Staff Blog
The Arbol Cafe Question: Owner Beth Acuna says her piece
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| Photo | Ryan Charles for Zagat |
On Feb. 24, a comment surfaced on the CP restaurant database page of Arbol Café (209 Poplar St., 215-284-5788), a Paraguayan café and coffee shop in Northern Liberties.
"The owners of the Arbol cafe do not allow their workers to keep their tips. While getting paid 7 dollars an hour to bus, clean, set, take orders, run food, do dishes, and bleach bathroom/floors, the tips from customers are kept by the owners. Tipping the owner is considered rude and telling servers that they can't is poor practice. After a four hour shift (28 bucks) with no tips, which one time a server made 30 dollars in tips I was unable to keep it. The place has all the potential, but has bad policies. NEVER TIP! Your server doesn't see it."
Soon after, the thread came to life with dozens of responses — most of them chastising Arbol for the business practices alleged by the original poster. Co-owner Beth Acuna recently contacted us wishing to offer her take on the issue, which she believes is a misunderstanding. City Paper is not attempting to take sides in the discussion — we are simply giving Acuna a chance to offer information and clarifications that she believes will help resolve the controversy. Follow the jump to read it.
According to Acuna, the post above originated with an individual who worked a total of 9 hours (three 3-hour training shifts) in the month of February before ending her employment. They asked the employee how much she was being paid at her previous job at a high-volume restaurant/diner, and Arbol matched it at $8 an hour. Acuna says they were upfront about the payment policy — that employees in training would not receive a share in the tips, on top of their base salary, until putting in more time with the café. In other words, Arbol's initial payment policy allows for a contingency period to see if an employee is right for the café. If it works out, then hourly wages increase, similar to many other businesses.
While Arbol employees do not pocket tips outright, the tip money generated is used to augment employee salaries, which are above minimum wage. (Most all servers in the state make under $3 an hour as a base salary, earning the rest of their money in tips.) In other words, Arbol employees are not relying solely on tips to make a living. "At the end of the night, [Beth's husband/owner] Oscar will give [employees], say, $8 an hour out of the day's cash," says Acuna. "Then, I'll take money of out the tip jar to bump up their pay scale, so they're walking away with at least $10 and $11 an hour. We make sure [employees] are compensated generously."
"If [the employee who posted] had stayed past 9 hours of training, she, too, [would] start to split the tips," adds Acuna. "Currently, we have two employees. We do not want to post our employees' salaries, but we can say that they are making above $10 an hour as they phase themselves in past training."
Another point that Acuna stresses is that Arbol is a small neighborhood café with just five tables. "People have this conception we're some sort of diner, with 10 tables, 50 seats, with four waitresses running their asses off," says Acuna. "That's not at all what's going on over here. People seem to think we are some sort of place like Sabrina's or Honey's with a fulltime staff. But we are really a place where you get a sandwich and drink for under $10." Much of their business is takeout, and many times, customers who decide to eat in can order at the counter, serve themselves coffee from hoppers and wait for their order to come up before seating themselves. It is not a primarily table service-based establishment. It's for this reason, Acuna says, that they pay employees well above minimum wage. "[I didn't want employees] upselling people. We don't want people working on commission," she says.
"In most cases, it is either Oscar or myself in the café," adds Acuna. (Arbol's two employees work on a part-time basis.) "Many times, Oscar will take, make and bring the order. I read people [online] saying, ‘I gave [a male server] such and such a tip, I hope he got the money.' They're talking about Oscar. They don't realize that they've tipped the owner."
Acuna also wants to clear up the belief held by some commenters that she and Oscar are seizing employee tips and using them to fund renovations and repairs. She believes it stems from misconstrued language in her March 8 response to the original poster:
"All money generated goes towards financing the renovations as well as aiding us in being able to pay the workers well above minimum wage in respect to their ability and contributions."
"What we said was ‘all money generated'," says Acuna. "It did not say 'all tips generated.' At that time, we were, and still are, splitting tips."
Acuna encourages people to come into Arbol and talk to her or Oscar if they have any questions.
Check back later today for a legal perspective on this issue from blogger and CP contributor David Snyder.
UPDATE: Click here to read Snyder's statement.
Still never stopping at Arbol for a coffee ever again!
I worked at a place (fine-dining spot in CC) where tips were all pooled and divied according to a point system. Servers with a lot of time in the position were worth more “points” and got a bigger cut (even if a low-point server pulled better tips for better service). Servers were never shown the total take in tips for the week, and never knew the breakdown numbers. Why? Because the owner paid the back of the house with portions of our tip money (and I doubt Uncle Sam has knowledge of most of these workers). In a house where I’d easily pull in around $200 on a decent night, my payout at the end of the week rarely averaged to $100 a shift. It’s a crap way to run your restaurant!
Here’s a TIP for you, Arbol…If you want to play flat rates to your wait-help, tell Oscar he should identify himself as an owner/chef and NOT a server when customers hands him a tip. Return the tip to the customer, or give them the option of leaving it with Oscar after having the knowledge that he does better than $2.83/ hour !!!
