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Friday, July 12, 2002
As I've said before, in this world there be dreamers and there be doers. Here's another doer: A guy at work is leaving this week to go be a chef. I'm not sure where, but, hey, that's neat! I understand through the grapevine that he's been taking classes, apprenticing with a caterer (catering seems to be a common route to chefdom) and moonlighting at Fox & Obel.
posted by Luke Seemann at 9:59 AM | 1 comment
Thursday, July 11, 2002
According to the Tribune (login: fuck_registration; password: gocubs), toques are out and hats are in. Even more popular than the hat, the story says, is the doctor's scrub cap. (When I take the El home late at night after work, it's often just me and a few chefs, recognizable in their chef's pants and baseball caps bearing logos for whatever River North chain they work for.)
The traditionalist in me would like to see a return to the toque, but I say we let our chefs wear whatever they're most comfortable in.
posted by Luke Seemann at 4:24 PM | Comment?
Wednesday, July 10, 2002
Kristen wonders what we think about a tipless restaurant. (That's t-i-p-l-e-s-s.)
I'm not sure who would benefit in a tipless restaurant. Would the wait staff appreciate the added security of getting paid, say, $15 an hour instead of $2 plus tips? In order to do so, we'd have to add a dollar or two to each entree and somehow do it without scaring away diners. We'd have to make clear to diners that tipping was discouraged, but would they appreciate being saved the hassle of doing gratuity math?
What about the waiters' incentive for quick, polite work? Perhaps there's a middle ground: Pay them a higher wage -- $6? $8? -- but then give them a cut of all dessert purchases. If a waiter has done a poor job, the customer will be less inclined to stay for our killer creme brulee, right?
Tipping, for all its vagaries, seems too ingrained in our culture to monkey with. Gratuities are included in the check in Germany, for instance, but when I was there I still felt compelled to leave a few euro on the table. I couldn't help myself. (Now that I think on it, service was pretty spotty, especially this guy.)
I don't know. I'm all for paying our wait staff as much as possible, but going tipless -- t-i-p-l-e-s-s -- just seems unamerican. Start paying them a decent wage on a Monday and by Tuesday they'll be demanding health care, 8 weeks of vacation and daily backrubs like those malingerers in France. Oui!
Do they tip in Cuba? In Beijing? In Toronto?
posted by Luke Seemann at 8:48 PM | 20 comments
Tuesday, July 09, 2002
J. Thomas wrote in to point us to an article on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal on the struggle of independent restaurants in the face of the expanding girth of chain restaurants. (Paid registration is required; read a reproduction here for free.)
This problem of homogenization is exactly why some of us live in the city in the first place, instead of the 'burbs, and now that it's taking over our restaurants, too, I'm seriously discouraged. The reasons to frequent your local, independent restaurant/bookstore/whatever are plentiful, but I happen to feel most strongly about the one that's also mentioned in the article:
But how does a small business onwer convince customers that it's in their best interest to shop locally? Not sure it's possible, especially without an advertising budget on par with the chains'. The best tactic may be to draw them in under the "if you can't beat them, join them, sort of" philosophy. From the article:
posted by sandor weisz at 12:43 PM | 1 comment
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