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All for it. Would love to see tipping culture go away in the US

I would be surprised if $30/hr is an increase. Since they already serve the food cafeteria style, their waitstaff can handle more tables at once than waitstaff in a more traditional restaurant model. $30/hr in tips in Denver isn't really that much.

It was always more about smoothing out the dead/busy times for me. Don't schedule me if I'm going to sit around doing nothing and not earning tips, but also don't underschedule the busy times leaving me to handle too many tables and losing tips because the quality of my work drops. Maybe a flat $30/he will drive the restaurant to schedule more efficiently.

That seems like a decent wage but I'd but curious to hear what service staff think about it.

As a European, I’m just amused to learn Casa Bonita is a real place and not only something from South Park.

Wow thats actually really cool of theyre actually paying their workers

I wish this would catch on and spread.

Huh, I always figured South Park made up Casa Bonita. TIL

Good for them though!

Going away from tipping isn't as fringe as it was 10-20 years ago. In general, customers will tip reasonably the same amount regardless of the level of service - unless the service is exception or dismal. These extremes make up a very small percentage of the total number of experiences. Things that affect tips more? Hand written notes on the receipts, bubbly attitude, and I hate to say this one - borderline flirting with male customers (laughing at their jokes, casual hand on the arm/shoulder, being overly complimentary, etc). I want to stress that I don't find this appropriate, but it has been shown to drive up tips. This is one of the many criticisms of the practice - that it can be about misogynistic interactions between guests and staff. People like tipping because it gives them a sense of very tangible feedback on how they felt the service went. The problem is that it is used by many restaurants as an excuse to not pay a living wage.

There are so many service related professions that do not work on tips and they are able to maintain a high standard. Certainly not all of them. But in those companies where there is no tipping and I don't get good service, I don't go back.

Source: I opened a restaurant in 2016 and ran it until 2020 when COVID killed it. I strongly considered going to a no tipping model at that time, but it would not have been received well by my market. There were no other restaurants in the area that did it and I was overruled by my partners.