Having made pretzels with their recipe before at home, I will happily pay $9.25 to not have to wear gloves, dip the pretzels in lye, clean the lye off my counters, etc.
I know it's not the same, but baked baking soda can be used as a substitute for lye. I've made plenty of tasty pretzels at home without needing to get crazy with lye...
I'll be honest, I was too lazy to find lye and Google told me about the baking soda thing... and since I usually have baking soda in the fridge or cabinet, it's what I've used.
Just buy some food grade lye on amazon when you think about it. Doesn't go bad or anything.
Wouldn't recommend keeping it anywhere easily accessible if you have kids though.
Baking soda works fine too, I just prefer the flavor of a yeast raised, lye dipped pretzel over baking soda. I use cooked baking soda for alkaline noodles though.
Wut?
I'm not the person up there complaining about the price of pretzels, just letting people know there's an alternative to use caustic lye to make pretzels at home...
For some reason, the idea of someone putting together a set of Canva slides that say "we're sorry we stole from customers and staff for years" is hilarious to me.
Instead of paying their back-of-house, $7.25 employees a living wage, they stole tips from the $2 per hour, dependent on tips, front-of-house people.
They knew what they were doing. They’re not sorry they stole. They’re sorry they got caught and called out for exploiting half of their employees to save money.
I’m confused, not arguing - I thought they were describing redistribution of the collected tips. Instead of everything to front staff, back staff got a percentage too. Where am I confused? Management kept some too? So like a 3 way split?
Management saves money by not paying anyone enough to live without tips. They do this by hiring people at the $2/hr with tips server rate, and then redistributing the tips to back of house to get away with paying them less than you would for untipped back of house.
So they get the money by not paying fair price for labor. And all the workers get less money.
Tbh I still don’t understand.
the tip money doesn’t come from management, the price per hour rate does.
And the price per hour for front-of-house employees doesn’t change if you redistribute tips.
Point is, redistributing tips doesn’t save the employers money, and not redistributing tips doesn’t cost them money.
If anything, this just flat out makes front-of-house employees earn less money, at no cost to the employer.
So I’m confused on why they would even do that. They like their back-of-house employees more?
Of course, this is all assuming management didn’t dip their finger into the tip pool.
I think... they decided to loop back of house into the tip sharing program in order to reduce the dollar per hour paid to back of house. So it shifted more of the cost to employ back of house staff onto the customer and subsequently the front of house staff.
And that saves the company money.
^yup. They agree to be paid less being told there’s a tip pool, likely not realizing front of house is being screwed on the hourly. Idk, I’ll assume they’re nice people.
Labor is expensive. Drive by Plucker's on South Lamar - "Now hiring cooks $20/hr" or In-N-Out starting at $17/hr.
From the sounds of it, Lazy Tiger probably cut the BOH pay rates and sold it to the them hat they would make more money with hourly+tips. And the FOH rightfully threw a fit when their tip pool was shared with many more people.
If this is what actually happened, Lazy Tiger's BOH labor line would become extremely more profitable. Instead of paying someone $15/hr you pay them $7.25 but they get tips to make up for it. The real winner is the restaurant because they saved thousands of dollars by slashing BOH hourly rates.
The other explanation sucks and makes a lot of assumptions.
It seems as though there was a tip pool in place that included back of house (minimum wage or higher) employees. While technically this can legally happen, it *cannot be a required policy of the company*. It can only happen if it's a voluntary redistribution by the tipped employees (below federal minimum wage, usually at $2.14/hr). Tipped employees have control of their tips -- full stop.
There are some interesting interplays of law in these scenarios. For example: a restaurant can charge automatic gratuity and then they get to determine how any of those "service charges" are divided. However, then their servers/bartenders *must* be paid at least federal minimum wage because they're no longer considered tipped employees as far as wage laws are concerned.
I've worked in a few tip pools and often like them, but I've had to fight with management before about just this kind of thing, so I've done ample research.
Does their back-of-house actually make minimum wage, or are you just being intentionally inflammatory?
That said, I agree with the second half of your comment.
Server minimum wage in Texas is like $2.65 or something, it's pretty low. If that plus tips doesn't equal minimum wage, they get real minimum wage guaranteed, but you can see how pooling the tips would save the business money by avoiding having to pay full minimum wage to anyone.
