Dinner at Comedor the other night. (Delicious, thank you for asking. And, wonderful company.) Menus came with this. 
It reads:
In an attempt to meaningfully address wage inequities between our service team and kitchen staff, we have determined that a 3% Kitchen Appreciation Charge is the best option among the many alternatives we considered. We understand that this is a unique approach, but it enables us to deliver a consistently high-quality dining experience to our guests. Thank you for your understanding. Enjoy your meal.
Thoughts?
Yes, it’s tough to achieve wage equity within your business while managing to attract talent for high-demand jobs while keeping prices competitive. But, I don’t need transparency into the process. If you think kitchen staff need to be paid more, pay them more. If you can do it and not drive me to other restaurants, charge me more. Striking the balance between keeping prices and wages competitive is not a challenge about which I, as the diner, need to be kept in the loop.
I agree 100% with Sean’s analysis.
“is not a challenge about which I, as the diner, need to be kept in the loop.”
No, but you do need to be made to feel both guilty about something that has nothing to do with you while simultaneously being made to acknowledge how brave management is by addressing the whole issue of wage inequality while they toot their own horn overall.
This is why I stay home and eat plain spaghetti with ketchup in private.
I heard about a restaurant doing this in another state on NPR just this morning. My reaction was different after hearing about it from another perspective.
The piece focused on the hard work people “in the back” put into the process of running an excellent restaurant and how underappreciated they were.
As a result of being invisible, they earned low wages. This particular restaurant added a certain percentage onto the tab for one week each month as a sort of reminder to patrons that these people were an essential part of the business. This was a small business owner who did this.
Call me sappy, but given all the terrible news over the past two weeks, that a small business person was letting people who have the resources to go out to dinner know that s/he’s trying to do his best s/he can by workers in the back was heartening.
I also agree with Sean’s analysis. Seeing something like this in a menu would have me heading for the door. Not just because I find it rude, but it also makes me wonder what the hell is going on in the kitchen if the staff doesn’t feel “appreciated.”
This is also a good thread for me to point out [yet again] just how bogus the Board of Health’s grading system of restaurants is in Newton. They’ve created a numerical grading system that is difficult for consumers to understand. Why does the Board of Health feel they have to protect Newton eating establishments by obfuscating the truth? Restaurants should receive a letter grade, and be required to post it in their front window… Glad I got that off my plate!
The next time you have a opportunity, ask that person washing your dishes, preparing your salad or clearing your table how long and how many buses or trains they took to get to Newton that day.
Chances are they’ve come from Chelsea or Dorchester or Framingham or further. Ask them how many kids or other family members they’re caring for. Ask them what time they arrived at work and when they’re going home.
After you do, you’ll likely feel a lot better about a three percent surcharge on your meal.
Comedor is just looking for a solution to a problem virtually every Newton restaurant is struggling with: finding and keeping good employees in a market where unemployment is among the lowest in the state, we have affordable housing crisis and we an outdated and an insufficient public transportation system.
It’s not a question of the money [3%], Greg. It’s a question of transparency. Restaurants should pay their help fairly and charge customers accordingly. But this is like something out of a car dealers handbook. Charge you for a meal, and then charge you to use the silverware. Just put the damn price on the menu and stop trying to nickel and dime everyone… Just my opinion.
Greg, not sure calling up the big guns on this ( social /economic disparities and working two jobs/long hours) is applicable to this situation created by this restaurant.
I can only speak for myself. In the past, as someone who used to stand in front of a trough filled with gushing water and pulling eaten food/ garbage from an assembly line of 100 plates per hour with my bare hands for three years, the causes that brought me there were complex. 3% and a public shaming of the customers was not going to remedy my situation or conditions of my employment.
It’s not public shaming at all. It’s a small business owner trying to help his workers earn a living wage. The small increase may make a huge difference in the workers “in the back” and won’t change the quality of my life in the least.