[...] UPDATE: Arbol Cafe owner responds to Clog comments. The Arbol Cafe Question: Owner Beth Acuna says her piece [The Clog] [...]
well…that sounds like a disturbingly reasonable policy for a cafe. lol.
To J: Why should an owner or a chef or whatever identify himself as the owner? does that mean he doesn’t deserve the money for being a courteous waiter on top of owner and chef? And why compare a small cafe to a high-end dining place? they aren’t alike at all.
I have never in my life (and I know I’ve had owners and chefs give me food) had someone tell me “oh, but I’m the owner” when I put a tip down. good service = tip. why is that complicated (on both sides).
After this whole exchange, I much prefer the european style–no real tip, but a real wage for waitstaff.
[...] The Arbol Cafe tipping saga goes national before anyone thinks to contact the owner. [...]
Rory,
My opinion that the owner should make patrons aware that he is not the server is to let the customer understand where his or her tip is going before laying it down. I’m an ex-server who tips well for good service because I know how little $2.83 goes in the weekly or bi-weekly paycheck. I, personally, don’t want to tip the owner of a restaurant–good service or not. Just my opinion.
[...] The Arbol Cafe Question: Owner Beth Acuna says her piece (5) [...]
Despite how reasonable the policy sounds, it still violates the law. Tips left for an employee are immediately that employee’s property and employers are prohibited by federal fair labor laws from entering into any agreement whereby employees give up those tips, other than for tip pooling among non-management employees. It doesn’t matter if the employee makes more than minimum wage, even well over minimum wage. That’s the law.
Aside from being against the law, that is how customers think tips are handled when they give them. They intend for the entire amount to go to the person they left it for.
James: see the accompanying post at http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/clog/2008/04/18/the-arbol-cafe-question-the-legal-eagle-chimes-in/ — this is not actually illegal in the state of Pennsylvania.
This whole controversy is ridiculous. Beth is paying a wage that is well above market. I eat there very often, and I have most of the time, Beth is the only person that serves me. Her husband does almost all the cooking, and she does most of the waiting. When I leave a tip, I am giving something extra to them, because they are both friendly and provide very good service.
I AM NOT ALLOWED TO TIP THE “OWNERS”? Who also do the majority of the labor?
That is ridiculous.
Also, the tenor of most of the posts criticizing them as if they were these greedy multi-national capitalists. These are two people run a three table cafe that put in a ridiculous amount hours for a modest yearly salary. Everyone needs to get off their center-left bourgeois high-horses.
In an economy dominated by cookie-cutter chain bullshit, where almost all the help ‘earns’ a wage that makes it impossible to live above the poverty line, the arbol cafe is a refreshing oasis.
The sweeping generalizations by people that know nothing in various internet commenting streams is appalling. I hope most of these people that seem so upset are just internet message board blow-hards that have never been to arbol. Anyone that thinks arbol cafe is at the top of the list of businesses that need to be boycotted has an infantile mind. Is that sweeping enough?
I am the person who left the comment in the first place. I was told I was considered a “part of the team” and not a “waitress”, I so I would receive salary instead of the typical 2.83 an hour/ plus tips. People put dollars in the goose cup and I never asked if I would receive any of it. I was asked to work a Sunday, since Sundays were becoming busier with the Northern Liberties crowd. I began receiving 9-10 tips from a 3 seating turn over, (one party even racked up a over $100 bill), and I began to wonder why I couldn’t keep the money I made for the service given.
I asked Oscar about the tipping policy, after he said to me before (we don’t let you keep tips since we give you an hourly wage and since we just opened), and I wanted to see if we could come to some sort of compromise. He kept saying, “you are not a waitress, you get paid above min. wage, so you don’t keep tips.” Asked where they go to, “they are meant for the house.” I pressed on saying I couldn’t work such lil hours for lil money and he said I was training. I was made to belive I had the job, and getting to know it “little by little” and not “rush into anything”.
He sat me down one last time to discuss tipping. He went along to say he claims my earnings, when I never signed a w-2 form or any type of documentation to where I lived, and how he would have to pay me less in salary if I wanted to keep tips. Tips were not generated that often, he said. So I would be doing myself a diservice by wanting them. There was talk I could make a higher salary if I stayed longer and ut more time in, but there was no talk of “splitting tips” at all. I didn’t feel comfortable staying, so I quit.
I posted that message board in the first place because I was angry. But people change it seems from the article posted. Prior to me, two other girls left working there for various other reasons. I always thought they were nice people, hell I thought I didn’t get it. But no matter how nice they were, they had a bad policy when I was there. Now, due to this blog “outcry”, things have changed. And good. “Waitress”, “servers” wahtever you call us, we deserve more.
