David Brooks has a new argument for 30!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/o...core-ios-share

If 30% becomes the new normal, that’s what I will give.

As it stands, 25% is far above normal, and I will not give it in normal circumstances.

Articles by current or former bartenders and servers often opine that everyone should tip a lot more than they do. Shocking, isn’t it? Kind of like ranchers saying you should eat more beef.

But the cows are always saying, "EAT MORE CHIKIN' (TM)*"

(TM) of Chik-Fil-A

It's not the state of California that mandates health insurance, as far as I know it is only the city of San Francisco (although can Berkeley be far behind?). I've almost never seen the 4% charge anywhere else and even in SF, the charge is most common in places that are more heavily visitor/tourist oriented.

I have seen it several times at high end restaurants in L.A.

I went to make rez for a restaurant tonight and saw this on their homepage. Key words: not optional. :confused: I am not sure how I feel about this. Unfortunately I like this restaurant and it is convenient to the theater that we are going to afterwards.

Wood & Vine has moved to a service charge model, with the tip line on guest checks having been removed entirely and replaced with a 20% service charge that is not optional. This allows for a fairer distribution across our whole team and a system that is closer to providing a living wage to all of our staff.

If that's the case, why don't they just increase their prices by 20%?

If the owners want to pay their staff a living wage then that's exactly what they should do. A mandatory service charge isn't the way to do it. My shadow would never cross their door.

This is tricky.

1. California will have its own individual mandate beginning 2020, requiring everyone not exempted buying insurance.

2. Certain counties/cities passed their own ordinances mandating mandatory benefits and allow employers to impose voluntary surcharges.

Personally, even San Francisco allows this surcharge (surcharge in SFO is governed by another ordinance), I have only experienced not more than twice for years. Many restaurants don't add this surcharge.

Also - because the ordinance must be used on employees, to me, it is practically a tip, but in another name.

Well, I won't be going back. I only went because I couldn't think of anywhere else near the Pantages Theater & we were seeing Jesus Christ Superstar after eating. First they sat us in a wind tunnel where we ordered drinks, after the drinks came we told them it was too windy so they moved us inside. Service was very ordinary and actually I had a couple issues. The check did not have a tip line. We were looking over the bill and saw the 20% added....but also noticed that no one had charged us for our drinks when they moved us to a different table. Since by then our server was no where to be seen and we had to leave to make the show, we let them treat us to our drinks (unknowingly).
I was commenting to my friend that we knew about the 20% because I had gone on their website but if I didn't know, I might not have noticed the "service charge" and no one mentioned it. I think that is pretty sneaky....I bet most people don't realize it and tip on top of it.

Here is their explanation:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7rgcjdyku0fv2cw/faq.pdf?dl=0

At least you got free drinks. :)

And the cows are actually opposed to cow tipping :D

Zazie In Cole Valley changed their system - no tip/service fee. Every menu item is priced so that one only pays sales tax (I believe) as extra - no tip, no service. I love that system but I tend to only go there for brunch during the week with my wife because they are too busy on weekends :-)

I would never go to a restaurant with a mandatory 20% service charge