With increasing labor costs around New York City, many restaurants have implemented new strategies to cover rising expenses. Yesterday we wrote about Franny’s announcement that they would include an “Obamacare surcharge” on all bills to cover increased labor costs for their employees. Francine Stephens and Andrew Feinberg, co-owners of Franny’s, have now retracted their statement.

Stephens and Feinberg were originally planning to add a 3 percent surcharge to all checks to cover the cost of providing health insurance to employees, as required by the Affordable Care Act. After releasing statements regarding the surcharge, many guests questioned Franny’s decision as being anti-Obamacare. Stephens and Feinberg have since retracted the surcharge and are instead increasing menu prices accordingly.

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The Hudson Yards is the largest private real estate development project in America. It is expected open in 2018 with dozens of restaurants curated by Thomas Keller.

Thomas Keller recently announced that he has come to an agreement with José Andrés and Costas Spiliadis to open Spanish and Greek-seafood concepts in the Hudson Yards, respectively. Both restaurants will be inside the 1 million square foot Shops & Restaurants at Hudson yards complex.

The Hudson Yards complex will be Andrés’ second New York project. This summer he is opening the Bazaar in the SLS New York at 444 Park Avenue South.

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Under the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, all companies incur an added cost of giving employees health coverage. The Affordable Care Act requires all companies with 50 or more full-time employees to provide their staff with fairly priced health insurance. To cover the extra costs incurred, Franny’s, a famous Brooklyn Pizzeria, will add a 3 percent surcharge to all of its checks in order to “cover the affordable care act for all Franny’s employees.”

Franny’s is not only adding a new surcharge but will also hike prices to increase employee wages and keep up with the rising minimum wage across fast-food restaurants. Franny’s co-owner Francine Stephens admits that the higher prices are a concern and will likely affect how often some guests are able to come in for dinner.

With new regulations increasing mandatory minimum wages and employee benefits, restauranteurs are coping with the higher costs in a variety of ways. Notably, Danny Meyers has taken an all-inclusive approach to pricing by eliminating tipping and absorbing costs into menu prices. Stephens says she wants to be transparent with prices but is also tracking Meyer’s move.

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Ample Hills Creamery is a four year old Brooklyn scoop-shop in Brooklyn, known for their throwback flavors. Since opening their first stores in Prospect Heights, they have expanded to locations in Gowanus and stalls in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Gotham West Market, and Jacob Riis Park. Ample Hills has acquired $4 million in funding from venture-investment firms including Brooklyn Brewery co-founder Tom Potter and the founders of Seamless.

With their new funds, Ample Hills will be opening a 15,000 square foot factory, which will be used to make all of their ice cream except for a single location specific flavor that differs at every store. They will also be using the funds to hire more management team and expand both wholesale pint distributions and direct shipments to consumers.

Co-Owners Brian Smith and wife Jackie Cuscuna have expressed their intents to expand their brand slowly for quality driven growth. They plan to expand within New York before branching out to other parts of the country.

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