At Danny Meyer’s Manhatta, Only the View Tries to Dazzle

@C. New York The title is "Mannahatta". Following your ref, I looked it up and did not like it: it is almost prose.

@C. The poem is literally quoted on the back page of the current menu. Yes, that seems to be the inspiration.

@Johannes de Silentio What you say is simply inaccurate. Danny Meyer does not "confiscate" anything. The menus at all of his restaurants explicitly say, in large type, that hospitality is included in all prices. No opportunity is presented to leave gratuity, and it is neither accepted nor encouraged. He pays his employees, FOH and BOH, a contracted wage. That is what they receive, nothing more, nothing less. This is how restaurants work in 95% of the world.

You have clearly never worked in a restaurant. I have. I worked in fine dining restaurants as a bar tender, sommelier, and cook. I also owned my own restaurant. Servers in American restaurants have the potential to earn real incomes. In the early 80s I was earning around $35K a year waiting at Mobil 4 Star/Wine Spectator Grand Award winners out west. That's about $85K today. My friends who had also recently graduated college were earning around $18K. In NYC a waiter in a good restaurant like the Union Square Cafe could easily make $300-$400 on a good shift. That's $35-$50 an hour. Servers at Mr. Meyer's restaurants now earn less than $20 an hour. He took the tips, called them "service charges" and "redistributed them to his other workers to save on his payroll. This was a direct result of the increase in the minimum tipped employee wage. In other sales jobs the harder you work, the more you sell, the more you make. I imagine you have bought a pair of shoes, used a real estate agent or purchased a car. All of those sales people collect a commission. The top shoe salesperson at a store like Saks or Bergdorff will earn around $300K (yes, I know this as fact). The only difference is you don't have a choice. Why is it OK to make a commission if you sell shoes but not food? As to "95% of the world," service in 95% of the world is horrid. You get what you pay for. And no one in the US outside the C-Suite is "contracted". We're all "at will". No guarantees.

@Johannes de Silentio A contract can be "at will." It just means that there is a document written up with terms and conditions. A contracted employee can be contracted for a term, or at will. I've never had a problem with service at the top restaurants around the world, where service was included. In fact, in my experience dining in NY, the service, as a whole, on average, is better at restaurants where service is included than at restaurants where they rely on a tip. A waiter is not a salesman earning a commission. If you look at that way, then you just provided the strongest piece of evidence for why they shouldn't receive tips. I want the food items, the wine I will most enjoy, not the most expensive items that the salesman can convince me to buy. Waiters are providing a value-added service. There is a reason I prefer waiter service to counter service, and I am willing to pay a premium for that. However, waiters are employees of the restaurant, not independent contractors. The restaurant is under no obligation to allow the waitstaff to collect their salary from the customers. As I said originally, there is no "service charge" at his restaurants. The price on the menu is the price you pay. It is not $65 plus a 20% service charge. The menu says $78. Danny Meyer collects what he wishes to collect from his customers for their meal, and he pays his servers (and other staff) the amount they negotiate. There is no redistribution occurring.

@van hoodoynck Is Pete Wells a white dude? I've no idea. Unless you think his "whiteness" somehow infiltrates his writing? And from the one picture showing people eating at this restaurant, I wouldn't say that this was the "neo hipster" crowd. The older gentleman in the suit jacket looks nothing like a hipster.

@van hoodoynck i’ve Been thinking the same thing for a while -

@bauskern Yes I do think it infiltrates his writing. I can tell because I'm a white dude too. And to pan what is essentially an old person's restaurant, basically a new Rainbow Room, with thin witticisms and calling it "dated" is kind of my point.

@Charles Schneider Pete goes a minimum of three times to any restaurant before issuing a review. That way he can tell what's a one-off thing, and what's persistent.

@C ND Do you mean that the little bones have to be pulled out with the fingers? If yes, then you have pointed out the third kind of food, for which no utensil yet exists to replace the use of fingers. The other two that I know of are (1) large boiled artichokes, whose petals or bracts must be detached by hand, and (2) shrimp in a shell, grilled or pan-fried in butter, to be peeled -- if they should at all be served at a table.

@C A lobster quenelle is simply different from "just lobster," in texture especially as well as flavor. It might be an improvement, because the texture is easier to control--uniformly suave as opposed to the hit-or-miss, often too chewy possibilities of (over)cooked lobster meat. And the flavor can be modified with other ingredients, rather than the one-note sweet richness of plain lobster. That said, to me nothing can compare with Maine lobster straight from the pound, simply steamed. Unless it is the lobster mousse used to stuff squash blossoms at the late, lamented Chanterelle. THAT, my friend, proved why lobsters should exist.