I wouldn’t mind the owner putting a note at the top of the menu saying that they were raising their prices 3% so they could do that. But someone shouldn’t have to be a CPA to get a good sense of what their meal will cost. I’d much rather have restaurant prices include tax and tip and any other extra surcharges, as they do in many other countries.
Perhaps somebody could explain to me who exactly does get the tip money that I leave in a restaurant. When my kids were a lot smaller they were great eaters, but happened to miss quite a lot too. More often than not I would end up leaving more than a 20% tip as an apology for the mess to be cleared up.. It would be enlightening to know if the people who cleaned up afterwards got a share.
Hi Simon, it is customary for servers to tip out the bussers, food runners, bartenders, etc. When I worked in a restaurant, each position was tipped a percentage of each server’s sales so your generous tips were shared!
Tips are typically for those who work “in the front”.
I probably led with the wrong argument. Back of the house in a restaurant should be paid a living wage. Everyone who works should. Let’s increase the minimum wage. Back of the house in a restaurant should have access to affordable housing near where they work. Everyone should. Let’s relax the zoning that artificially increases the cost of housing in desirable locations. Back of the house in a restaurant should have access to affordable, reliable transportation. Everyone should. Let’s increase the gas tax and tolls (in some places from zero) to adequately fund public transit.
If small business owners really want workers to be appreciated, they should have their local Chamber of Commerce lobby for worker-friendly public policies and the appropriate funding to implement them.
Also, I recall a segment on WBUR where a restaurateur described the high demand for trained, experience line cooks because nobody wanted to work that hard for so little when there are more and more better paying, work/life-balance friendlier catering and private chef-ing gigs out there.
We might want to have a reckoning about working conditions in the restaurant business, whether they are or should be sustainable, and — wait for it — what the impact on our fragile downtowns would be if restaurants have to increase prices dramatically to fairly compensate the cooking class.
“I wouldn’t mind the owner putting a note at the top of the menu saying that they were raising their prices 3% so they could do that. But someone shouldn’t have to be a CPA to get a good sense of what their meal will cost.”
This.
It’s not about the 3%. It’s about making prices less transparent- this is cropping up in other places, and we should push back on surcharges becoming the norm. Not consumer friendly.
Here’s two stories published in the past 48 hours that can inform this conversation…
First from the Washington Post about this three percent charge
And from the Boston Business Journal: Diners in Boston are among the nation’s biggest cheapskates
Here in Newton, I have heard recently that small business owners just received notice that their local tax bill increased by 50 per cent. One example was one person paying $12,000. anually will now pay $24,000. next year. All the costs will be passed on to the consumer. Will the business owner survive, maybe not?
I believe that all levels of gov’t are driving up costs and creating additional wage disparity. No wonder low wage earners feel cheated in today’s economy. The consumer is expected too often to just shut up and pay more for everything.
And you heard this where? What kind of local taxes are you talking about? Commercial property owners do pay a higher tax rate than residential owners in Newton but it hasn’t doubled. Either the businesses you “heard” about to had something extraordinary happen to/at their property, have been billed incorrectly, you’re merely trash talking because you enjoy posting comments that cast our city government in a negative light, or someone enjoys pulling your leg.
My opinion is the entire process is and has been broken for a long time. And all of us who go to enjoy a special occasion to eat are coerced to giving a tip. Most decent restaurants charge enough to pay appropriate wages, but the structure of wages in this industry is less than any other. The customer is remanded to pay again now to support the worker. Fix that and we would be able to enjoy the food.
Stop the crazy game called tipping. Raise prices 20%, stop gratuities and pay employees as fairly as you can.
Some restaurants in NYC have been experimenting with this structure.
I have been a fan of Jakob and Fernanda since their time at 51 Lincoln and Waban Kitchen and enjoy Comedor often. They’re trying to do the right thing but I think there is a cleaner, more transparent and simpler way; stop tipping.
