Three Michelin stars. Status as the most expensive restaurant in America. And no tipping allowed.
It begins.
http://ny.eater.com/2016/2/1/10883720/masa-nyc-price-no-tipping
>>7332370
Wasn't this like a year ago? Or was that yasuda?
Anyway the people who get booty blasted over tipping can't afford those places. Change the rules at olive garden or cheesecake factory, that will actually mean something
>1300 USD for raw fish
>thirteen hundred dollars
>one thousand three hundred dollars
>raw
>fucking
>fish
Sushi has gone past the point of memes.
>>7332425
Point is some things trickle down from fine dining to pleb tier places. The Caesar salad, the molten chocolate cake, Alfredo sauce, serving a meal over courses and waiter service are all things that started out in high end places.
With Meyer eliminating tipping across his empire and now the most expensive place in the country doing the same this could be the start of a trend that reaches the Olive Garden and Cheesecake Factory in a decade or so.
>>7332427
The best fish is very expensive. Michelin star places tend to be expensive as well. Put together sushi and three stars and you're looking at the most expensive place possible.
>>7332370
But you don't tip in Japanese restaurants. Just like you don't have the sushi chef money.
>>7332534
Yes and no. I'd argue that molten chocolate cakes that were popular in 90s fine dining bear little resemblance to the crap you get from your local domino's. But that's another issue. The issue here is the business model and the relationship between the menu prices and the staff compensation. People going to masa aren't going to decide to go to monster sushi over a 20% increase in menu price (and no tip). They want to go to the best sushi in the city first and foremost (ignoring the question of whether masa is it).
Some olive garden customers on the other hand will pick macaroni grill if the menu price suddenly goes up by 20%. At this level the meal is subject to commodity pricing principles. Because let's be honest, you're lucky if it's coming out of the back of a Sysco truck as opposed to being cooked at the regional kitchen and sent out in individual microwaveable freezer bags.
>>7332831
True. At the top end customers tend to be price insensitive. What Meyer is finding is below that customers' expectations of a place are a function of price. Raise the prices 20-some percent to eliminate tipping and the customer sees those higher prices and arrives with higher expectations.
I'm the same way. I have a different set of expectations for a Bib Gourmand place (generally $40 pp for an app, a main and a glass of wine with tax and tip) and a place where I know dinner for two will set me back over a c-note. Then when it gets down to fast food level I'd much rather pay $5 for a felafel sandwich than $10 for Chipotle. Price definitely drives my decisions at the low end, because I'd rather not spend anything that resembles real money on cheap food.
That said, I wouldn't grumble if a place where I usually dropped $80 on dinner for two with tip eliminated tipping and suddenly the bill was just over that. But subconsciously I would probably hope higher menu prices correlated with a better overall experience there.
I have no idea how it would translate to awful chain restaurants. I expect the transition would be difficult for very price sensitive customers. But I do expect higher menu prices and no tipping to become the new normal eventually.
I would eat there only if I had fuck you levels of money
and then I would immediately get on my private plane and have my next meal at jiros
the comparison of a lifetime
>>7333062
>fuck you levels of money
That's the clientele. I was having a conversation about this with my brother earlier today. He couldn't imaging dropping that kind of coin on a meal. I asked him if he had a problem dropping just over a c-note on dinner for two every now and then. He said he didn't. So said imagine if your income and net worth had another zero or two on them. Would a $1300 dinner for two seem so outrageous then? We are talking Manhattan, where there's a high concentration of people with that kind of money.
>>7333062
>>7333110
>fuck you levels of money
Yep. This restaurant is in a neighborhood where apartments cost as much as an F35 fighter jet and an optional 50 square foot basement storage unit costs about as much as an exotic European supercar
