--- title: New York Restaurant Chain Says No Tips, Please description: Danny Meyer’s risky move hopes to make the restaurant industry more equitable for all employees canonical: https://time.com/4073568/new-york-restaurant-tipping-ban/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-14T17:45:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:51.321Z og:title: New York Restaurant Chain Says No Tips, Please og:description: Danny Meyer’s risky move hopes to make the restaurant industry more equitable for all employees og:url: https://time.com/4073568/new-york-restaurant-tipping-ban/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New York Restaurant Chain Says No Tips, Please twitter:description: Danny Meyer’s risky move hopes to make the restaurant industry more equitable for all employees twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # New York Restaurant Giant Says No Tips, Please > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=754935db-b51e-4961-bbad-3f8883d8e8cb&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Last Days of WD-50 [Watch (HLS stream): The Last Days of WD-50](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/m1PBoZOR.m3u8) (15:01)  _Published 2015-06-18. Inside the Llast days of New York City's WD-50 restaurant with chef, Wylie Dufresne._  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Oct 14, 2015 5:45 PM UTC  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Oct 14, 2015 5:45 PM UTC One of New York City’s leading restaurateurs is [seeking](http://ny.eater.com/2015/10/14/9517747/danny-meyer-no-tipping-restaurants) to set a standard for the restaurant industry by fairly compensating all employees and improving the dining experience across the board — and banning the tip. Beginning in late November, restaurants in Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group will begin rolling out a new policy called “Hospitality Included,” in which diners are forbidden from leaving tips on credit cards and strongly discouraged from leaving cash tips. The policy will be accompanied by an across the board increase in menu prices—of as much as 35 percent—which, Meyer tells _Eater New York_, will more accurately reflect the true cost of fine dining. The move will affect some of the most iconic restaurants in New York, including The Modern, the two-Michelin star restaurant inside the Museum of Modern Art, and 12 other full-service establishments in the restaurant group, including Gramercy Tavern, Blue Smoke, and Porchlight. Although tipping waitstaff has become standard across the U.S, tipping is not customary across much of the rest of the world and in some cases is even frowned upon, seen as undermining the dignity of working for a steady wage. When the Anarchists took control of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, one of their first acts was to ban tipping as a way of imposing their brand of revolutionary equality on the city. Meyer, who was [named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people](http://time.com/3822803/danny-meyer-2015-time-100/) this spring, is also hoping for a revolution of sorts. By banning tipping and raising prices, he says he’ll be able to fairly compensate all employees who contribute to the dining experience, from the dishwasher to the host. Tipping, he says, ends in underpaid cooks, which has contributed to a shortage in good kitchen staff in a high cost of living city like New York, he said. It’s not the first time Meyer has moved to ban tipping—he tried a similar scheme in 1994, but he hopes the public and wait staff both are ready for it now. “We think that the more of our restaurants we do this with, the safer it will be for all of them,” Meyer said. “And we think the more of the restaurants we change over, the more courage, hopefully, that will create for other restaurants to join in, which would then turn this into a virtuous cycle.” \[[_Eater New York_](http://ny.eater.com/2015/10/14/9517747/danny-meyer-no-tipping-restaurants)\] **_Read next:_** [**_21 Other Restaurants That Happily Got Rid of Tipping_**](http://time.com/money/4046887/restaurants-no-tipping-ban/) ## Transcript [ NOISE ] [ MUSIC ] Wyly Dufrene, [ UNKNOWN ] 50 his groundbreaking Clinton Street restaurant. Trailblazing restaurant WD 50 will close later this year. WD 50 development site sells for record- setting $ 28 million. I feel fortunate, to have Done what I did. Where I did it. With the people, I did it with. I think that's simple, but it's true. [ MUSIC ] Wd 50's an adventure. I would call Wd 50 a restaurant where anything goes. You're supposed to come in and sit down And you're taken on a journey. My first meal was what the [ BLEEP ] is this guy doing? Can you make mayonnaise out of hard