People often complain about the service some waiters and waitresses provide to them in restaurants, so how can this problem be fixed? By cutting the servers out of the equation altogether, according to one restaurateur based in L.A.
Chef Phillip Frankland Lee is the owner, operator and head chef of Scratch Bar and Kitchen on La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills, or at least that's where it used to be. After shutting down that location, Lee is opening up a brand new Scratch Bar location on December 1st, 2015, in Encino, California.
The only difference between the new and old locations? The new one won't be employing servers, but will instead have the kitchen employees (including the cooks) delivering the food to the tables themselves.
While everyone's immediate assumption is that Lee just hates servers, the reality of it is much less spiteful and actually makes pretty good sense.
“I hate it when I go to a restaurant and someone takes my order and they don’t know the menu,” Lee said. “I wanted to have a situation where the only guy you’re talking to is someone in the kitchen cooking.”
Instead of having a new server bumbling over the ingredients of a particular dish or running back to the kitchen to dig up details after every question, the cooks will be available to give detailed information to the guests in regards to their food, providing much more thorough answers to any questions the visitors might have.
Since there won't be any servers, effectively eliminating the need for tipping, each bill will come with an 18 percent service charge. Lee believes that this is a better way of paying his employees, claiming that he will be able to give them livable salaries now rather than simply providing them with the minimum wage.
The war against tipping is beginning to take shape. Which side are you on?
