Restaurant abolishes “charity style” tipping

Bjorn van der Horst and Omar Romero plan to pay a flat salary they open Kojawan in London’s Edgware later this year. By banning the addition of tips to bills paid by card Horst & Romero intend to bring back the idea that working front of house is a vocation. With the flat wage plus cash tips staff at the Kojawan Korean-Japanese restaurant will be able to earn a competitive London wage.

“You don’t have to feel obliged to give a tip. They are fairly paid. You will not be able to leave tips with a card, because then we’d have to create some system for that pot.
Will it make the food more expensive? Yes – we are making the entire dish worth it for everybody.”

 “We owe it to our hospitality industry workforce to give them the opportunity to be equal members of the skilled working class. Not through a charity-style tips system but through a true, respectful salary based on the skill set and performance of a professional doing their job.”

 Source Evening Standard 2016 02 24