Finally, a business owner who gets it!!!!

There's a small, but growing number of restaurants who are eschewing the "normal" tradition of tipping and I think this is a fantastic trend. I have long been against tipping and it's one of the reasons that I hardly go to restaurants. It's bad enough that restaurant food is pricey (it's impossible to find value anymore), but what really gets me is when I'm expected to pay the business owners' staff twice--once via the menu prices and the other via direct tipping.

Tipping is a typically American custom and it's a lousy one. I lived in Europe for 10 years and never had to tip anyone and the people who served me, whether they worked at restaurants or anywhere else, were totally fine with it.

But nowadays here in the U.S. you can't go anywhere without someone sticking their hand out. Let their damn employers pay their salaries! (Greedy bastards!).

Anyway, check this out:

A recent move by Sushi Yasuda, a high-end Japanese eatery in New York, to prohibit customers from leaving gratuities — the restaurant raised menu prices by roughly 15% to cover waitstaff salaries — is prompting discussion about whether the no-tip movement could reach, well, a tipping point. And it is a definite movement: Such renowned restaurants as Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York and French Laundry in Yountville, Calif.; Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif.; and Grant Achatz’s Alinea in Chicago have similar policies in place. So did the recently closed Linkery restaurant in San Diego, where owner Jay Porter found that service improved because of the policy, despite widespread beliefs that the tradition of tipping fosters a culture of accountability. Porter’s argument? Having a reliable income is empowering. “If you don’t have to think about money, you can focus on doing your job well,” he wrote earlier this month.

This guy is sooooo freakin' right. I wish more employers had his attitude, it would save the damn economy. I want to email him and tell him how smart and wonderful he his.