Starting with The Modern, Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group will phase out tipping to all of its properties over the course of 2016.
The new pricing is being marketed as "Hospitality Included." That means the price of a menu item (plus tax) is all that guests are expected to pay. There won't even be a tip line on the check.
Meyer said the practice of tipping was an obstacle in the company's efforts to "provide even more meaningful career opportunities and advancement for our 1,800 employees."
"There are countless laws and regulations that determine which positions in a restaurant may, and may not share in gratuities," he wrote.
We believe hospitality is a team sport, and that it takes an entire team to provide you with the experiences you have come to expect from us. Unfortunately, many of our colleagues - our cooks, reservationists, and dishwashers to name a few - aren't able to share in our guests' generosity, even though their contributions are just as vital to the outcome of your experience at one of our restaurants.
- Danny Meyer
He added that the total cost of meals "won't differ much from what you pay now."
Bret Thorn, of the Nation's Restaurant News, writes, "A number of restaurants have done away with voluntary tipping, instead adding a service charge of around 18 percent to 20 percent onto each check. What Meyer is doing is markedly different, because he's actually raising prices on the menu, by a lot."
In a world in which human beings were always logical and rational, that wouldn't be a problem. They'd see the higher price on the menu - let's say up by 20 percent from $35 to $42 - and, understanding that they were not expected to tip, they would do the math (in that hypothetical world people would love doing math) and know that they were actually paying the same amount as they were before. Hurray!
- Bret Thorn
Read more of Bret's commentary here.