Tips split decision, Lefebvre splits group, Rivera splits Seattle, and more...
Tips split decision, Lefebvre splits group, Rivera splits Seattle, and more...
Family Meal - Friday, November 11, 2022
Hello Friday,
No time to dawdle with intros today! If you’re not a paying subscriber, this one starts with tips and ends all the way at butts.
Tuesday’s paid version is copy/pasted below as usual. If you’d like to get Tuesdays’ on Tuesdays too…
Let’s get to it…
The Results – Four years after a similar measure was overturned by the city council post public approval in 2018, the Washingtonian’s Jessica Sidman reports, “Initiative 82—the DC ballot measure aimed at phasing out the tipped minimum wage—passed last night with nearly 75 percent of the vote. Incrementally over the next five years, employers will go from paying servers, bartenders, and other tipped workers at least $5.35 an hour to more than triple that. Currently, those employees earn the majority of their wages from gratuities, and businesses are legally required to make up the difference if anyone falls short of the $16.10 minimum wage. The first increase is slated to come in January, when the tipped wage rises to $6 an hour. It bumps up to $8 by July 1, 2023, then $2 more every year after until 2027, when there will be one universal minimum wage.”
That’s a big result for the One Fair Wage crowd, but, per Joe Guszkowski in RBO, “In restaurant-rich Portland, Maine voters declined a similar initiative that would have raised the minimum wage to $18 over the next three years for tipped and nontipped workers alike. The result was somewhat surprising because Maine in 2016 voted to kill the tip credit statewide, only to have it reinstated after a lobbying effort led by servers.”
Every restaurateur Sidman talked to in DC mentioned adding service charges to offset the new costs, but Jamie Leeds of Hank’s Oyster Bar took things a step further: “I will not open another restaurant in DC. That’s for sure.”
I get it. But it feels like this is yet another case of the pro tip-credit camp getting caught without an offense? These initiatives are coming for you — they will come for Portland, ME again too! And the arguments against them require too much nuance for most voters. The public has turned on tipping. What is your alternative? Or is there a clear, concise case for tip credits?
I don’t know. But… By the pricking of their thumbs, ballot measures your way come.
BONUS: Sidman, myself, and Expedite’s Kristen Hawley get into all of this on our Restaurant Week (working title) podcast this week, which you can listen to here or here:
This podcast is still very much a work in progress, so please listen and give us feedback! Good, bad, angry, sad. As storied philosopher Pete the Cat would say, “It’s all good.”
P.S. - Reuters has a helpful rundown of other minimum wage related results around the country here.
The Split Decision – Out LA way, “In a move to expand acclaimed French bistro Petit Trois, husband-and-wife team Ludo and Krissy Lefebvre have purchased both locations. The deal ends the bistros’ eight-year partnership with J&V Group, a company owned by chef-restaurateurs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo… Making the sale possible is a new partnership between the Lefebvres and hospitality firm Apres Cru, who together have formed a new restaurant group called L’Espérance Hospitality.” Details via Stephanie Breijo in the LAT, who adds that Shook and Dotolo are on their own expansion push with their Jon & Vinny’s concepts, and wished the Lefebvres well.
When They Go Low – After gaining notoriety during the pandemic for sparring with chefs like Tom Colicchio over the right way to handle a thing no one had ever handled before, Eric Rivera is headed south. “Seattle chef Eric Rivera announced on Instagram that he’s bringing two new restaurants to Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2023. According to a post on Rivera’s website, Sapo will be ‘a private dining room that features tasting menus. fancy, fun, and lots of flavor.’ Coqui will be a Puerto Rican izakaya, blending Puerto Rican with Japanese ‘flavors, techniques, presentations, and a loud fun dining room.’”
Ok, looking back again, maybe “sparring” is a bit of a euphemism.
Colicchio: “That’s what I thought, all talk.”
Rivera: “You're just a rich white male chef clinging onto your failed empire and you're scared that you can't figure out a way beyond everyone blindly following you're bullshit. Fuck you.”
