Ricotta pancakes with a side of pancetta, and two eggs over easy covering a roasted pork sandwich on ciabatta are placed down on the table set for two. A couple of hot cups of coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice complete the meal. After the plates are wiped clean and cleared from the table the check is presented. Right away the guest paying notices that the bill is significantly higher than it has been since the last time she has dined at the restaurant. She asks her server why the bill seems to be higher than usual, and he explains that the restaurant has become gratuity-free.
At the start of 2016 restaurateur, Danny Meyer, led a shift in the industry towards gratuity-free dining in his NYC restaurants. Beginning with his most expensive restaurant, The Modern, and then spreading to thirteen of his establishments in the Union Square Hospitality Group. On February 25th, 2016, Maialino in the Gramercy Park Hotel made the switch.
Danny Meyer is a trendsetter and innovator in the restaurant industry. The decision to go gratuity-free is said to provide fair wages to the front and back of the house staff. Since there is a large disparity in the amount of money being made through tips by the wait and bar staff verses the front and back of the house, this change attempts to spread the wealth for more sustainable jobs as a chef or a food runner. This new policy means that in return there is a rise on menu prices.
A pastry chef from Maialino finishes a full night of baking almost 200 croissants for a private party and I catch her on her way out of the locker room. I ask her about the recent change to the gratuity-free system and she explains, “Well it’s a touchy subject.” She pauses and then goes on to explain that after the restaurant eliminated tipping and raised the menu prices, the compensation of the staff for the lack of tip money did not show up until two months after the change was implemented. Meaning that the servers and bartenders were not making tips nor were their paychecks being raised at all. Because of this disparity many members of the staff quit. As many left, many joined the team.
One member of the new team is Meredith, a food runner. Meredith previously worked at a law firm doing assistant work. From there she decided that she needed a career change and made her way to Maialino. Since she started in May, after the two-month period of no pay raise ended, she did not feel the blow of the pay cut that happened to the former staff. Meredith says, “ I really like the way it is going now. I feel like I have more security in knowing how much I am going to make every week. There is a lot more consistency in this type of system.” She explains that the servers are provided with a certain type incentive to work hard despite the lack of tips. The restaurant offers rewards to whoever has the most sales every week. For example, one week they gave out a free dinner for a restaurant that was also owned by Danny Meyer, Marta. Meredith believes that the new members of the staff are content with their paychecks and rewards they can acquire.
One question of this policy asks whether or not this is beneficial for the security and consistency of the service staff or if this is putting extra money into the pocket of the owner. A response to an article written about this topic on NY.Eater.com by Ryan Sutton, reads, “This is nothing more than robbing Paul to pay Peter. USHG is in a better position to pay its cooks than probably anyone else, but the solution is to take from the servers”. This user who goes by “Vfw”, feels that the motive of the new policy is not for the benefit of the cooks but for the people on top. He thinks it is nothing more than taking from one employee to give to another, rather than the ownership extending themselves to benefit the workers as a whole.
Although this is a strong perspective that many of both guests and employees share, a server at Maialino, Christian, has a similar perspective of food runner, Meredith. He quotes, “at first it was confusing when the pay wasn’t what we thought it should but, but after they fixed that issue within a couple of months, I feel like I’m making close to the amount of money I was making before. I think this system helps everyone work together instead of having the competition of who gets the best tables.”
In 1916 William Scott wrote a book called “ The Itching Palm”, where he explains his belief that tipping creates “a servile attitude for a fee.” He says, “In the American democracy to be servile is incompatible with citizenship.” He continues, “If any form of service is menial, democracy is a failure.” He then adds, “If tipping is un-American, some day, some how, it will be uprooted like African slavery.” Maialino is a modern day example of Scott’s mentality being applied in American democracy.
We can still ask the question, is tipping culture perpetuating the attitude of menial service in a democracy or does it represent a personal exchange of generosity and gratitude from one citizen to another through service?