I’m not paying a regular-sized tip on top of a 15-20% service charge.
My assumption is they’re expecting that customers will think that the service charge goes 100% to staff on top of their wages, as is often the case at places with 15-20% service charges.
That was my assumption when I ate at Jon & Vinny’s last year. I added a few percent to bring it up to what I would have tipped if there had not been a service charge.
As a customer, I do not care what they do with the money they get as tips or service charges. I usually will pay 20% of the total bill (that is total after taxes, even the ridiculous health fee sometimes) and move on.
No way I am going to add anything on top of 20%. If the service charge is included, I will consider it to be the tip and add nothing on top of it. If the service is outstanding, I might give $20 in cash to the server.
somewhat tangentally related, heard from workers at Cookbook markets, which Jon & Vinny group bought in 2020, that the first thing they did was to remove the essential worker pay.
I thought it was strange that the verbage on the bill reads
If you choose to leave a gratuity, the suggested tip amounts go directly to our hourly staff working today.
but when we got our copy to sign there were no suggested tips 
I’m not going to any of the Jon & Vinny restaurants so long as they are so opaque about where the “service charge” goes.
has anyone directly asked the waiters about it? I assume they can’t talk about it but probably could hint at something
it’s a shame but I still want to try Animal. I can’t think of a single other restaurant that does this in LA
Who knows how much you can believe from anonymous Reddit posters, but:
I think there was a report here about a server at one of the J&V restaurants pushing for 15-20% on top of the service charge.
How has Eater never gotten on this?
A few years ago at J&V’s when I first encountered this, the server was very clear that nothing additional was expected. So I’ve always treated that way and generally added a flat $15 to $20 depending on the size of the bill (which can be an additional 15% or significantly less depending on our alcohol intake). I’ve never had anyone pressure me to leave anything more but maybe that’s because I haven’t asked about it…
I believe the J&V restaurants had service charges from day one, but they changed the language to suggest that you add a tip. Whether they changed how the service charge was distributed … Eater? LA Times?
Went to Son of a Gun over the weekend, and the verbiage is now something like “there is an 18% service charge, and any additional tip you add will be shared between the servers and the kitchen” (not exact but that’s the gist) But it had a tip line and the 12/15/20% tip amounts as well.
Throw caution to the wind. Go to Animal once.
Jon & Vinny’s, Petit Trois, Son of a Gun. All part of the same group.
Animal’s worth a visit. If you factor in the 18% the prices aren’t out of line with other paces at that level. E.g. $19 for the marrow bone + 18% = $22.50, Bavel charges $24 + 4% = $25.
So it cost $23 to just attend? Does this include the tip & other fees? Still excessive IYAM. I recently went to Son of a Gun. They add 18% to your bill and then don’t tell you, but also expect a tip. Huh? This is straight out restaurant extortion.
All the Jon & Vinny restaurants do. It’s weird. There’s a long thread about it in the Animal topic.
If there was a single payer health plan most if not all of that 18% would go away.
The J&V restaurants do not claim to provide health insurance to all their employees, or promise it in their help-wanted ads, or claim that any of the “service charge” goes to health insurance.
Just because they don’t shout it from the roof tops… In fact they got sued over it. Prominent LA restaurants battle price-fixing lawsuit | Restaurant Hospitality
Plus if you want to keep good FOH staff you need to pay them a living wage and allow tips. And slave labor is frowned upon these days in kitchens so you have to pay them a living wage too. Or the natives get restless. 90% of Zuni Servers Have Left the Restaurant Due to No-Tipping Policy; Policy May Still Be Revised
Yeah it’s too late. American tipping policy is a failure and will never be replaced by something more sane.
That 2015 lawsuit was about price-fixing. Nothing to do with health insurance or service charges per se.
It’s likely most of the former Zuni servers wouldn’t have come back when the restaurant reopened (after being closed for over a year) regardless of the tipping policy. Lots of people changed careers,.moved out of the area, or retired. Attributing it all to the tipping policy is shitty journalism.