The owners of the abrol are lying them will say anything now to stop this blog . Just let the server put the tip in her pocket and if a tip is given to an owner put that in the tip jar to split . Then this blog will end . I don’t care how small this place is ,they are stealing . Stealing for paying under the table and not paying taxes and stealing the tips .They are nice because they want your business no other reason . Nice people don’t steal
It’s nice that the Acunas told employees up front that she’d be taking their tips, but did they provide the same disclosure to her customers?
Furthermore, the idea that Arbol should somehow be exempt from following labor laws because they’re a small cafe and the Acunas seem to be really nice people is laugh-out-loud ludicrous.
In hair salons, resturants, whatever…it is rude to tip the owners. You just don’t due it because they are making substantially more than the help. Though a small business, yes, it’s just a general code of conduct that you don’t tip the owners. They make a modest earning from the profits off the menu. Dolce Matte was almost three dollars…come on.
Secondly, in most training situations, you are paid more say 10 dollars an hour every shift you train, since you are not making tips. And like the article said, she worked in a high volume place, so I am sure it would not take her that long to train. The girl said she was on the floor, doing all the normal work, why shouldn’t she keep her tips. Futhermore, why should a server split tips with the owner? Owners should not be tipped anything. It’s double gratiting a check. Like when a server at a resturant grats a check, doesn’t say anything, and you give them a tip on top of it. It’s the same thing.
Besides, tips are money. It seems like the tips went to the business, not to the server. The owners shouldn’t be splitting the tips with the servers at all because it’s unethical.
Why isn’t anyone contacting the server who made the allegation in the first place?
It is standard practice for a server in training not to walk away with tips until the training period is complete. I was in the service industry for ten years and i would want this job but obviously it works for some or they wouldn’t be working there. Who are we to say how they should pay their employees???
The server wasn’t in training . This is an after thought from Beth the owner , because of this blog . She will say anything now . Just stop stealing from the waitress .
One more thing . Waitresses in other places don’t scrub floors and bleach bathrooms . That is why they are making $8 an hour . The tips are for the service .
a five table cafe that serve sandwiches and drinks under $10.00 apears to me dosen’t make a lot of money.If they employ two partime servers two or three days a week or four hours a day,these servers aren’t making alot of money.Beth Acuna said at the end of the day the servers “might” get $8.00 an hour out of that days cash, plus she takes money from the tip jar to increse their pay to $10.00 or $11.00 an hour.
suggesting:
The owner should post a sign “NO TIPPING”, or pay the $8.00 or less hourly rate and allowed the servers to keep their tips.
[...] Tip mania in Philly these days… [...]
Judging by the stated size of the restaurant and how the ordering was described it really surprises me that the owners need to employ anyone at all! At that size all of the work can be done by them. They are forcing their workers to work, get tips, and then have the house decide how much of the tips they are going to hand over. Why isn’t that done at ALL restaurants? That would be MUCH better for ALL restaurants–to get the pick of the tips and the option of paying their employees from their employee’s tips and not out of their own pocket!
As one small restaurant owner to another, I hope that you go out of business! Running your business like you are running it is unprofessional and greedy. If you can’t afford to pay these people (which is obvious if you are PAYING THEM OUT OF THEIR OWN TIPS) then you NEED TO DO THE WORK YOURSELF!
Yeah, the owner’s is doing a great big CYA. Don’t eat at this place.
You guys are absolutely nuts… The owner should cut their pay to minimum wage (actually, to “server wage” wich is less than $3/hr) and then let them keep all the tips.
Why are we even discussing this? If the two girls who work there are unhappy with the arrangement they could pick up their apron and move on… The owners doesn’t have them chained to the place, do they?
I’m calling BS on this one…
No matter how the owners want to spin it, they are still stealing from their employees. Tips for the waitstaff are for the waitstaff, not for the owners to skim from. Shame on you, Arbol.
I don’t understand why restaurants in the US pay people so little in the first place. Give them enough to survive and let the tips be a reward, like it’s supposed to be. Why are customers expected to pay for someone’s salary, when that it what the price of the food is supposed to partially go towards?
Seriously.
You know enough is enough. Stop the evil attacks on minority businesses. Ever since NoLibs’ mass gentrification, the vibe changed for the worsed. Arbol Cafe has defended themselves with honor. Done and done. It’s a shame that the server(s) are so miserable to try to shut down this establishment. Most of you, I’m sure have never been there and are probably friends of this evil person. Probably not even from the neighborhood…I worked in a west philly co-op cafe back in the 80’s. There was a no tipping policy as well, we were told that any tips would go toward the co-op. We also, had cleaning shifts. Are pay was less than minimum wage. We accepted the cafe rules. She, “John Smith”shouldn’t have taken the job if she was opposed to work. Arbol Cafe has done enough.
Greed and laziness and just pure unnecessary meaness, on the parts of the whiney servers…..Stop your senseless blabbering / borderline racist motives and move on.
[...] not forget the Arbol Cafe fiasco. geopress_addEvent(window,”load”, function() { geopress_makemap(52741,”Les Bons [...]
It is not 1980 anymore . arbol is stealing