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SF Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work

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Re: SF Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work

#61

Post by bsimpson »

Souvla is a bad example. They have like 3 kinds of wrap (or salad, if you prefer no grains) and frozen yogurt. It's basically SF's version of Chipotle, or a Greek themed taqueria. It's quick-casual comfort food, and as in both those examples, counter service. There are countless examples of quick casual, counter service restaurants serving medium quality food all over the country (including The Grove, which has been a staple of SF for 20 years).

If you were ordering $25 ravioli plates at the counter, that would be a different story. Or, they could focus on restaurants that have moved to counter service as they've expanded (like Hawker Faire, or apparently Dosa). But to spend most of the article making a big deal about Souvla being counter service makes it a misleading waste of time.

Re: SF Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work

#62

Post by JackCh »

listenallyall wrote: post #53
sincerely wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those tip jars are basically a "if you don't want to deal with coinage or $1 dollar bills, we'll take it off your hand" option. You won't be thought poorly of for not tipping at a cafe or counter-service restaurant the same way you would be for not tipping a regular waiter.

Thanks Starbucks, for taking those dollar bills off my hands so I don't have to deal with them! How convenient of you! The homeless guy outside will also perform the same service, by the way, but I wouldn't be "supporting a living wage" if I gave him the money instead of your baristas.

Starbucks isn't taking anything; they are receiving from people who give willingly. If you choose to give them your money, you've got nobody but yourself to blame. In the case of tip jars at counters you can't even blame social pressure, participating in such a scheme is completely voluntary and most people do not.

Re: SF Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work

#63

Post by 40four »

ibejoeb wrote: post #2

That's a cafeteria. My favorite dining experience in SF was when I got half of a deviled egg for $9, and the server was just too fucking bothered to tell me that I should order another half for my date. I'll bet they're still going to try to slip in the "healthcare" fee for the non-existent full timers. Just one more thing: people will absolutely pay $20 for a burger. Many places sell more expensive burgers, and at s…

Haha! You are correct. Establishments like this are technically just glorified cafeterias at this point. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cafeteria

Calling it a "restaurant" is a misnomer. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/restaurant

Re: SF Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work

#64

Post by toomanybeersies »

I don't think this is really a particularly new concept.

I think that there are two factors that have fuelled the rise of this type of restaurant. The first is that people are eschewing more formal dining for casual joints. When was the last time anyone went on a date to an actual fine dining establishment? Let alone gone to one with friends.

Secondly, this isn't fine dining dressing down, but rather greasy spoons dressing up. Souva just looks like a hipster version of a the kebab shop around the corner from me run by an old Lebanese bloke. A lot of these places, for better or worse, are ethnic food joints that are owned and operated by white people (to put it bluntly). I've seen a lot of these pop up recently. They're a hipster, more expensive version of traditional ethnic food. Vietnamese and Chinese seem to be particularly popular.

Re: SF Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work

#65

Post by dang »

ww520 wrote: post #7
niftich wrote: post #5

Last discussed 9 hours prior; at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17394551

It seems like the media team at NYTimes has pushed things too far, pushing dup's to the front page a bit too often.

It's easy enough to see for yourself via https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=nytimes.com that it isn't "the media team at NYTimes" who's posting most of these. As for dupes, they happen every day.

Re: SF Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work

#66

Post by JackCh »

everdev wrote: post #22

In Santa Cruz we have a bar with no bartenders. It's fantastic. Scan your bracelet (linked to your CC), pour yourself whatever beer on tap you want and pay only for the once you pour. Want one once of 16 different beers? No problem. Can't get that experience at a traditional bar. The seating is more like a restaurant, so no one is sitting by themselves staring at a wall full of hard alcohol, everyone is facing the ro…

> "Want one once of 16 different beers? No problem."

If I want one pint of 16 different beers, will it comply or will it cut me off for being visibly intoxicated?

Re: SF Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work

#67

Post by listenallyall »

JackCh wrote: post #62
listenallyall wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks Starbucks, for taking those dollar bills off my hands so I don't have to deal with them! How convenient of you! The homeless guy outside will also perform the same service, by the way, but I wouldn't be "supporting a living wage" if I gave him the money instead of your baristas.

Starbucks isn't taking anything; they are receiving from people who give willingly. If you choose to give them your money, you've got nobody but yourself to blame. In the case of tip jars at counters you can't even blame social pressure, participating in such a scheme is completely voluntary and most people do not.

Your argument is reductive. ALL tips are given willingly.

Starbucks could, at any moment, bar individual stores from placing a tip jar at their registers. Just like McDonald's. No tips, no issue, no should I or shouldn't I?

Re: SF Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work

#68

Post by JackCh »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #51
acchow wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are people who tip the fedex or ups courier? I didn’t even consider this was a possibility.

Some people tip their garbage collector: http://www.mymoneyblog.com/how-do-i-tip-the-trash-collector.... From a foreign perspective, where I don't think I've ever tipped anyone in my life, it's absolutely bizarre.

Tipping a garbage collector is bizarre from an American perspective too.

Re: SF Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work

#69

Post by JackCh »

listenallyall wrote: post #67
JackCh wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starbucks isn't taking anything; they are receiving from people who give willingly. If you choose to give them your money, you've got nobody but yourself to blame. In the case of tip jars at counters you can't even blame social pressure, participating in such a scheme is completely voluntary and most people do not.

Your argument is reductive. ALL tips are given willingly. Starbucks could, at any moment, bar individual stores from placing a tip jar at their registers. Just like McDonald's. No tips, no issue, no should I or shouldn't I?

Tips to wait staff are voluntary but have significant social pressure behind them. Tip jars at counters have no social pressure behind them. That's not reductive, that's just the practical reality of tipping culture in America. If you refuse to tip a waitress a very significant portion of the American population will consider you tantamount to a thief, a morally bankrupt person. Refusing to put your change in the tip jar doesn't even cause people to bat an eye. The social dynamics between these two scenarios are worlds apart. Ignoring these disparate social dynamics is reductive.

If you're going to be outraged that Starbucks offers you the opportunity to tip people at the counter, perhaps I should feign outrage that you spend your money on starbucks instead of making your own coffee and giving the difference to the homeless. Starbucks has a significant profit margin after all; that is money you could be donating!

Re: SF Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work

#70

Post by philliphaydon »

keiferski wrote: post #46
philliphaydon wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait there’s cafe where you don’t go to the counter? I’m from NZ and living in Singapore and traveled all around Asia, never been in a cafe where I didn’t have to go to the counter...

At most cafes in France and Spain, you are expected to sit down and have the waiter come to you.

Oh the Wife wants to go back to France. She’s been, I haven’t. Hah I look forward to this trip now.
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