So, a journalist told me that the legal action against us by the City Attorney is a conscious effort to try to stop restaurants from using our table-service-charge business model. Apparently other restaurants are starting to pick it up as well — understandably, since it is a better, fairer system — and the City Attorney wants that to stop.
We are going to fight the City Attorney’s attempt to make it illegal to charge for table service.
This 18% charge is the price of table service. That’s the cost of the livelihoods of servers and dishwashers and other workers who bust their asses so that you can enjoy eating your meal at the restaurant’s table. At most places, you cover that cost with a tip, here, we charge for their time and effort.
Some people, apparently including the City Attorney, are desperate to live in a world where table service has no cost, its just free, and a “tip” is some little bit extra that your server is just delighted to receive. This is a ridiculous fantasy, and I think it stems from not wanting to think about what it means to have so many restaurants, so many servers, cooks and dishwashers, working at low wages, with no health insurance, so that we can have a culture with easy access the good life of restaurants and food and beer and wine.
People are often uncomfortable having low-paid servants, that’s just not how they see themselves. When something happens to make it clear that they do, these people get upset.
I want to change this into a more honest culture, where we acknowledge that table service costs money, we pay the servers as professionals, and we can look each other in the eye as equals. The City Attorney does not want that, instead he wants to perpetuate an underclass that is supposed to be overjoyed at the few shillings you leave at the end of the meal.
Perhaps the City Attorney and his friends eat out a lot and enjoy the culture of restaurants, and never want to think about the lives and livelihoods of the people who provide the work required for them to enjoy the restaurant experience. It is probably very painful for them to know that there’s a place in San Diego that says that people who provide restaurant service should be paid a set amount for their time and effort.
I find the flavor of contempt that the City Attorney has for the people who work to provide restaurant service, very depressing.
Simple question: does the 18% tip go directly into the pocket of the servers that evening, or does it take a more convoluted path?
Matt, this was answered on the previous blog entry by Jay:
Manda, 100% of the service charge money goes directly to the staff here, none of it goes to me or “the business”. None of which is relevant to the legality of it, but I think it’s important.
No — 100% of the money goes to the staff (in addition to their wages), but it’s not on a nightly basis.
The reason is that the work that goes into your service on a given night, doesn’t all happen on that night (for instance, all the napkins might have been folded the night before, and so forth). So the service charge is distributed on an every-two-week basis.
It’s absolutely relevant. The Linkery’s entire business model is based on the narrative associated with the meal. It’s how they say that they do not compete with the other restaurants in the neighborhood (and, in fact, do not compete with any other restaurant in San Diego). If they were using meals bought at Sysco, then this narrative would be bogus.
Similarly, if you establish a narrative that these poor people who serve your food and was your dishes need these tips, but then use these tips to pay your mortgage, you are defrauding your customers.
Keep fighting the good fight Jay. It’s well worth the trouble.
People who missed it might want to read the article from several months back about the Linkery and tipping in the New York Times, which I think offers some good context on why the Linkery does it the way they do, and also some interesting information on the practice of tipping.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12tipping-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
I’d like to see the “service charge” included into the cost of the meal. I agree servers need to be paid respectfully.
This is common practice in Europe. In fact a tip is usually only a few euros, just a little thank you, regardless of the meal price.
I would think the city and State would be behind this as it would be easier to tax the service fee payment than the tips. Crazy unpredictable government!
Good luck.
The fact that an individual “labors” at a low paying job is not my fault. If I subsidized every low wage earner, I could certainly not afford to live. Petition for higher wages, start a union, or find a better paying job.
2 questions:
1.) Why not just make everything cost 18% more on the menu and include that percentage in the staff’s normal wages?
and
2.) Why not promote your restaurant as a place where tips are “not considered necessary” or whatever clever phrasing you want to give?
From what I understand about Europe, I believe the pay that restaurant workers receive is actually a liveable wage, and so significant tips are not at all considered necessary. Similar to what I’m recommending here.
Oh yea, and do you offer take-out, without the 18% “table” charge?