit, servers are also paid a normal wage there
Not to mention the entitlement from the servers. I don't mind tipping and I usually tip anywhere between 15-25% depending on the service. But, you have servers posting on social media calling people out for tipping amounts they feel weren't good enough. Servers can make a lot of money for barely doing much work. I've worked in a restaurant when I was younger in positions other than a Server. Servers were some of the laziest people working there.
There's a kid in my real estate group who left a very top-dollar steakhouse (Jeff Ruby's) to get into real estate. He wasn't a server there, but some type of table assistant to a few servers. I asked him why he didn't continue to work up to be a server. He replied that, sure, you can make six figures there, but the overall working atmosphere was a joke. He said most of his coworkers tip money went up their collective noses, etc. He just wanted out of the entire thing. Glad to have him onboard with us. He's doing a credible job and will do fine overall.
What is Colombia's what? Wage? Not sure, piss poor compared to ours but for them it works. When traveling you gotta break out of the what it costs compared to home mindset
It goes both ways. Entitled customers like to hold the tip over the servers head like a carrot for a donkey, it can be very demeaning and then they feel like they did them a favor with their 15%. The whole system is fucked, but I usually tip close to 30% because I won't take my feelings on the system out on someone trying to scrape by
