Kentucky Restaurant Bans Patrons From Tipping and Will Pay Their Waiters Instead

 

FB – Packhouse Meats isn’t just known for their food, rather, they’re known for their very public ban on tipping. The Kentucky restaurant opened earlier this year and with it a decree that no server will receive tips in any way, shape, or form. The floor of the establishment even features a giant picture of a hand with the words NO TIPPING in bright red, in case there was any confusing regarding the rule. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, owner Bob Conway implemented the policy as he felt it took advantage of the servers. Conway did find a way to make up for lack of tip money going towards his servers, however, by creating a system where servers can make either $10 an hour or 20 percent of their individual food sales each shift. Whichever ends up being higher at the end of the night. The system was designed to give servers a reasonable incentive to make sales rather than depend on what the customer feels like tipping at the end of the meal. Customers who pay with a credit will notice that there isn’t even a line for tips on the receipts. While the policy was made in the interests of his employees, Conway has received some backlash for it. One particular concern was that it took away any incentive to provide good service once menu sales have been made. Tips, after all, are the safety nets between servers and customers that provide a sense of security with their foods. However, as long as my food arrives hot and my drinks loogie-free, I’m happy.

 

Just real quick about this because if there’s something tons of people know about, it’s how miserable being a waiter is. Your fearless DMV blogger right here waited tables at a fancy Italian restaurant known as the Olive Garden, and boy, it fucking sucked. Waiting tables pretty much everywhere is exactly like you see in the move Waiting, except it’s not a movie, it’s your actual life. Your livelihood literally depends on your ability to refill soup and salad bowls and for the people you are slaving over to give you a reasonable amount of money to do it. It’s fucking miserable. And you have to deal with all the bullshit faux-drama that the restaurant lifers always bring up, because they’re working at the OG for life and you’re just trying not to drop a root beer on someone’s head while hung over. So as I was saying, working for tips at a restaurant fucking sucked. If the host didn’t like you, they’d give you the obviously poor people who weren’t going to tip no matter what. Sometimes you get stuck with the ladies who will sit there and talk for 4 hours so you lose a table from your section. And let’s not even talk about when they would try to get you to sing happy birthday. Fuck you, I’m not singing happy birthday, I have to get this microwaved lasagna to my table in hopes they leave me 15% (which by the way, isn’t nearly enough of a tip. Always go 20+% if you get good service). So as I was saying, working in restaurants is the worst, and this one taking away tips is making it somewhat more less suicide-inducing.