Will Philly become a no-tip restaurant town?

Restaurateurs seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach in response to this week's news that influential restaurateur Danny Meyer plans to eliminate tipping at his 13 New York restaurants.

In other words, don't remove your tip-calculator app just yet.

In a statement to guests, Meyer said he wanted to "have the ability to compensate all of our employees equitably, competitively, and professionally."

Translation: Meyer wants to fix the huge disparity in compensation between the front of the house (waiters, who are tipped) and back of the house (kitchen workers such as cooks and dishwashers, who are not).

Meyer told the New York Times that in his 30 years in the business, kitchen income has gone up no more than 25 percent, while dining room pay has risen 200 percent. (The consumer price index has risen about 120 percent over 30 years.)

Under Meyer's plan, kitchen workers would see more pay while the servers' financial situation somehow would not change. Meyer's statement referred to but did not explain a "merit" system, presumably to reward better employees.

Meyer plans to start the policy next month at his most expensive restaurant, The Modern, inside the Museum of Modern Art, and phase it in at the other restaurants by the end of 2016.

Restaurateurs interviewed seemed averse to the idea. Rob Keddie, Garces Group's executive vice president, said the company had "no plans to adjust our gratuity policies."

Many wonder how Meyer's system would work. Foremost, menu prices will have to rise to cover the increased labor cost. Meyer told the New York Times that his prices would rise by as much as 35 percent.

Some restaurateurs suggest that Meyer will use the higher prices to help offset rising food costs, in addition to paying the added labor.

Meyer said he wanted to stay ahead of a planned raise in wages paid to fast-food workers, a movement that is gaining steam in New York and Philadelphia.

"It's better PR to say we're raising pricing to eliminate tipping and pay more than to say, 'We're raising pricing because of local laws.' It sounds greedy," said Michael Strauss who owns Tap Room on 19th in South Philadelphia. "In Philly, this may happen if [presumptive new mayor Jim] Kenney gets his minimum wage of $15 passed. Restaurants will need to find a way to increase income, and charging more and eliminating tipping is the only way. In our bar, servers make much more than $15 an hour with tips, so I don't see them being happy about his change."

There also is the fine art of compensation for waiters. Will Meyer's system continue to reward the best waiters, or will it send them fleeing to work at another restaurant where tipping is still allowed? And though credit-card systems create a paper trail, a no-tip policy would dash the wonderful feeling of the odd $20 and $50 bill gently crinkling in a waiter's pocket.

Tipping is not common outside of North America, and the New York restaurant scene caters to foreign tourists.  "I'd see nights where waiters were crying because somebody from Europe would walk out without leaving a tip," Meyer told Eater.

The Philadelphia area's restaurants that do not call for tipping are few - William Street Common (a bar-restaurant in University City that is pretty much self-service), Volver at the Kimmel Center (Garces' pricey prix-fixe), and Girard (an independent restaurant in Fishtown).

Girard opened as a "no-tipping" restaurant that paid workers a flat salary of $13 an hour plus benefits, but later added a tip line to its checks as an option; workers in the kitchen and dining room now have a $10-an-hour guarantee plus potential profit sharing.

"When [business partner Brian Oliveira] and I were talking about this [no-tipping idea], we said, 'When one of big guys does this, there will be a chain reaction,' " said Girard co-owner Cristian Moro. "And we said Danny would be the one to do it."

Meyer, whose book Setting the Table is known as the definitive book about restaurant service, is regarded as a forward thinker, ordering to make his Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants smoke-free about a decade before legislation dictated it.

It comes down to habit. "People want to tip," said Ed Doherty, a restaurant consultant who worked with Girard. "The reasons why were a surprise. It turns out that tipping is about the guests more than it is about a reward for good service rendered. The real push-back was: We were taking away the guest's ability to express themselves."

Jessica Mellen-Graaf, who with her husband, Marvin Graaf, own Cresheim Valley Grain Exchange and Falls Taproom, sees both sides of the issue, as an owner who still bartends.

"I enjoy working for tips," she said in a Facebook exchange. "The harder I work, the more I make. I appreciate the challenge of it all. As an owner, raising prices of product is a really scary thought. Some guests might appreciate why it's being done, but it's still going to scale back how much they visit."

That said, she said, "I hope it works. It would be nice to see this model work. I feel like tipping causes a lot of tension between customer and server. It's almost a language of its own at this point."

Doherty believes for it to work in Philadelphia, "it will have to be embraced by a majority of restaurants."

"The early adopters will get major push-back. Another issue is you have to be a busy place to afford to put your team on salary. I do believe if you build a strong, healthy culture, you will win in the long run - but can you afford to do it in the first place? There is no doubt that it's the future. Studies show that if you develop a strong 'purpose-driven' culture - and Meyer is a master of this - you can build a stronger business. Tipped employees will not be loyal based on the tipping policy. They will be loyal if you build a caring organization."

"That is what Meyers and company are actually doing."