No-tip trend slow to catch on at Hawaii restaurants
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Manager Richard Smith serves Stacie Kukino and Ross Pascual at Urban Bistro, believed to be Honolulu’s first no-tip restaurant. The couple said they appreciate the policy
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Urban Bistro is believed to be the first no-tip restaurant in Honolulu. Story is about the no-tip restaurant trend. Notice on menu about no tip.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
“It is chosen to encourage everyone to work as a team and focus on the right priorities in gratitude for (customers’) business and not for gratuity.” Richard Smith Manager, Urban Bistro, on the restaurant’s no-tipping policy
Nestled in a cozy, L-shaped space at the newly constructed 808 Center on Sheridan Street, Urban Bistro opened its doors in August as a no-tip restaurant, following an increasingly popular trend in cosmopolitan U.S. cities such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco.
“It’s working out really well for the customers and the staff,” said owner Margaret Lin.
The issue gained traction nationally in October when New York restaurateur Danny Meyer announced that tipping would be eliminated — and wages increased — at all 13 restaurants in his Union Square Hospitality Group, including the Modern inside the Museum of Modern Art. In California, restaurants like Atelier Crenn in San Francisco and Comal, a Mexican eatery in Berkeley, eliminated tipping, adding a 20 percent service charge instead.
The no-tipping movement is meant to address the inequity between front-of-the-house staff such as servers, who get tips, and back-of-the-house workers such as cooks and dishwashers, who do not.
Still, few restaurants here have embraced the no-tipping formula, although there’s evidence customers would appreciate it.
Urban Bistro surveyed diners when it first opened and found support for the no-tip concept. Although patrons place orders by marking their choices on a sticky note, servers, called hosts, deliver the orders, pour drinks and clear plates. The restaurant does not add a service charge to the tab, but factors it into menu prices in order to pay its 10 workers above minimum wage. Still, Lin said the restaurant’s menu prices remain competitive with other eateries.
“It is chosen to encourage everyone to work as a team and focus on the right priorities in gratitude for (customers’) business and not for gratuity,” said manager Richard Smith. “When the team succeeds, the customers are happy. When the customers are happy, the company succeeds. When the company succeeds, it can reward all the employees accordingly in the form of higher wages and more benefits.”
Gregg Fraser, executive director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association, said he thinks local businesses are waiting to see how the trend develops on the mainland.
“There are too many variables for anyone to jump right out and say this is the way to go,” he said.
There are about 3,200 eating and drinking establishments in Hawaii, accounting for 58,300 jobs, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Under the 2016 tip credit law, Hawaii employers may pay up to 75 cents an hour less than minimum wage — currently $8.50 per hour — if the employee receives enough tips so that they are pocketing $15.50 per hour.
Hank Adaniya, a former Chicago restaurateur who runs Hank’s Haute Dogs in Kakaako, said he likes the no-tip idea in principle but that it might take a long time for people here to get used to it.
“In Hawaii, especially, people want to do it because there’s a disparity between the pay and our cost of living,” he said. “It’s almost mandatory to help out.”
Hank’s is a quick-service restaurant where customers order and pick up at a counter, with no tips required. Even then, Adaniya said he put out a tip jar after six months in business because customers suggested it.
An informal survey of diners at Urban Bistro indicates many are ready for the shift in dining culture.
Suzanne Uratani of Makiki said she is a conscientious diner who supports restaurants that emphasize locally sourced ingredients and provide value for her money.
“Couple that with my social-justice sense that every worker deserves a living wage and it’s a given that I would support the no-tipping idea,” she said.
Kristine Choy of Honolulu said she liked the convenience of not having to deal with tipping.
“I know exactly how much I’m going to spend,” she said. “The tips and tax (are) already built into the price of the food and become hassle-free in the end.”
Depending on the quality of service, Choy typically tips between 18 and 20 percent of the bill. She said she had a great experience with the service at Urban Bistro despite not leaving a tip.
Bill Comerford, owner of several Irish pubs, including Kelley O’Neil’s and the Irish Rose Saloon in Waikiki, said he doesn’t think a no-tipping policy would work in the bar trade.
“It’s cultural in the U.S.,” he said. “Part of the business of getting a drink is knowing your bartender, and you get to know your bartender by tipping him.”
Comerford, who sometimes finds himself explaining the practice of tipping to visitors from places where it’s not customary, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan, said it’s an American tradition to reward those who give prompt and attentive service.
“Some guys make good tips because they give good service,” he said.
Laura Woodall, a bartender at Cha Cha Cha Salsaria in Hawaii Kai, agreed. Without tips, Woodall feels her rapport with customers would suffer.
“A lot of customers have been my customers for 10 years,” said Woodall, a single mom with more than 25 years of experience as a server and bartender.
“No matter how high they raise the wage, I don’t think it would make up for (the tips from) the great customers I’ve built over the years.”
38 responses to “No-tip trend slow to catch on at Hawaii restaurants”
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Tipping should be based on several factors especially service. If good, tip a lot. If lousy, tip less. This concept eliminates the customer’s decision.
Exactly. And I always tip in cash. Uncle Sam and the employer have no business knowing how much I tip an employee.
There are times when 20% is not enough for the great service you get! Cash is the only way to tip. Good wait staff will always make a meal better but great food will not help bad service! I don’t and won’t patronize no tipping establishments! Well Zippy’s maybe!
20% is kinda plenty, I thought 15 was standard.
There was a time when 10 percent was standard. But people get greedy.