boiled eggs? What happens if you smoke -? Can you braise couscous in coffee [ UNKNOWN ]? So we're gonna be fine to make this tomorrow? Yeah. You see in [ UNKNOWN ] a guy who wants to understand how and why things happen. So if you're not sure why you're doing something, just say, hey I don't Don't understand this. His octopus appetizer tasted like a flame grilled hotdog. New York is a very conservative dining town. New York always says it wants something different. It's an oil in water emulsion so we need to give it more water. When it gets Something different and sort of takes a minute. The core of what he is is constant driving. It's a thought process. Towards a new idea. And wondering why did you do this way, why did you, what if I did it that way? To the diner, it looks like a cooked piece of fish. But in fact, it's a nice fresh tartar. A lot of this is observed by the meer fact that we've hit this passing Was enabled by his creation. seventy- five done. Sold What his name then. It's extraordinary that their going to tear this down to build an apartment building. But you know it's New York anything can happen. My name is Wylie Dufresne and I'm the chef and owner of WD 50 restaurants here in New York City. For now. [ MUSIC ] I was obsessed with Wylie before I knew him. Predating WD50, I mean, Wylie was one of the early names on the lower East Side. The restaurant before W50 71 Clinton Fresh Foods was revolutionary. And it sorta captivated New York, no one had seen anything like it. When he was there on Clinton Street we still used to have dudes running up, pulling their pants down and shoving their **** cheeks against the. The window. When he decided to leave 71 Clinton he was able to build and design a kitchen that would encourage the sort of things he wanted to experiment with. Put that in the microwave, get it hot. I used to be the restaurant editor for Time Out New York and one of my first assignments was to write about the building of [ UNKNOWN ], so I met him At the construction site. [ MUSIC ] He had this backpack full of notebooks and he's just like, and I'm thinking about this and I'm thinking about that, and he's throwing his notebooks everywhere. A chef's second restaurant is like a writer's second novel or a band's second album. It could be the one that wins him a permanent place in. In the Pantheon or a spot on the heap of one- hit wonders. [ MUSIC ] The philosophy of this restaurant is nothing is impossible and nothing is too weird. On the one hand there is hard- core, monster cook Wiley. He has taken the tilapia that he blended and he [ UNKNOWN ] the entire [ INAUDIBLE ] enzyme and pipe that into the hot water to make tilapia noodles. Running at the same time is a very analytical mind who's taking what's happening now and comparing it against all of the other times similar things have been tried in the kitchens. We've begun to learn a little bit more about what's happening to our food as we process it. [ MUSIC ] Wiley didn't just welcome input from cooks, it was required. I think. What do you think? If you weren't coming up with ideas, gone. [ MUSIC ] The creative process can start with pretty much anything. Wiley likes root beer and then we were talking about pudding and just from that small idea we came up with root beer pudding. A lot of these dishes spent months being worked on slowly. Techniques change how that dish is eventually going to make it to the table. Foie gras that looks like a sponge or a piece of coral. A bagel that tastes like ice cream. Corned duck rye crisp. [ MUSIC ] Pao gras, a mash up of Vietnamese noodles. Egg ravioli. A cube like concoction made of scrambled eggs. Eggs Benedict. This time he challenges his customers, provoking them with risky flavor combinations and ingredients in unfamiliar roles. I think early [ MUSIC ] on and we were more about we're gonna do it our way. Some consider him to be the bad boy of the food scene. [ LAUGH ] Heard the story about the salad, he just will not serve salad, period. No salad on the menu? Well these things can change very quickly. Some people thought that maybe that was the rebellion, not necessarily the fact that we were trying to cook food in different ways. We realized that meat glue and gelatin are unbelievable friends, they love each other, they make a fantastic bond. So there's, well we think, kind of almost a 2. 