Ahhh. Remember the pandemic?
And that’s it for today! Except of course for Tuesday’s paid version, which is copy/pasted below.
Still not sure what next week will bring for food media content — Thanksgiving is a hell of a drug — but I will definitely see you back here sometime soon for next Family Meal.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or all talk to andrew@thisfamilymeal.com. If you like Family Meal and want to keep it going, please chip in here. If you got this as a forward, sign up for yourself!
Here begins the Family Meal that went out to paying subscribers on Tuesday, November 8th:
Manresa, Noma, Butts, and more...
Hello Tuesday,
A short and sweet one today, but it is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and you know what that means: The food media march toward Thanksgiving has begun in earnest.
NYT Food and NY Mag are both leading with pies so far today. Eater has ditched restaurants for a “Home for the Holidays” package. The SF Chronicle went anti-marshmallow (“spicy orange and date butter” sweet potatoes?!). Food & Wine went anti-oven (“Fire up your grill, Instant Pot and Air Fryer this holiday”). And Bon Appétit… Uh, Bon Appétit is actually not doing TG yet?
Good for you, BA! Stay strong until tomorrow at least!
What time are you voting today?
Let’s get to it…
The Sell Out – “Manresa, one of the Bay Area’s most widely acclaimed Michelin-starred restaurants, will close after 20 years in Los Gatos at the end of the year. David Kinch, the restaurant’s owner and executive chef, previously announced that he planned to retire but hoped to sell the business. A press release [yesterday] confirmed the three-Michelin-star restaurant’s final day will be Dec. 31.”
It was always hard to believe there could be a Manresa without Kinch’s name attached, but you are still welcome to try your hand at something similar in Los Gatos. Per Elena Kadvany in the Chronicle, “Realtor John Machado confirmed the 320 Village Lane building has not yet been sold, though he’s in talks with potential buyers. The sleek, 4,000-square-foot space was listed in October at $5.75 million and is available as a turnkey space, ready to be used as a restaurant with all of Manresa’s pots, pans, dishes and equipment.”
Good luck, all!
The Sell Out Too – I tried to book a table at the Noma Kyoto pop-up yesterday (for a half-baked plan to promote Family Meal through some sort of contest or resale or who-knows thingy), but… the entire residency sold out in seconds.
Congrats to the bots!
Some Sad News – In LA: “Andrea Bullo, owner of the popular Moonshadows restaurant in Malibu, was killed along with his son in a fiery crash [last] week in Woodland Hills, an employee confirmed…. Bullo was a mainstay of the culinary scene in the Los Angeles area for years, but he got his start in his native Venice, Italy, at Do Forni e Antico Pignolo. In the 1990s, he managed Prego in Beverly Hills before opening Moonshadows in 2001, according to his biography on the restaurant website.” Details via Salvador Hernandez in the LAT.
The Media – Heads up, PA: On Twitter this past Friday, food editor Margaret Eby posted, “Some news: Today is my last day at Food52. After a week of gallivanting and napping, I'll be joining [The Philadelphia Inquirer] as the Deputy Food Editor!”
And last but not least – I think I may have found my new favorite restaurant influencer? Over on Instagram, Providence, RI star @bunsandbites has been on a very specific beat for four years: “We are a visual platform that unites a deep devotion to good food, and a sincere appreciation for a nice behind. Just as food comes in all tastes and textures, bootys come in all shapes and sizes! Buns & Bites admires the diversity of cheeks, while indulging in our favorite eats.”
I’m sure some smart culture writer could do a much better job of explaining the push-pull tension between the wholesome, hilarious butt vs the hot, hot ass, but I am here to tell you there is something spectacular about a food account in which nearly every picture is someone sticking their tush out over food. Are we being teased? Are we being teased?
Friends, we are at the very least being entertained.
And that’s it for today! I’ll see everyone back here Friday for next Family Meal.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or the diversity of cheeks to andrew@thisfamilymeal.com. If you like Family Meal and want to keep it going, please chip in here. If you got this as a forward, sign up for yourself!