Percent tipping only applies when you are spending over a hundred bucks. You really going to give just fifteen cent on a dollar bill?
Tita Girl – Nice try but doesn’t work that way. When you file taxes as a restaurant worker, the IRS automatically knows about how much you earn, you have to file for it. Same for the place of work. You must report it to them.
Cash is better than adding it to the bill as the worker gets it all immediately. Tip on a credit card and the business deducts a processing fee, you get paid later.
Learn what you did not know. https://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Reporting-Tip-Income-Restaurant-Tax-Tips
You’re right. Uncle Sam does a guesstimate of tips. But, it’s STILL not their business or the employers business how much I tip. 20% may be standard, but if they provide excellent service, I’ll always give more. Some of us worked our way thru school as servers, and we remember the lean times.
I don’t like it. What if you get bad service you’re still obligated to pay the same amount.
I just went to Japan where there’s no tipping. I got excellent service everywhere I went.
No tipping has been a part of Japanese culture for decades. They believe all work is honorable, must be done to the best of your ability, always be professional.
Sad to say this is one area the USA hasn’t got a clue, never will.
You pretty much stated what I was going to. I’ve been told by several people that many Japanese workers feel somewhat insulted by the thought of tipping. It’s like saying, “the only way I can get you to do your job is to bribe you”. BTW, I got similar responses to tips in Australia. In fact, one cab driver not only didn’t take a tip, he rounded the fare down, not up.
One must examine the tab carefully. Japanese establishments usually add a service charge which in essence the establishment uses to augment their employees wages.
The work ethic is waaaaayyy higher in Japan. THAT’S the difference. It has nothing to do with expected, or unexpected tipping.
Tipping is a dumb practice. If I get a great meal I think the cook who prepared it is more deserving of a tip than the person who carried it from the kitchen to my table.
I leave a tip regardless if the service was good or bad. They deserve it for trying.
No Tickee, No Washee
No tickee, no washee
A familiar old refrain
From the beginning of time
The rules are the same
Treat fellow beings
With love and respect
You’ll get back in spades
The admiration you expect
Not sure how your comment relates to the issue at hand. “No tickee no washee” means, in the setting of a laundromat/dry cleaner, that if you don’t have a “ticket” to claim your clothes, then you don’t get your “washed” clothes. It has nothing to do with tipping.
…ward is at a 0.10 BAL.
I tip regardless of the quality of service. Can’t expect a kid to know everything about life.
“no tipping” should be a standard practice, not the other way around! If service is outstanding, you goin tip ’em, right? It’s the thing to do, but…you should not be forced to tip (especially when the restaurant pushes it upon you in the fine print at the bottom of the menu “gratuity is expected” or “15% gratuity will be added to your bill”!!!
I’ve never felt forced to tip. I generally tip 20%, sometimes more if its exceptional. I put myself through college on tips, sometimes making $100-$120 a night for 5 hours work, but I busted my rear. so I know good service. However, when service is bad, they do not deserve a tip. It has nothing to do with how the food tastes! The server is not the cook. Tip based on service. A few years back at a fine dining restaurant in Waikiki I paid my bill, tipped 5% – poor rude service, probably deserved nothing, and walked out and a server (of foreign origin) ran after me and said “this is not 15%” as he showed me the cash. I gently took the cash from his hands and said “now its 0%” and I walked out. Gratuity is just that, a gratuity. I’d rather pay a gratuity than higher prices in the restaurant. You will see a lot of servers go elsewhere if they go to a minimim wage standard IF they are good at their jobs.
I agree w/no tipping. I think 20% is far too much. Soon they’ll be asking 25%! That’s one of the good things about traveling overseas; no tipping!
And competent, if not gushingly bubbly service (get tired of that here in the States). Germany has the best service.
And Paris has the worst. Such snotty people.
Paris Hilton?
I disagree with this. Raising the prices so non-tipping will only increase what the establishments make. They will be part of the price increase. There is non- tipping jobs and tipping jobs. While working in tipping jobs the goal is to give the customers the best service you can or be someone who doesn’t make much tip. Standards of 15 to 20 percent tip is also wrong cause people(some) in these positions expect a tip without giving adequate service. Like a taxi which just transport a client without luggage and expect a tip or transport a client with luggage and not assist the client. Do bus drivers get tips??
Ilove that picture on the wall. I wonder if anyone has walked into it yet.
Wow, thats a picture? I was trying to figure out where that was. 🙂
you’re not the only one. kept thinking that’s not the sheridan street i know.
My puppies never walk into a wall because they are always sniffing it out first. Maybe humans should do the same thing?
TIPS are for outstanding service and shouldn’t be considered as a part of their pay. TIPS were originally given at the ordering of a meal “TO INSURE PROMPT SERVICE”. Later it became standard to tip at the end of a meal, where it could be determined if the service was very good or substandard. I will never dine in a restaurant where the TIP is automatically added to the bill.
I don’t tip, period. Wait help were lousy tippers when I was a busboy. I finally graduated from Med School. Now you can look for my tips. Get a college degree.
Kinda lost aren’t you? How many people working for tips have or are working on college degrees? Just part of business.
Sounds like you want people to work for free?
YES! And now, “BIG PHARMA” is tipping you–BIG TIME!!
20% added to the bill you are nuts !!!! go japan , much better service and no tipping . everyone think they are automatically entitled here
Of course the customers support a no-tipping restaurant UNTIL they see a 20% service charge added to their bill, or the menu prices increase. Then, they re-evaluate their opinion of the newly adopted practice, which to them formerly seemed to be such “a good deal”.