Tacking on an 18-percent “service fee” used to be the rare surcharge reserved for fine dining establishments requiring a small army of waiters. Today, it’s as common in your favorite local eatery as it is in a trendy spot like Jon & Vinny’s. It comes under different names—wellness fees, health insurance funds, water donation—or the broader term: Tipflation.
In Los Angeles, many contend that tipflation is getting out of control, and city attorneys and civil lawyers are paying attention.
Two servers at the ultra-popular Jon & Vinny’s filed a civil suit against their bosses with the the Calabasas-based Joint Venture Restaurant Group, accusing management of tricking customers into believing they were leaving a tip with an automatic 18-percent “service fee” added to checks—which shortchanged minimum-wage-earning waitstaff.
“When customers have paid these 18 percent service charges… it is reasonable for them to have believed they were gratuities to be paid to the service staff, as that is customarily the percentage added as gratuity or tip in the hospitality industry,” the suit states (read it here).
Joint Venture Restaurant Group is an eatery empire run by culinary megastars Jon Shook, Vinny Dotolo and Helen Johannesen. The powerhouse trio is behind multiple Jon & Vinny’s locations along with other L.A. hotspots including Animal (which recently closed its doors), Son of a Gun, Petit Trois, Helen’s, and Cookbook.
According to the suit filed by Jordan Slaffey, who waits tables at Jon & Vinny’s Beverly Hills, Slauson, Fairfax, and Brentwood locations., and Kara Jobe, who works in Beverly Hills, the celebrity chefs company has “routinely added,” the service charge at all of its restaurants without fulling explaining that the money does not go to the waitstaff.
This week a disclaimer was added to customers bills reading: “The service charge is not a tip or gratuity, and is an added fee controlled by the restaurant that helps facilitate a higher living base wage for all of our employees.”
But the notation did little to assuage one diner’s agitation as she walked outside Jon & Vinny’s Beverly Hills on a recent afternoon. “This place is already crazy expensive and now I am expected to facilitate a bigger salary to subsidize owners who own a conglomeration of restaurants?” says Jenny Feldman, 54. “No way. Ever since COVID, this guilt charging has gotten out of control.”
It’s not just service fees that have been added to the bottom of diners’ checks by restaurants. A diner at Alimento in Silver Lake posted a picture of a bill that included a “donation” of $3.00 for tap water and a four-percent “wellness fee,” to pay for workers’ health insurance.
Lotta bullshit going on here, including charging for tap water (illegal) pic.twitter.com/AtutJk02t1
— Mr Dave Anthony (Lord) (@daveanthony) July 3, 2023
Wellness fees have garnered some renewed interest from investigators and union officials.
UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents 32,000 hospitality workers in hotels, restaurants, airports, sports arenas, and convention centers throughout Southern California, accused the wealthy owners behind a string of high-end Hollywood hotel restaurants—Mother Wolf, Ka’teen, Mes Amis, Bar Lis and the Terrace—of charging diners a five-percent “wellness fee” to help subsidize employees’ health care costs. But it appears the charge hasn’t been passed on to hotel workers.
In a letter to the owners of Tommie and Thompson Hotels, the union says the owners came into Hollywood “promising to revitalize the neighborhood nightlife and create jobs for Angelenos.”
“But these were empty promises,” says Kurt Petersen, co-president of Local 11. “Hollywood deserves better neighbors.”
The L.A. City Attorney is now investigating those allegations.
“It’s one thing for a mom and pop place to ask for a little extra to help out the kitchen staff and such,” says Angeleno Harrison Effie, 33, outside Bianca in Culver City, an eatery that does not pass on surcharges to its customers. “But when you are talking about hotel chains and restaurant conglomerates I call that getting robbed by someone without a gun.”
