A restaurateur and former advocate of a no-tipping model has reverted back to being gratuity-friendly in his restaurants - after the increased cost of dishes turned customers away.
Andrew Tarlow, the owner of Brooklyn restaurants Roman’s, Diner, Achilles Heel, and Marlow & Sons, was one of the first to embrace the new style of dining in America where gratuity is included in the price of the meal - after other big names in the food industry such as Danny Meyer revealed their intentions to do the same.
Although tipping is expected at most American establishments, there is a short-but-growing list of restaurants that have opted out of tipping in favour of simply increasing prices and raising hourly rates of employees.
But for Mr Tarlow and the restaurants under his Marlow Collective, the new model wasn’t as successful as he’d hoped - as the 20 per cent increase to menu prices at Diner and Marlow were enough to convince customers to go elsewhere, according to Eater.
In a statement to the food news site, Mr Tarlow said his goal had been to lessen the wage gap between restaurant employees, but that removing tips had created “new challenges.”
“It’s become impossible to ignore that removing tips has created new challenges that we are unable to solve, chiefly that prices have hit a peak that the market cannot bear,” he said.
According to Mr Tarlow, who confirmed menu prices would decrease again, in order for a gratuity-free model to be “sustainable,” the public has to realise the price of eating out when tips are not part of the equation - and be willing to pay the difference.
“As an industry we struggle with communicating to consumers the true cost of dining out,” Mr Tarlow, who will begin accepting tips again on December 17, explained.
Mr Tarlow is not the first to experiment with the method and subsequently abandon it after realising it was driving away customers.
Claus Meyer, the owner of Agern in Grand Central, decided to do the same when he realised his prices were impacting business after originally opening the restaurant as tip-free in 2016, The New Yorker reported.
Apart from alienating customers, gratuity-free models can also have other negative effects - on both customers and employees.
For many American diners, the idea of skipping a custom ingrained in American culture can feel uncomfortable - and for servers, even with a higher minimum wage, the amount they earn can still be lower when it is not supplemented with tips.
Despite the issues surrounding the experimental practice, there are still some restaurants in the country giving it a try - with a Reddit spreadsheet noting more than 200 establishments that have eliminated gratuity.
The Independent has contacted Mr Tarlow for comment.