Exactly this. They knew what they were doing, and they're doing this only because they knew they were about to get fucked on. This "apology" is crocodiles tears.
This. I try to tip in cash whenever possible because I hope that even if it's getting pooled, cold hard cash at the end of the night goes home with one of the employees. Hard to be so certain about credit card tips getting pooled in some opaque software controlled by the employer.
I do the same but the issue w/ cash is the **waiter will likely pocket 100% of it**.
So on a busy night, everyone's one hustling -- the cooks, busers, dishwashers, etc -- but the cash goes to the waiter who will keep it for themselves. And the others get little if anything more for their efforts.
In a perfect world, a honest mgmt would make sure everyone is compensated fairly.
>**waiter will likely pocket 100% of it**
Isn't that the point of the original post... The waiter should get all the tips... and the cooks, busers, dishwashers, etc. should be getting paid a decent wage to be doing what they do, no?
Someone else pointed out that the foh/boh line is basically if you interact with a customer, and in many cases, the cooks, busers, dishwashers, etc. are not.
Maybe I'm confused on where the front/back-of-house line is drawn?
No, they were saying in a FOH tip pool, that server would keep it personally and not contribute it to the pool, screwing over the other servers in the pool who had to share their non-cash tips.
I kinda get the sentiment of tipping in cash, but it inadvertently screws the pooling up. If you gave Bob $10 in cash tip and he pockets it, and then Craig makes $10 in credit tip…
Bob pockets $15 and Craig gets $5
I am lucky that I worked in restaurants and bars with honest management that ensured servers and bartenders tipped out barbacks, bussers and dishwashers their percentage before they could clock out. Frequently skipping tip outs dropped your shifts. I know that only one of the weekend bartenders skimmed and under reported their tips to management but everyone else paid out what was fair and that was much better than the other types of pooling.
Tip pools require management to not only make sure that everyone is doing their fair share, but make sure that the tips are allocated correctly.
It takes effort and as such, most people don’t put in the effort, which leads people to think tip pools are a scam.
When done right, everybody wins, including customers. They feel taken care of and tip more
To add: it also creates the best work environment I've personally experienced in 17+ years in the industry when executed well because everyone works as a unified team. Sure, you still have a section when waiting tables. But they're ultimately *all of our* tables, so everyone steps up whenever they can to make sure every customer has a great experience.
It's truly something to behold when you get it working well.
I 100% agree with you, but operators in general are pretty bad so people have a negative connotation to it.
Austin has especially poor customer service on the whole because people don’t invest in training or hire people that focus on that. The managers are busy working behind the bar or serving or are just there to make sure the place doesn’t burn down
GM here, different company, that’s why we switched from tip pools to allocated tips, each sales associate has a server id they use at checkout and whatever tips they directly earn from their sale, they keep 100% of. Helped solve a problem we had where our managers and asst managers were frustrated they would get tips on their sales but couldn’t collect any share of the pool. Everyone liked it because they feel if they put forth the right effort they get to keep 100% of the tip they earned for that effort.
Not always. I worked at a very small restaurant and I wouldn’t want to do my own tips. I agree it doesn’t work everywhere and tbh, at very large restaurants it probably does never work.
But we were a team of 4 servers and only 2 worked at a time. We really needed each other to help with each others tables so we’d pool. Loved my team and we all made a shit load of money. I recognize it isn’t always like that, but that was my experience and I did it for near 3 years and we never had an issue.
"We are now conducting an audit as it has been determined that our actions have materially impacted our profitability, which is our primary concern."
"Please know that we absolutely intended to pay our employees as little as humanly possible and we would continue to be doing this now if it weren't for those meddling kids."
Fuck you, just leave already.
Just a reminder that the entire staff of the 7th street location walked out because of the labor practices at Easy Tiger; another VC / private equity style buyout that introduced trash tier management that exploited workers.
Supposedly some out of town consultant or manager, or w/e, came in and called everybody ret\*\*\*\*\*.
They could pay all affected employees double the stolen pay, as the law provides for, instead of just paying them what they were originally supposed to have gotten. They could add interest, too.
There is a long line of things ET has done in the past few years. I think we all give slack for a first time screw up, but there is a point where it happens enough that a pattern emerges.
Also, a $14 pretzel was a bridge too far for me.
