From Newsgroup: rec.food.cooking

Taylor Jimenez wrote:
Geoff Davis doesn't want his employees to have to rely on tips.

The acclaimed chef who worked in restaurants and cocktail bars across
the Bay Area and wine country before opening the Oakland soul food
eatery Burdell, points out on customers' receipts that tipping culture
in the United States has a racist history " rooted in underpaid service
jobs relegated to formerly enslaved Black workers.

Instead of tips, his restaurant adds a 20% service fee to the bill. It
takes the guesswork and luck out of the equation, Davis said, and helps
to stabilize wages across dining rooms and kitchens " where servers
often receive tips but cooks and dishwashers do not " and helps offset
the cost of healthcare benefits offered to full-time employees.

The service charge is not an out-of-the-ordinary practice, and is common among some upscale restaurants. And yet, Davis' restaurant has been the target in recent days of online hate, a surge of vitriol prompted by a now-deleted Reddit post featuring the service charge policy printed at
the bottom of Burdell receipts.

"Tipping in the US has an ugly past, allowing the continuation of
underpaid labor. We don't like that history. Included on your check is a
20% Service Charge which we use to pay hourly staff a consistent and
livable wage, not dependent on archaic tipping customs or chance. No
need to add anything else. Thank you! Burdell <3," it reads.

Burdell, which was named the best U.S. restaurant by Food & Wine
magazine in 2025, was immediately flooded with nasty reviews on
platforms such as Yelp, as well as angry, hateful and, at times,
threatening emails, phone calls and direct messages on social media.

"I'm just blown away by why we are getting held to a different
standard," Davis said. rCLWe arenrCOt doing anything crazy. We didnrCOt invent
service charges."

Davis said when he put the service charge policy in place several years
ago, he carefully considered the language to nod to the history of
tipping without overloading customers with information. He "felt
strongly" about acknowledging the history. At the same time, he said, he wanted to pay his staff competitive wages and offer healthcare coverage, which he felt he could accomplish with a mandatory service charge.

Davis said pay for his employees is generally around double the local
minimum wage, which hit $17.34 in Oakland on Jan. 1. Full-time employees
can get about 75% of their healthcare covered, he said.

The Redditor whose comment prompted the outrage posted to r/EndTipping,
a subreddit dedicated to advocating rCLfor a system where workers arenrCOt reliant on tips." According to Davis, that's what the service-charge
model is all about.

The poster wrongly claimed the establishment failed to disclose the
automatic fee beforehand. The policy is featured prominently on
Burdell's menu, and the receipts do not include a line for additional
tips.

Yet the onslaught has continued for weeks, even after Davis addressed
the situation in a Feb. 4 post on Instagram. In his post, he said that
for years he had worked in restaurants earning below the minimum wage "
and watching as so-called front-of-house workers earned significantly
more than those working in the kitchen.

In many restaurants, back-of-house workers with lower take-home pay are
more likely to be Latino, Black or from other marginalized groups, while server positions are often held by white people. A 2015 study by
Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a nonprofit labor advocacy
group, found waiters at high-end restaurants could earn salaries five
times greater than those of employees washing dishes, clearing tables
and prepping food in the same establishment.

"We've gotten threats of violence, threats of burning down the
restaurant and just horrible, hateful emails," Davis told The Times.
"It's exhausting and scary, not just for me but for our staff."

Many Americans are unaware that tipping is a legacy of slavery. Although
the practice originated in feudal Europe and was brought to the United
States by travelers, it blossomed after the Civil War as U.S. employers sought to avoid paying formerly enslaved Black workers. The Pullman Co., which manufactured railroad cars, notoriously hired newly freed Black
men as porters, drove down their wages and forced them to rely heavily
on tips from white riders. The practice of tipping entrenched a
racialized class structure in service jobs throughout the hospitality
sector.

Although California has for several decades required restaurants to pay
the staterCOs minimum wage regardless of how much workers receive in tips, federal law continues to allow a subminimum wage for tipped workers.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25, stuck there since 2009; the tipped
minimum wage is far lower, at $2.13. Employers of these tipped workers
can use customers to subsidize $5.12 of the business' hourly wage
obligation. Although many states have a minimum wage far above the
federal $7.25 per hour, many still have an exceptionally low minimum
wage for workers who get tips.

The discussion around tips remains contentious, and California lawmakers
have struggled with how to handle the imperfect solution of service
fees. Restaurants such as Michelin-starred Taiwanese eatery Kato, in
downtown L.A., and Coucou, in West Hollywood, charge fees " 18% and 20%, respectively " high enough that diners often don't feel a need to add a
tip. Restaurants that have a smaller 3% charge to cover healthcare might leave customers confused on how to proceed.

Legally, service fees are treated differently from tips: The former is
the property of the restaurateur to distribute as they please, while
tips are legally the property of the individual server.

Former servers at Jon & VinnyrCOs, a popular Italian American restaurant
with several Southern California locations, filed a class-action lawsuit
in 2023 alleging that their company denied servers tips and was eating
into their take-home pay because of diner confusion over an 18% service
fee. The suit prompted the restaurant to update language on its bill to explain that the service fee was not the same as a gratuity.

In 2024, California considered doing away with service charges as part
of legislation banning rCLhiddenrCY or rCLjunkrCY fees but walked back the proposal at the eleventh hour.

At the time, Kato's owner, Ryan Bailey, told The Times that although
some operators were rCLmisusing the service charge," most were
distributing it fairly to provide benefits and compensate employees in a
way "so immensely appropriate and responsible ... that if it was to go
away, it would be really crippling to everybody."

Oakland and several other cities have adopted ordinances requiring funds collected through service charges to be distributed among hospitality employees, not supervisors, and requires restaurants to keep
documentation, in case of a city investigation.

Davis said that many online commenters seemed to object both to tipping
and service charges, even as restaurateurs struggle to raise menu prices
to keep pace with the soaring costs of food and rent.

"People want to have autonomy over how much they get to leave ,
but our society doesn't work that way," Davis said. "The server who
served you, if they forgot to fill your water, their rent is still due,
and it's not variable.

"People want tips so they can not tip. But we have to pay for the labor somewhere."

Davis says that although the stream of vitriol toward himself and
Burdell has continued online, the community has rallied around the restaurant. rCLPeople are really coming out and supporting and werCOve been really busy,rCY he said. rCLIt has really restored that faith and will to keep doing the thing.rCY

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-02-19/california-restaurant -service-fee-sparks-anger-threats-highlights-tipping-racist-past

Seems like another money grab


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