To tip or not to tip (To leave a tip or not) is the latest Shakespearean drama to hit London’s fine dining scene. And it’s not that there’s a movement against tips, stipulated —as an obligation— between 10 and 12.5%, plus any extra the customer deems courteous, but because one restaurant has broken the mold and imposed the American 20%. This is Gordon Ramsay’s Lucky Cat, the Scottish TV chef, who already applied this rate to his Christmas menus.
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Ramsay, owner of the so-called tallest restaurant in London (his Asian-inspired restaurant occupies the 62nd floor of a City skyscraper) is normalizing tips of between 15% and 20%, compared to the 12.5% applied by his competitors or charged by Fortnum and Mason’s tea service.
Already in Being Gordon Ramsay (Netflix), the chef revealed that he invested 20 million pounds (23 million euros) of his own money in Lucky Cat and acknowledged that, if it failed, the consequences would be severe for him.
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For the Scot, the investment made in London is crucial, and he does not want to incur losses. Ramsay’s solution aims to protect his investment from three threats. The first, the increase in taxes and business costs imposed by the Starmer Government, which restaurateurs have not liked. The second, the increase in employer social security contributions and the rise in the minimum wage.
The third, imponderable, has to do with the costs associated with the war in Iran, which affects the restaurant’s electricity consumption, which is not insignificant, and product costs. It remains to be seen how customers react to the indirect price increase proposed by the Scot.
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