How to Prepare Diners for Life After Tipping

When a diner makes a reservation at Fedora, Gabriel Stulman’s speakeasy-inspired basement restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village, the confirmation e-mail warns customers to skip the tip. The reservation system repeats the no-gratuity reminder with a text message that arrives 30 minutes before each seating. Guests arriving at Fedora will also hear an explanation from the maître d’ about the recently increased menu prices, which have been put in place so Stulman can pay higher wages. When the check comes, it’s paper-clipped to a postcard printed with two key words: gratuity free.

Does that sound like overkill? Tipping at U.S. restaurants has been an ironclad social convention for two centuries, creating a weighty burden for the restaurateurs leading the way into the gratuity-free future. Diners know to pay two distinct sums: one to the establishment for food, another to the waitstaff for service. Stulman is part of a small vanguard trying to overturn restaurant economics by consolidating those two payments, a move he says will allow him to better pay better kitchen workers.