“It’s been three years since Danny Meyer became the unofficial leader of a movement to abolish tipping at restaurants, in an effort to level the playing field for front-of-house and back-of-house employees, among other things. In the process of converting his own restaurants to his so-called Hospitality Included model, he convinced a number of major restaurateurs to adopt similar pay structures. The upside, of course, is that these tip-free models theoretically decrease pay discrepancies between people who work in the dining room and the kitchen, and don’t rely on diners to essentially supplement workers’ incomes.
But after giving it the ol’ college try, two major restaurants have returned to the old way of doing things. The Wall Street Journal reports that Agern, the Nordic restaurant from Claus Meyer, and Michelin-starred Cafe China in midtown have both returned to the traditional tipping model and have seen great results.”
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“Most fast-casual operators believe that competency creates conversation. That being “good” equals word of mouth. But it often does not, because almost every competitor is at least good. If you want customers to tell others about your restaurants — and you do — you must be different in addition to being excellent.
paigepapers.com 