COURTESY THE MODERN
If you tip poorly after eating a meal in New York, you might get a dirty look (or worse) from your server, but, starting next month, that will no longer be the case at the Modern, MoMA’s tony ground-floor restaurant.
The New York Times reports that the Modern will be the first of 13 restaurants owned by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group to adopt a no-tipping policy—the other 12 will follow suit by the end of the year. Among those restaurants are Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Café, and Marta.
Since it was revamped in 2005, the Modern, which looks out onto MoMA’s sculpture garden, has earned two Michelin stars and positive reviews from critics.
Meyer told that the Times that, by adopting this new policy, he was hoping to be able to pay chefs and other kitchen workers more. Servers will be paid wages comparable to their current tip-based incomes. Menu items will have their prices increased to offset the new pay scales. He cited imbalances between what the kitchen staff versus the dining-room staff were making and the need to keep good talent making food as impulses for this change. As Meyer put it, “it is not going to be sustainable to attract the culinary talent that the city needs to keep its edge.”