Should automatic gratuities be removed?

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20: Is it time for restaurants to ditch the automatic gratuity system?

Rick Olson, owner of the Bistro at the Beach and the not yet opened Red, said he sees some merit in the idea.

Pam Quarterly, owner of Chopsticks and Rosa’s, said if the Chamber of Commerce’s restaurant division moved in that direction, she would back it, but it would have to be something all restaurants do.

Mr Olson said: “There are a lot of pros and cons to both sides of the issue.

“You would hopefully get better service if you got rid of it.

“Our payroll system has been based on it for the past 20 years or so.”

Mr Olson said his new high-end restaurant Red will open in late summer.

“There will be several people who serve a table — you’ll have a sommelier, a waiter, a maitre’d and you could have someone pouring the water, the server, You might have a runner  — someone delivering the food — so there could be close to eight people serving the table.

“The question then becomes, how do you divide up the tips? That’s what the problem is if you don’t have the gratuity system.”

He said that’s in contrast to The Beach which may only have one or two people serve a table.

“I find the gratuity system really doesn’t work in a small environment because the incentive is not there for the server to provide the attentiveness that the job really requires.

“My biggest gripe as an owner, is I’m not seeing them up sell as they should. If they order a vodka, they should try and up sell them for a premium brand like Grey Goose.

“For dinner, try to sell them a dessert or a cup of coffee to increase the average price of the bill. That benefits everybody. The server gets more tips and I make more money. I don’t see that going on in most restaurants in Bermuda.” 

Mr Olson said staff in successful restaurants are generally happy with their take home pay, then they are not inclined to up sell and do a better job because they are happy with the money they are making.

Bad habits

He said that many servers “end up getting into bad habits, that they don’t know what good service is any more.

“There are not many restaurants in Bermuda that really do it right because our standards have dropped that far.”

Mr Olson said one of his favourite restaurants in Bermuda is Mad Hatters and they don’t have gratuities.

“They seem very successful. Swizzle Inn doesn’t put gratuities on either and they have two restaurants in Bermuda and they are always busy.”

Ms Quarterly said when the system switched over to gratuities Chopsticks and Rosa’s were one of the last ones to go to automatic gratuities.

“Ideally, we want the service to reflect the gratuity. In years past, if the service was really good, people would tip far more than 15 or 17 per cent, which is great.

“If it is standardized, if a restaurant doesn’t do it, then everyone thinks it’s already on there, then they don’t leave a tip.

She added: “That’s why we went ahead and changed over years ago because people kept thinking it was on there and we weren’t charging them an automatic gratuity.”

She said this left the wait staff getting stiffed in tips.

“They would end up getting nothing when they gave really good service.

“Whatever is decided to do in Bermuda, needs to be across the board and consistent because… for the poor consumer it gets confusing if one restaurant does it and another doesn’t.

“I don’t have any opposition to no additional gratuity except it has to be consistent across the island.”