I'll preface this rant by saying I haven't been to the Arbol Cafe and it's not likely I ever will. I stumbled onto this article and comments in City Paper about this restaurant located north of Spring Garden in NoLibs.
I worked in food service from ages 16-22 and the best part about being a waitress is the tips. So the issue here is that the owners are paying their staff $7 bucks and hour and taking their tips - without telling the general public. For anyone who has worked in food service you know this is a raw deal. To make matters worse they claim that they're paying their waitstaff more than minimum wage so that customers don't need to tip - interesting considering no one seemed to know that. Aside from the fact that I don't know any waitress that would work for minimum wage, isn't that the point of dealing with everyone's BS with a smile - to make good money.
In a city that has one of the highest tip averages in the country, it's shameful to 1. take tips without telling the customers or 2. not make the patrons aware of this practice. I'm happy to pay for a meal, I am not happy to give another 20% to the owner, just because.
I would also like to point out what happens when you pay an hourly wage to service staff - it's called most of Europe. This is the one time I miss home while traveling. How on earth would this scenario motivate anyone to serve you well? Obviously there are good servers in other countries, but I believe that we have consistently more attentive service here than anywhere else I've dined. Come to think of it, even in Europe they let their servers keep the lousy 5% you might choose to leave. A tip is a tip - it's for service rendered by a human being, not the decor you provide.
So here's a restaurant that I would encourage you to not try. Who cares if the food is good, the owners need to get a clue.
Update: In all fairness I'm posting the owner's response. Perhaps if she had properly explained herself in her original post on City Paper this wouldn't have been such a big hub-bub. Apparently the Consumerist also picked up the mud slinging - I love a good Philly fight.
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2 comments:
We always have and always will tip our employees. It's fine to have an opinion on tipping, but please make sure you have the facts straight if you are going to mention a business name.
Please, find a way to undo the slanderous remarks against us.
These people are classic bad communicators. Isn't that what got them into this mess in the first place. Had they read the post they would have seen I posted their response in the post weeks ago. Idiots.
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