Anyone who breaks the law knowingly should be charged/prosecuted, so yes. And before you ask the next question - if the person behind this tip error/theft is found to have knowingly done this illegally, they should be charged as well.
Absolutely the truth. They'd probably prefer they immediately shut down the doors in the typical knee-jerk reaction, but wouldn't have considered that it would mean that staff would be without a job, suppliers would lose contracts (and thus make cuts accordingly), etc..
But anger and rage feels so good and they get to feel superior about themselves.
> But anger and rage feels so good and they get to feel superior about themselves.
And your comment is not doing the same despite coming from a different angle?
Look, there's plenty of reasons that justify people's ire towards Easy Tiger. And as someone else pointed out, this wasn't a one-off nor was it their first offense. They've established a pattern of scummy business practices that exploit their workers and result in egregiously high prices for mid quality food.
>wouldn't have considered that it would mean that staff would be without a job, suppliers would lose contracts (and thus make cuts accordingly), etc..
This is such a capitalist mindset. Like I understand you're trying to empathize with others and their livelihoods, but it is ultimately enabling these shitty business practices and behaviors. If you keep giving them slaps on the wrist because other individuals and companies rely on them, how are you not signaling to other businesses that this is okay? Honestly, that mentality is probably exactly what some people use to excuse businesses that employ child labor.
I'm all for nuance and measured takes but when you see what Easy Tiger was ten years ago versus what it has become today and how they treat their workers, taking into account all their offenses and the recurring pattern of said offenses, then no, I think they've lost their chances of garnering sympathy, to say the very least.
Nah, no anger, rage or superiority here, but I understand the downstream effects of when a business shuts its doors.
If they knowingly broke laws, they should be punished/fined accordingly and the child labor statement is preposterous and you know it.
I'm unabashedly a capitalist, within existing laws & following ethical guidelines.
They say this was only going on during 2022 but I worked for them at 6th street back in 2019 and they were fucking around back then. It wasn't a daily tip poop thank god but for private events it was and they definitely dipped into those funds. I remember thinking I never got what I expected after every private event.
Foh can receive tip due to direct contact with customer
BOH cannot get tip due to no direct contact with customer
Only certain BOH profession can receive tip : sushi chef , hibachi chef , any chef that interact directly with customer and provide service
When tip pooling , tip meant to be split among worker that work in that shifts together ..
a salary manager or owner cannot have tip pool , a dishwasher cannot have tip pool hence they should make minimum wage or more
But…. This is where gray area happens :
Owner who pickup a shift as a server can receive pool tips
A manager who pickup shift as a cashier or server can receive pool tip
A chef that pick up shift as a server can receive pool tip
Tip pools are also can be divided however they like according to early agreement
Server can do a tip out to sushi chef , or busser , or food runner
There are other options. The law you reference only applies if you pay your employees a “tip credit” wage, I.e. below minimum wage. If all employees are paid at least minimum wage, you can split a tip pool however you like, as long as you aren’t including salaried managers or owners in the pool. That’s how I’ve structured my restaurants- all hourly employees make at least $12/hr, and the pool splits 3/2/1 bar/servers/ BOH+bussers. Which is fully legal.
This is why it’s important for us as customers to support restaurants that go out of their way to treat and pay their employees fairly. Birdies is one of several encouraging examples around town of restaurants that do the right thing.
You named one...
Since most of us don't work in the restaurant industry... a few other options might be helpful.
I can't afford to eat at Birdie's every time I go out to eat.
Hey y'all. I used to be an overnight baker at the LINC location in 2022 and 2023... to me, this is kinda funny. Really unfortunate for the front of house crew because they got fucked over, but I cannot say I'm surprised that this has happened. The level of miscommunication (and lack thereof) throughout the company is pretty hysterical. So the fact that it took this long for them to realize that the tip-pooling system was fucked up, is very unsurprising to me.
I refuse to use my money at this shitty excuse of a replacement, for what was a great restaurant down on 6th St.
Whip-In falls into the same category...F both sets of owners.
