Rainee

Here's a thought. Let's say that my state changed its policy so that there were no exceptions to the minimum wage for tipped employees. I would immediately have to raise hourly pay for servers, bartenders, etc, probably around 2x - 3x the current level. I estimate that I would need to raise menu prices by about 20-25% across the board to cover this increase in labor costs. Maybe more if you factor in increased payroll taxes. At that point, would most customers revert to a European style of tipping, e.g. leave a couple dollars if you feel like it? I think most would. And while this would certainly reduce the volatility of servers' pay, would they end up making less on average? I think in a lot of cases they would.

And my point was that in order to add to our knowledge, concepts have to be generalizable. The generalizable concept is non salary/hourly wage income and whether it is a part of regular compensation. It is kind of the defining question of the whole tipping controversy. Listing other forms of these sorts of compensation only serves to highlight the question at hand, and whether they apply to all professions receiving non wage income is not important. So you weren't obscure, you were unnuanced, it is different. One pertinent difference is that most jobs which offer significant compensation in the form of bonuses, discretionary pay, or other variable rate compensation schemes have much higher average pay than service jobs. For example, professionals in finance or law often get a large part of their total compensation in discretionary bonuses. Just like waiters, they don't know how much they're going to get paid until after they have put in the work. But unlike servers, they get a six figure base salary. They are not getting below minimum wage on their guaranteed wages. So while generalizing is good, it would be a mistake to say "a job is a job" and ignore the very large differences between servers making $2.13/hr plus tips, and corporate lawyers making $250K/year plus bonus.

We've got plenty Korean taco trucks, mexican street food trucks, a million little empanadas from various countries, and more dumpling and asian street food trucks than anyone knows what to do with. What I'd really like to see is a truck that brings some of the best of Brazillian street food. Pao de queijo, fresh fruit juices and vitaminas, and maybe some moqueca or grilled camaroes. All simple to make, and not something I have seen in a truck anywhere north of Salvador da Bahia.

I'd say Mexican still has a lot of room to run, as we are just now starting to get a few places that go beyond tacos and street food for higher end regional Mexican cuisine. But I also think an emerging trend is americanized asian food, with places like Mission Chinese and Pok Pok at the forefront.

The tipping system is not good; it's broken. But it's the standard across the US, and I know I'm not going to be the first guy to move away from it if all my competitors are using it. As an owner, it allows me to pay lower wages to tipped employees based on the assumption that they will make it up in tips. I think it would be better for everyone if I just paid a higher wage and eliminated tips, but of course I would have to raise all the prices to afford that, and like I said I'm not going to be the first guy to take that plunge. Even though tipping is assumed and most people calculate it into the cost of the meal, there is still a certain psychological shock from opening a menu and seeing all the prices 20% higher than equivalent restaurants in the area. Maybe one of the big chains could pull it off, but it would be suicide for an independent operator. Is it fair that tipped service employees usually end up making a lot more than BOH staff? Maybe not, but it's not totally open and shut. BOH is a harder job most of the time, no doubt about it. But it's an assembly line job. You don't interact with customers. The people who interact with the customers need to be the most motivated to smile, be attentive and pleasant, and provide a great experience. The people putting food on the plates need to turning out a consistent product for an entire shift. They are different kinds of people, motivated by different things. And if we're going to have tips, having them as a percentage of the check is not necessarily crazy. The more high end the restaurant, the more FOH people actually contribute to your service (and from what I know almost every high end place has some form of tip pooling or tipping out.) The $80 you tip on a $400 dinner is getting split up between your waiter, the host, the sommelier, at least one busser/runner, maybe a bartender. Granted, the waitress at a diner probably works hard and I think for checks below a certain amount you should throw the percentage scale out the window and just leave a decent amount. But you are getting more service (hopefully better) from more people at a fine dining restaurant.

A couple comments on this - First, it is critical to know the relevant health and building codes in your city. They differ a lot, and will have a huge impact on what you have to spend money on and what you can get away with . I am familiar with NYC, and here it is definitely worth it to find an existing food service place that has ventilation. The hoods and HVAC cost a lot of money to build up to current codes. If it also has working equipment, great, but that is actually less expensive than you think if you are willing to go to auctions and settle for something that is ok, not top of the line. Also, if you take over an existing space, don't change anything! As long as you don't change any existing conditions in terms of mechanicals and structural, you can get away with whatever is in there. As soon as you start moving plumbing or vents around or anything like that, you have to bring the entire kitchen up to code, which could be very expensive depending on how old it is and how good a job the original owners did. If you dont' have existing ventilation, find a way to avoid open flame. Open flame has to have proper ventilation, which again costs lots of money. It also requires special fire control systems, like ansul, which are not cheap. Non-flame heat sources allow you to bypass all this equipment and work. Most kitchens I have seen have something wrong with them. but I have seen some of the smallest, shittiest kitchens turn out incredible food. You can usually find a way to work with what you have. If you have very limited funds, then I think you are best off finding a space with an existing kitchen, preferably one that went out of business so they don't want to charge you a lot of key money, change as little as possible, and then modify your concept to work with the resources you have.

I will tell you something about NYC health inspections. I have no problem with the grading system in principle. It makes sense that people should have an easy way to know if a restaurant has issues with cleanliness or food safety. However, the system as implemented in NYC has very little to do with this goal. Before the grading system, I used to average about 2 inspections per year per establishment. The inspectors would write up violations, and point out any other issues that weren't actual violations but could lead to problems. They would suggest fixes. When they came back, they would check to see if problems from the previous visit had been addressed. After the first couple visits, it was common to have visits with no violations. After the grading system, I get 4-6 inspections per year per establishment (and this is with A grades. I hear it is even more frequent if you get lower grades.) The inspector writes up violations, but does not discuss them or any other conditions with you. I have never had a visit that did not result in at least 2 violations after the grade system was instituted (you can get up to 14 points and still get an A.) The next time an inspector comes (almost always a different person), they write up totally different violations that were not mentioned in the previous inspection. According to both anecdotal and statistical studies conducted by the city council, I am not alone in this experience. The health department has increased the amount of revenue from restaurant fines to around triple what it was before the letter grades. They continue to add complexity to the food service codes, which now fill a book the size an old city phone book (if anyone remembers those.) Even the inspectors usually aren't familiar with all the rules. They pick and choose what to enforce in order to meet quotas for violations. If the goal of the system were public safety, and if it were working, then I believe the number of A grades should increase over time as more restaurants clean up and come into compliance. Instead, the proporation of different letter grades has stayed constant over time, with a lot of movement back and forth between A and B grades for many establishments. I am frustrated as an owner because I am trying to comply with the codes, but they are so complicated and enforcement is so inconsistent that I probably need a consultant (guess who that would be - retired health department inspectors.)