Dear Feastlings,
First, I just wanted to mention what’s in the works at Feast.
The 26th will be the last Saturday of the month, and therefore we’ll have a Last Saturday tasting, which means a higher price than the usual tasting, but more wine, fancier stuff, and food pairings.
Then, another week or so later, we’ll be hosting a dining event to benefit the Rogue Theatre. I was just talking with the Rogue folks this afternoon, and so far, it looks as though there’s ample room at the dinner on Sunday, November 3rd. Fortify yourself for voting day with an exciting menu celebrating Italo Calvino and the genius of Italian food and wine with us, and help support the Rogue at the same time.
Benefit dinner for the Rogue Theatre: If on a winter’s night a traveler
Then, a couple weeks beyond that, we’ll have the kind people of Deep Sky Vineyard with us, again on a Sunday, with four wines and an accompanying meal served alongside them, and the chance to learn about a local treasure. That’ll be on the 17th.
Next, the two things people have been asking about:
First, yes. Yes, we’re doing Thanksgiving carryout again, and I’ll be posting that menu early next week.
Second, this Proposition 138 thing:
Enough of you have asked me about this that I thought I should send out this note today. Proposition 138 is a bit of a tangle, and there’s not really an answer that works for everyone. Here’s the upshot:
The way things are currently written, the minimum wage for tipped employees is $3 an hour less than the untipped minimum wage. That means that right now, minimum is $14.35, and minimum for a tipped employee is $11.35 with the understanding that if their tips don’t bring them up to $14.35 an hour, the employer pays them the difference.
I don’t know what other tipped employees make- valets, doormen and women, barbers and the like- and I don’t really know what people make at other restaurants. I’m sure someone who’s working at a diner or a counter-service restaurant makes less than someone working here, and someone working here likely makes less than someone working at, say, Fleming’s or Sullivan’s.
So my experience is limited, but I’ve never seen anyone here in danger of making less than minimum wage; in fact, during season, the waiters generally make another $20-30 an hour in tips, and the bussers about half that. It sounds pretty good, unless you count the other six months a year that they either get called off because it’s too slow to need a full staff, and the check average dips as everyone puts their disposable income toward spending as much time as they’re able in a place where it’s significantly cooler than Tucson.
Prop 138 would change the tipped minimum wage to 75% of the untipped wage, or $10.77. Not a huge difference, but not a difference in favor of the employee. In order to offset that, the proposition guarantees them two dollars an hour above the minimum wage ($16.35 an hour,) again, with the difference being made up by the employer if they don’t earn that much in tips.
Of course, this continues to remain in flux, as the minimum wage goes up to $15 (therefore either $11.25 for tipped workers if the proposition passes or $12 if it fails, but with a guaranteed wage of $17 if it passes or $15 if it fails.)
Frankly, it makes very little difference to me as an employer or to the crew here as someone who habitually makes a pretty solid restaurant wage. Either way, the costs of running a restaurant will continue to rise, and the cost will ultimately be passed on to the consumer until such point as consumers throw their hands up and decide it’s not worth it to them to pay that much for a meal out. Every restaurant will have a different point at which their guests stop coming, and every restaurant will at that point likely have to cut the hours of its staff, so your guess is as good as mine as to who’ll benefit from which result in this morass of figures. I suppose passage would mean a better wage for tipped workers who earn less in tips, like at an independent, less busy coffee house or a quiet restaurant with a low check average, at least for the immediate future. But as minimum wage rises, that advantage will shrink.
Ultimately, the only really effective way to change restaurant wages is to institute a European-style model, where everyone is paid a solid wage and tips are significantly smaller, meant to show appreciation rather than to provide someone a livelihood in and of themselves. That, of course, means a higher price on the menu but with fewer tips on the back end, and many a restaurateur has tried it only to go back to the tried and true. Why? I reckon it’s because unless there’s a sea change and all restaurants agree to change at once, it’ll make those who make the change appear more expensive on the surface, as the menu price will reflect what used to be the price plus the tips.
I can only imagine I’ve muddied the waters as much as I’ve clarified what the proposition means, but I hope it’s at least a tiny bit helpful.
Vote what you believe, please. On everything. It’s a big ballot, and I must say, an important election on scores of levels, so I hope we’ll all do our civic duty and cast a ballot for what we believe in our heart of hearts is right. And with any luck, most of the issues will be rather less nuanced than Proposition 138. Go vote your conscience. Pretty please.
Love,
Doug