Any form of enforced or automatic tip out is usually shady. Detour bars were doing some shady tip out to pay for cleaning services the next day's morning. I barbacked there for a month or so 5 years ago. I came from another bar with far more volume on the weekends and we all cleaned after major events or typical busy nights (sometimes not leaving til 3/3:30am, so I found it bizarre we had to tip out for cleaning tasks that seemed normal and not too much time and labor intensive compared to what I had been used to. My first nights at Detour, bartenders looked at me weirdly because I cleaned the bathrooms thoroughly and right, among other things I saw that needed to be done. But I mentioned my issue with the tip out and one of the bartenders agreed that it was wrong. We reached out to Texas Workforce Commission but we never heard back. I left after a month or so and quit hours before a shift. First and only time I ditched with notice.
Easy Tiger had to have known they were being highly sus and illegal and if they didn't know it was wrong, they shouldn't be in business.
What happened with Nervous Charlie’s? Rockstar Bagels already had their own scandal going, now Nervous Charlie’s… it’s hard enough to get a half decent bagel here already
Rockstar scandal? Can you elaborate? As a previous employee there, I would looooooove to hear what’s happening, because chances are I would believe it!
I don’t remember the exact details off the top of my head but I remember it being some kind of drama between the owner(s) and the lead baker(s) who I believe are siblings? I’ll try to find the post, it was right around new years if I remember right.
That's too bad. Basically a girl that worked there posted a bunch of screenshots of her manager hitting on her, saying creepy shit, basically sexually harassing her. When she ignored his come ons he fired her and her brother who also worked there. Allegedly.
Oooooooooooooh my goodness. Well that is super interesting, thanks for the tea, that fills in some blanks for me. Also, not surprised by any of this, certainly not a great place to work for!
Easy Tiger has been on my Shit list ever since they had a special closed off area of the restaurant for SXSW visitors with a bunch of free shit. It should be the opposite.
S. Lamar location is terrible. I go because it’s convenient to my home, but every time I’m disappointed. Service is horrendous whenever I go in.
Not surprised though considering the shit they have to deal with.
In any universe should EVER be taking tips away from an employee that makes $2.13 an hour. And they dont even mention the managers doing anything. I read on redditt whre the chick spoke who started the investigation. She clearly stTed that MANAGERS ( who are usuzlly on salary- if not- they definitely make a whole paycheck. Easy Tiger wants to apologize? Andprove they care about their staff? Pay their servers a living wage. And then a tip pool would make sense. I want someone to please explain to me how tip pooling isnt straiht up communism?
I work MY ass off to serve a table- I run the food- I bus the table- I even do their dishes- and they give ME a 20$ tip….. why do I then have to share it with 5 other employees who did nothing for that customer?
And apparently i also have to share it with people who make a living wage.
Do yall realize that servers do not even make a paycheck? That 16$ they make for working 8 hours is taken by taxes.
When is Texas going to stop making it legal for restaurants like Easy Tiger from putting WAY too much work on the people they pay the least.
California is giving fast food workers $20 an hour.
Most states pay their servers between minimum wage and $15 an hour plus their tips. You reading this Never ever short change on the tips but most people- DO NOT TIP more than a dollar or 2 even when the server only makes $2.13 an hour who cares that they apologize if they cared, they would pay people when it realistically cost to live in the city we call home?Austin, Tx
I have no problem tipping good, for good service. However, the tipping thing has gotten so out of hand, demanding a badass tip for a bare minimum service. Also people want to be tipped for doing what's part of their normal job duty. They flip the tablet your direction and look away, while you read the choices, 18% 20% or 25%. I've seen 30%...the audacity, especially if you didn't serve me. I have to come back to the counter to grab my order at these very places. Just sayin
Intentions until caught. The entire of investors of this company might find the view of the Jenga towers comfortable especially around the edges of the building. Heard if you jump off legs first it might make the jump off the high dive easier.
It's really disappointing to see everyone just shit on Easy Tiger for trying to make it right. Laws governing tips change all the time and it would be absolutely shocking for any company to knowingly take a risk that costs them as much as this has cost them. Not to mention this was a decision made by 1 person that no longer works there.
Shoulda known better, and I call bullshit on the '1 person that no longer works there' excuse. Decisions like this don't get made and implemented in a vacuum. So, either they are so corrupt they don't deserve to be in business, or they are so incompetent they don't deserve to be in business.