@ Suzanne Fass Upper Upper Manhattan I prefer lobster either on a simple roll or as Lobster Newberg. Although I promised to you and others on Oct. 10 (below) to stay away from the tattoos, I wrote nothing about another bee in my bonnet: eating cooked foods with fingers. :-))

ummm, because it has numerous very good dishes, fair prices, outstanding service and a spectacular view. you need to read more carefully!

@Almasda: The star is for the view.

Very simple – one star off for the view, and a second for the binoculars.

@Elizabeth - Good, it'll make it easier for the rest of us to get in. Thanks!

@Rich That's not the Empire State Building, it's 70 Pine Street, formerly known as the American International Building. I do not believe the ESB is visible in any of the photos.

It’s not so much having to justify paying 20% to have your food carried. Instead it’s the way restaurant wages in the US are structured - waiters are basically paid nothing by the restaurant because the expectation is that they will be paid directly thru tips by the patrons. Meyer is attempting to fix this - raise prices and use the additional revenue to pay the staff more. Customers shouldn’t complain because they’re avoiding the tip. In short he’s attempting to move to the French system of charges and compensation.

@GC Meyer is doing this because as a result of many lawsuits (against many restaurant owners) he can no longer take a "share" of the tips. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/12/nyregion/12workers.html

@Jean Louis Lonne - A good server really makes a difference and unfortunately here in the U.S. they are forced to rely on tips for their income.

@Ground Control Yes, exactly Ground Control - that's the reference Meyer et al is making. Thanks for posting.

@Mary - And, I might add, John Keene's short story Manhatta in his book titled Counternarratives.

Someone in the Financial Services industry needs a hug or to re-read the review. I'm not sure where he "denigrated" anything. He just stated the facts.

@BillI I was thinking the same. Mr. Wells waxes a little too poetic in his reviews sometimes. It ends up veering far too into the philosophical for a restaurant review.

Please hold the fake outrage: Pete Wells restaurant review is not responsible for wrecking our country's economy, unlike the irresponsible practices of the financial industry.

@Tuvw Xyz Restaurateurs, like a parents, can spell the name of their offspring however they want. That a name is close to an accepted word does not mean that it must be that word.

@Suzanne Fass Restaurateurs, like parents, may make themselves a target of ridicule and contempt if they choose a ridiculous name.

@ Suzanne Fass Upper Upper Manhattan Name and religion are not a rational choice of a newly born. But the restaurateurs should not denature the languages of the names of their establishments. To note, I am sorry to see that a comment of Tammi from Maine, recommended by 33 readers has disappeared from this page. There I was criticized for my disapprobation of the tattoos on the hands and forearms of restaurant workers. In deference to those 34 and some others of similar opinions on other occasions, I wanted to promise to refrain henceforth from commenting on the tattoos.

Perhaps the snark about the financial industry has “something” to do with the facts that said industry imploded the world economy, accelerated the ongoing erosion of the middle class, and triggered the populist backlash that is now threatening liberal values the world over. Oh, and said industry got to keep all of their Ill-gotten goodies and work overtime to roll back the sensible reforms put in place during the Obama years.

@Michael Yea, was wonderin' that myself....

@Michael it compensates for the 3$$$ :-) it's designed for the Wall Street crowd...

Three courses, good food and a beautiful room for $78 including tip is not expensive in Manhattan. An ethnic, neighborhood place would be less. But not by that much. By way of comparison, I had three courses in a local Turkish Place this week for close to $50 with tip and before beers.

@Schultzy And in my dozens of visits to several of his establishments I have never experienced anything other than warm, attentive, top-notch service.

I’m pretty sure 11 Mad is Daniel Humm (sp?), not Denny Meyer. I think you’re confusing Denny / Daniel and may also be conflating 11 Mad with the original Shake Shack, which is a few hundred feet away and most certainly Mr Meyer.

@GC Depends on when she visited EMP. Danny Meyer owned EMP until 2011.

10%? That is an unacceptably low gratuity. 20% is standard.

@Peter Shelsky I'm sure he means tax by that 10%. As in, why don't they just make the menu $85 including tax and tip, instead of doing $78 including tip and then tack on the extra 10% for tax.

@Peter Shelsky He's talking about the tax, not the gratuity (since it's already included)