Any good labor lawyers out there??This is unbelievable!! Is there retroactive
compensation for people like me that
bussed dishes while shooing cockroaches at Tonys Villa, worked the grill at Friendlys and McDonalds, scooped ice cream at Brighams, carried bags out to cars at the old Purity Supreme, carried golf bags, delivered the Newton Graphic- by bike, not car in all seasons, shoveled snow, checked people into the old Longwood medical area hotel, worked as a housekeeper and dietary service worker at the Deaconess Hospital, and wheeled out beer kegs at Marty’s and Gordon’s liquors, all at substandard wages??
Where is/was my pay equity??
I can’t go to CVS, Petco, Star Market or
a movie without someone trying to put their hand in my pocket on the way out. There are hard working people
everywhere that aren’t being paid what they deserve, I can’t pay them all.
We can all start being KINDER to these people instead of treating them like garbage like I’ve seen so many entitled Newton people do over the years.
Life is hard and long. There are no free lunches. Let’s all grow a pair and stop whining!!!!
@Greg – thanks for the articles. From the map in the 2nd one, it looks like the lowest tipping rates are in the places with the highest cost of living. That makes sense, since those are the places where with average incomes have the least disposable income left at the end of the month. Unfortunately, these are also the places where the servers most need the tips. One more reason to just get rid of tips and pay servers the regular minimum wage.
When traveling through PA in the summer 2015, stopped at regional fast food chain that was automated, with banks of customers standing in front of touch-screens ordering their food and paying with plastic. No cashiers, no servers. I felt like I had seen the future. Even middle-of-the-road places like Uno’s that I was in recently have automated ordering so instead of 3 people taking orders there’s just one bringing food to tables. I wonder if this inevitable trend will mean that in the future, there will be no middle ground any longer – just high-end and fast food. Restaurants such as this one will be a specialty item / treat that people go to with highly trained, well-paid specialists preparing and serving the food as the customer pays for the rare experience of interacting with humans.
This thread has evolved into an important discussion but since Sean’s original post has been misunderstood, my agreement must have been too.
I was agreeing with Sean that the restaurant could have added 3% to the meager pay the kitchen staff receives by finding the balance between raising staff pay and absorbing the cost themselves or charging the consumer more without including the consumer in the process. I find the card pretentious.
I agree with Meridith that a message at the top of the menu saying 3% of the price goes to the kitchen staff would be a better option.
Glad the restaurant is doing this – good for them. Hope the idea catches on.
I think this is a good thing. Sean, I agree that we should just be paying people more. But as a customer, I’m willing to pay a premium to visit a restaurant that tries to pay a living wage. As a consumer, how would I know that unless they did something like this?
I think it’s an innovative way for restaurants to tell people why they’re paying a premium to dine there.
Mark Marderosian has touched on an issue that is far more impactful to workers in general than tips or service surcharges. It’s the devastating impact automation [coupled with corporate greed] has had on our socio-economic system. You don’t see too many CEO’s losing their jobs to automation. It’s the check-out clerks and toll takers of the world who end up on the unemployment line when they get replaced by laser scanners and robotics.
It’s nothing more than a myth–in fact it’s an outright lie, to suggest this massive transference to automation will ultimately result in better jobs for Americans. We are rapidly evolving toward an unsustainable model for our country. Jobs are the foundation of American life. They must be preserved with a passion equal to preservation of our environment and our historical monuments.
The permanent loss of jobs contributed greatly to Trump’s electoral success. People who think we [thoughtful Americans] are going to counter [“resist”] that populist political inertia with silly little solutions like a 3% “appreciation” charge tacked onto a restaurant check are simply fooling themselves. We need to use our collective power as consumers to support businesses and industries that provide jobs for human workers. Refuse to use the automated check-out lanes at Star Market and CVS. We also need a tax code that incentivizes employment more than deductions to purchase automated equipment, and a health care system that doesn’t stifle new hiring.