Why This Trendy NYC Restaurant Banned Tips

NEW YORK — Amanda Cohen is attempting a radical experiment for Manhattan restaurants: no tipping. And so far, the chef of revered vegetarian eatery Dirt Candy said, she hasn’t received a single complaint from customers.

When Dirt Candy reopened earlier this month on the Lower East Side, Cohen banned tipping. Instead, every bill includes a 20 percent administration fee, which provides an extra revenue stream that’s used to pay the servers and kitchen staff steady, livable wages.

“Since this started, especially since the minimum wage is getting increased in this city, I’ve had a lot of chefs in a lot of restaurants call me and ask me how I’ve done,” Cohen, 40, told The Huffington Post. “I do think that tipping is actually on its way out.”

The 20 percent administration fee helps resolve these issues without forcing Dirt Candy to raise its menu prices to levels that might deter customers.

“Over the last number of years in restaurant culture, we’ve kept our prices low and outsourced the paying of wages to the front-end staff to the customers,” Cohen said. “That’s how we get away with it.”

The Huffington Post