Eating Out In Mendocino County

A collection of online comments…

[1] I recently ordered food to go from the website. Once I got home I questioned the amount I was charged. The order would have come to $39 plus tax, but I was charged $51. Not realizing it at the time, I added a tip on top of that amount. I called the next day to question the discrepancy and was told that there is a 15% “gratuity” added to EVERY order. In addition, I had been charged an extra $2.70 by mistake. After some discussion the person I spoke with offered to refund the $2.70 plus the additional tip I had paid.

[2] Same practice at the Good Life Cafe in Mendo. Unfair; a tip should be the customer’s choice. So now the choice is not to patronize places that do this.

[3] Same at Fog Eaters. A birthday meal had a mandatory 20% tip added. The food was delicious — however we did not use the facilities, dishes, delivery, or wait staff. I won’t do this again per my budget needs. Glad though to support our local restauranteurs during these hard times and very grateful for the delicious and innovative vegan fare provided by Fog Eaters.

[4] I can tell ya’all never worked in the service industry. If you can afford to eat out, you can afford to tip your server. End of story. Less than 20% is rude. I do agree that the establishment should be upfront about their policy before the customer pays. The Goodlife staff tells me every time that a tip has already been added.

[5] I’d like to hear from a few wait- and behind-the-scenes staff people. Are they actually getting the tips added to the meal totals? And who gets the tips we leave on top of the added on tip that we didn’t notice? 

[6] Having kids that worked the restaurants through high school, college and beyond, I saw how they depended on tips. In North Carolina, where they now reside, I think the restaurant owners pay them a minimum wage of $2/hr and some change. (Because they get tips.) Fortunately for the servers in California they get a wage plus tips. I remember my dad telling me some history of tips. What I recall is that the monetary incentive was placed on the table prior to ordering and that TIP stood for “To Insure Promptness.” Do we leave a tip for poor service? Also, do you tip a business owner since they’re already making the profit on the meal? How much is tipping an act of compassion and how much is it an act of expressing appreciation for great service? 

[7] The Good Life Cafe says the “gratuity” is so their employees can have a livable wage. I think livable wage is important and they should pay their employees a livable wage. If that means they have to raise their prices that’s fine, then customers know the true cost of the item they are buying instead of paying an additional tax that is called a “gratuity.” 

[8] I know of one local business that has a 20% charge added. That money is split between ALL the workers— cashiers, wait staff, cooks, cleaning crew. That seems fair to me. If added to prices, the business might lose customers? I don’t know how other food businesses handle the situation. 

[9] I also know that Sea Pal Cove has a policy of splitting the tips between ALL the workers. I applaud these policies. We should all read through the information the food establishments give us, and ask smart questions. It’s getting more expensive each time they buy groceries, boxes, and napkins BTW. When I worked as a waitress, our crew always gave the bussers and kitchen staff a portion of our tips, although it was a small portion. The wage we got was laughable, much smaller than minimum wage, based on the wait staff living off those tips. It’s crazy, we should do it the way they do in Europe.

[10] I know of one local business that has a 20% charge added. That money is split between ALL the workers— cashiers, wait staff, cooks, cleaning crew. That seems fair to me. If added to prices, the business might lose customers? I don’t know how other food businesses handle the situation.

[11] In the good old days, tipping was an incentive to provide excellent service. Businesses never added on a gratuity unless it was a large group, party or special occasion and agreed upon beforehand. Nobody tipped on counter/take out or fast food. Tips were mostly cash and the personal business of the customer and the service worker. In the 1980s that all started changing with the proliferation of plastic money and the Reagan administration ordering the IRS to go after restaurants and traditional tipped industries as well as the “sub minimum” federal wage. I believe the automatic gratuities are added on and used to subsidize the wages of all the employees. I’ve worked at some establishments on the Coast where the owners/management took a cut as well. California labor code says participation in a tip pool by owners and management who have “power” over regular staff is a definite “no-no.” … Owners and management may accept tips if they are “working a section” of their own, performing most of the duties themselves. They are not allowed to take a share from the common pool distributed amongst hourly employees. Back when I first started working in the industry it was considered bad taste to tip owners. I worked at a family owned steak house in Napa County. One of the owners took the bartender shift on the regular man’s days off. Most locals did not tip her, but when tourists left money she saved it up for a Christmas party and birthday gifts for us. Was a good place to work.

[12] Good Life Café in Mendocino has an implemented 15% service charge which is split among all the workers. I started this during COVID. When we reopened it became clear quickly that a lot of the visitors weren’t tipping because they were angry at the restrictions and the limits on service. We were forced to restrict everything and serve to-go only, My staff gave up stimulus and unemployment to return to work.

The employees are paid better hourly than most restaurants. If I wanted to pay them all $25 an hour which is the living wage around here, I’d have to raise my prices 40% to account for payroll taxes and all the other costs involved. Also, our service structure is different than most places so we implemented this in order to be able to compete in the industry with places that have different service models. Our staff definitely earns their gratuity and we pool the tips to ensure a team effort in serving all the customers well.

I’m sorry this is resented by some folks. Many have said they love it and Some also choose to tip on top of the fee. There are several places that charge automatically 20% gratuity in the area. Not sure how they split it but ours go to everyone who works here. In general, our staff is known to be very accommodating and can now pay their rent a little easier here on the coast. Also we tell everyone at the time they are paying that the service fee is included as well as post it in several places in the line. Hope this is helpful.

Most other countries have service fees in the ticket. Some give that to the servers and some don’t, which of course I disagree with. I am hopeful this will be a trend and more restaurants will follow suit. The town of Mendocino is a very hard place to be in as a restaurant owner, let me tell you. It costs me a lot more in all sorts of ways to implement the service fee. Service industry folks deserve to make a living wage. Restaurants (especially mine which buys the best and sells for less than most in the area) have a small profit margin already. Everything costs more now, including labor.

Sorry for the long rant… it’s a sensitive topic for me.

— Teddy Winslow, owner, Good Life Cafe & Bakery, Mendocino

PS (from the Good Life facebook page): Hi friends. We won’t be quite ready to re-open tomorrow March 1 as we had planned. We’ll need a few more days to get things squared away [with a new kitchen] but check here for updates! We will be sure to announce when we’re back up and running.