0 application. of meek loop. Opinions will split right down the middle. I'd like to see a little more pleasure and a little less intellect at WD50. [ MUSIC ] Tasted exactly like windex [ CROSSTALK ] I have an aversion to ambitious [ UNKNOWN ] And interesting to read [ CROSSTALK ] But horrible to eat. Negative reviews are not good for business and WD- 50 had many hard years. Although the restaurant has been amazing, it has a ton of critical success, it's been a fight. A lot of people were critical at the time that we were making food that was more intellectual than delicious. [ MUSIC ] We always believed that the food that we were serving was delicious because that is the first and foremost priority that every restaurant has. Anyone that's talented or creative, I think, has a certain presence about them. And it comes across As confidence. It can come across as arrogance. What's great about this is that you can make a pickle in 35, 45 seconds. These are just new ideas, new pieces of equipment, technology and understanding that are adding to what we already know. Food at wd ~ 50 a decade ago had a fair element of Look what I can do. So there's certainly times when we struggled and we came real close to the edge where it was like we're not putting another penny into the restaurant. Now pray, this is where we pray. And I would tell the staff it's ok, we have to stay the course and we have to do what we believe. And guys we're doing the right things. As always Thank you, thank you, guys. [ CROSSTALK ] [ APPLAUSE ] When [ UNKNOWN ] gave us our third star, we really saw a turnaround . >> These dishes validate the kind of experimentation [ MUSIC ] But culinary pioneers like [ UNKNOWN ] undertake and they reflect a thoughtful, mature equilibrium between what's merely edgy and what's truly enjoyable. We're mature, we've grown up and we're not as showy with the things we know how to do and we're not as you know, insistent On the diner, but also as time has grown, as people have understood the restaurant, more and more people come willing to sort of ride the rollercoaster. I think these days it's less driven by the gee whiz, look at what I can do factor than it is by just in service of delicious, intriguing, compelling food. My role has changed. At one point, I wanted to be the star player. You're young. You should be fast. But I don't need to do that anymore, because I'm old and falling apart like the refrigerator. Riley put his heart and soul on Clinton Street and really brought it to life and then that very thing is kind of in a weird way the reason it's closing. My family is the largest party of the night. And I know that eight is hard to corral. We've got a manageable number. I think we're at 72. It's not a crazy night Let's just yuk it up, one last time. all right? Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ MUSIC ] Hello. How are you? [ MUSIC ] How are you? How you doing? Thanks for coming. [ LAUGH ] [ MUSIC ] I'd like to think that the very, very end of this place will be our highest moment. I think it's hard to come to this restaurant and not have it. Bless your heart. [ MUSIC ] Go, go, go. [ MUSIC ] [ LAUGH ] [ MUSIC ] Our goal was To add to the dialogue, to add to the body of knowledge. There are things that we've been a part of that are gonna be in kitchens from here on, forever. I'm sorry, Mom, I'm eating . >> I know. [ LAUGH ] Good to see you, all right. [ LAUGH ] All right. Pick up guys, last call. [ APPLAUSE ] [ MUSIC ] That's it guys, good job. Thank you. Thank you. Well done, guys, well done. It was fun to have my family there. It was fun to have customers that had been supporting us since the doors opened. And I was so proud of the people that have walked through the doors over all the years and it was fun to have some old faces [ NOISE ] Cheers to all of you Thank you chef. Good luck and long live Wiley. Long live Cheers I know that the stuff that he has done at the restaurant has changed the way thousands and thousands of people cook. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] New York. [ MUSIC ] Thank you. [ MUSIC ] Watching the place get torn apart. Watching a place that a group of us had spent so much time caring for. Two sauce. One [ UNKNOWN ]. Two pots, 25 apiece on each And handling with kid gloves, and loving. [ INAUDIBLE ] And then watching, watching people that had no connection to it rip it apart, [ INAUDIBLE ] sort of mindlessly, [ INAUDIBLE ] was difficult. For everybody. You, sir! $ 200 on [ UNKNOWN ]. I think closing a WD50 represents 25, bid of 55 now. The passage of time in a neighborhood. Oh I think while we will recreate WD50 no matter what the concept of the restaurant is, his style of management will be something that will always attract people who wanna learn and We want to be part of a process like that. I remember being very scared when we first opened the doors but I also felt like we were gonna stick it out rain or shine, and that's what we've done, is we've stuck it out, rain or shine, and it's rained a lot. But You know right now the sun is shining so. 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