Tipping point (restaurant charges automatic "service fee" to all customers)

Chicago Tribune - Yahoo ^ | August 26, 2005 | Stevenson Swanson

[EveningStar]

Waiter, there's a service charge on my soup.

Customers at a high-end Manhattan restaurant soon will notice an extra expense when they get their bill, and not only for their soup course.

Beginning Thursday, chef Thomas Keller will charge customers a 20 percent service fee at Per Se, his year-old outpost in the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle, where the views of Central Park are nearly as breathtaking as the prices.

[HIDEK6]

They are experts on everything, they have a degree to prove it.

Some of them can't read their own degree.

If it's in Latin, hardly any of them can read it.

[Bernard Marx]

Tips are now an entitlement and not a reflection of the quality of service provided.

Exactly. And making them part of the overall bill is probably a more honest way of doing business than trying to maintain the "To Insure Promptness" fiction. If the service is bad, go somewhere else in the future. If they lose their jobs the waiters will get the message.

[NittanyLion]

I was actually suggesting just the opposite. The majority of personnel in restaurants (exceptions are the chefs etc.), even high end ones, tend to be fungible. A waiter insults the wrong patron or member of the kitchen staff or gains too much weight, they're outta there.

Okay, I follow you now. Good point - I agree completely.

[durasell]

A well run restaurant is really a business phenom. that can't be easily duplicated and has fascinated me for years. Even the supply chains -- especially here in NYC -- is kind of this weird, off beat model that shouldn't work, but somehow does.

[Modernman]

Even the supply chains -- especially here in NYC -- is kind of this weird, off beat model that shouldn't work, but somehow does.

I read an article a while back about how NYC gets its food. The conclusion in the article is that no one, not really, understood exactly how the 8 million people in NYC get fed every day. It sort of just happens.

[FreedomCalls]

And if the service that day is bad, can customers just lope the 20% off?

If the food is bad can you just lop 20% off the price on the menu?

[FreedomCalls]

I've seen europeans eat a four hundred dollar meal and leave twenty bucks.

Does it take ten times the effort to carry a $400 meal to a table than it does to carry a $40 meal to the same table?

Should the truckers who deliver a truckload of freight worth $50,000 get paid more than those who are carrying loads of the same weight on the same route worth only $5000?

[FreedomCalls]

Yep. I can hardly have an expectation of good service if the waitstaff already know they're getting a 20% tip. What incentive do they have to treat me well?

What incentive do the cooks have to prepare a good meal if their pay is always the same? Same difference.

[FreedomCalls]

But to tell me that I must pay it even if my service was terrible?

Do you have to pay for the food even if your food was terrible? If so, then you should have to pay even if the service was terrible. If not, that is if you deduct the cost of an item of food if it was bad, then you are OK in deducting if the service is bad. Why should the service staff be treated any differently from the cook staff?

[Jim Noble]

I just called the French Laundry with several dates in October-booked, of course.

Could either of you recommend a quasi-fancy Sushi/Sashimi place in SFO, preferably in the Marina district or close by?

[Michael.SF.]

Could either of you recommend a quasi-fancy Sushi/Sashimi place in SFO

Sorry, I can't help you. I really do not know the marina district very well. But, I am sure that any Sushi/Sashimi restaurant in the area, will be fine.

[muir_redwoods]

This is a wonderful idea for his customers

A group that will not include me.

[durasell]

Does it take ten times the effort to carry a $400 meal to a table than it does to carry a $40 meal to the same table?


Absolutely not, but the next time you eat at that restaurant, the $400 meal is devalued to about $3.50 because the kitchen staff have done unspeakable things to it.

[durasell]

The mechanism by which food is delivered to restaurants and grocery stores in NYC is extraordinarily complex. It's everything from a guy with a handtruck pushing onions into the back door of a restaurant to Fedex and DHL packages overnighted from obscure areas of France and Japan.

The thing has grown on its own over hundreds of years and it's impossible to see the whole of it. You'd have better luck trying to find out how the diamond district works.

[bannie]

A tip is a gratuity for a service.

It is not a CHARGE for a sevice.

[LisaAnne]

Sorry. Don't know the SF area very well and do not eat sushi.
Gene Burns has a Food and Wine show, showcasing local restaurants and wineries. Here is his website, he might have some suggestions.
http://www.kgoam810.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.diningaround.com

[grellis]

You're clueless. A cook gets paid a flat rate; the restaurant I just worked at, cooks began at $10.75 an hour. Around here, that's a pretty good wage for any kind of beginner, and they got paid that just for showing up. Servers, on the other hand, make $2.65 an hour--the rest of a server's wage is tips. If a server is lousy, they will make lousy money. If a server works their ass off, they'll come out just fine. Do you see the difference now? Your mythical St. Cook, slaving over a hot stove, can be a lazy, worthless moron and still get paid okay. Your equally mythical Miss Equality College Broad actually has to work to make decent money, and yes, it is work. Quite a bit of it is not much fun, like dealing with drunken, ass-grabbing know-it-all buffoons who shouldn't be allowed out in public, based upon their complete lack of socialization with actual humans.

Reading through your posts, I get the feeling that you are EXACTLY the kind of patron servers hate to have.

[chudogg]

LOL, no i'm more of the silent observor type. As far as the wage, waitresses i know usually make 5 something and the rest is tips. Tips could be 20 bucks a table and maybe 3 tables and hour. Sure that maybe a good night, but would you rather have that, or make 10 bucks an hour in back?

[theDentist]

Because if I wait 20 minutes for my waitress to come to my table after being seated, and 1/2 hour for my order to arrive and it is cold, then I have reason to blame her. If she delivers it to me right away and it's badly cooked or tastes bad, I can send it back.

And if it's good, and delivered hot, then the tip is worth it.

[grellis]

Those numbers don't really add up. If we're talking about a resturant where servers were making $20 bucks a table, you can bet the cooks would be getting paid a lot more than $10 an hour. I worked at Dennys; on average, I made about $10 an hour, very close to what the cooks were making. That's an average, though. If it was a slow night, I'd be lucky if I could scrape in $6-7 an hour, but the cooks would still make wage. If I had been working in an upscale eatery, where I could expect to make an average of $20 an hour, the cooks would probably be making the same.