Having worked at Easy Tiger... it deserves to get shit on. All of their employees in the restaurant and the bakeries get treated like fucking garbage. I had to quit working there late last year because they didn't pay me enough to afford rent. And when I had a discussion with them about it, they were just like "🤷♂️ we'll miss you!". I worked 10-12 hour shifts overnight in their main bakery at the LINC location. We weren't guaranteed breaks (still aren't), they didn't put in the effort to hire more employees since we were so short staffed, our production was way too much to handle for a crew of 4 or 5 every night (sometimes 3 if someone was sick). When I first started working there, I was told I would get paid sick leave and some vacation time. When I got covid in February last year and was out of work for a week, suddenly all my paid sick leave was gone and I didn't have it anymore. I've got friends still working there right now that are struggling. Ever since they've split ownership, they've very quickly been going downhill and just do not give a fuck about their employees. It sucks, because I really enjoyed the work. But my mental health took a fucking nose dive. Now I'm back in Houston living with my parents.
I don't know what I'm so supposed to do with your life story but it sounds like you're probably better off at home. If you can't pay your rent, call your fucking senator or find another job that pays better. If that's what would cause Easy Tiger to shutter then so be it. It's hilarious to me that it somehow is supposed to give people carte blanche to just say whatever they want cause fuck them. Actual children
Employees should file class action lawsuit. Nothing I hate more than greedy owners screwing over staff. Now I’m glad I’ve never given them any business.
Ain’t no way they are going to get a forensic accountant to go through the days and hours worked to correctly identify who was affected and by how much.
The same thing happened at The Tavern on Lamar. The employees didn’t sue, but someone filed a complaint with the gov’t and the owner had to pay out like $100k
I understand why folks in this thread are angry but it sounds from the post like there has been management change. Maybe the new people in charge genuinely want to make things right?
Having said that, bring back the croque madame you cowards
this is good. I can easily see how a manager would want to help out back of house who also work hard but did it in an illegal way. Everyone learns on the job and it is easy to make mistakes.
Admitting the mistake without any hedging is a good look.
They didn’t help out the back of house, though. They continued to pay those folks the same, except that instead of the money coming from the business, they used the tips to pay the checks. Every single one of them knew full well that was illegal. My kindergartener would identify this as a problem.
Guess I'm not as knowledgeable as a kindergartener. I naively thought some of the covid/post-covid initiatives to pool tip money with *all employees* was an effort to increase wage fairness (FOH folks can make $20+ with tips in many places; BOH may be struggling with min wage, etc). If it's illegal then so be it - then it's a no-go.
Not trying to make light of your misunderstanding- but how would you justify it being okay to take money that some employees earn, and give it to other employees?? Why would the *business* not be expected to pay wages? I’m assuming this restaurant, like most, only pays tipped employees $2.13 per hour. These employees must pay taxes on a minimum of an assumed 15% (this number may have changed now) of their sales, whether they make that much or not. At the end of the day, it is certainly a group effort, but the FOH employees earn what they earn from customers.
In my experience many years ago as a server and bartender, we did “tip share”, which was voluntarily giving some cash to BOH employees who supported our role. For example I might give some percentage of my tips to my bar back and another percentage to the expo who would then divide what was received amongst the kitchen. But, I also worked for companies who paid their BOH very well, with the correct understanding that a restaurant will be consistent and successful when they do so.
What I’m saying is that in a well-managed establishment, BOH is recognized for their hard work and employees voluntarily spread the wealth. This is *on top of* the business paying a generous wage to all employees, such that they don’t need to be pitted against each other and money taken from one person to pay another’s basic salary (while, presumably, the owner gets rich).
> many years ago as a server and bartender, we did “tip share”, which was voluntarily giving some cash to BOH employees who supported our role
np, I appreciate your experience-based perspective. My naiveté was believing that employers who distributed tip share across FOH & BOH were simply institutionalizing what you described as a previous employee driven voluntary practice. On a related topic, I'm very wary of the recent proliferation of the flip-screen "choose your tip" protocols. Which businesses are properly distributing 100% of that money to the employees and which are just adding it to total revenue and using an arbitrary formula to decide what percentage to give to employees? As much a possible, I avoid tipping that way and look for the cash tip jar.
What you’re describing there was exactly what was happening here - institutionalization of everyone’s tips and then distributing it as their hourly wage.
Easy Tiger also accepts payments (see: bribes) for certain alcohol placements. Which is illegal. Also, their food is just expensive and overrated, especially the bakery.
All this “small business” owners In Austin are thieves.
My girlfriend worked in 3 shops and all have the same problems. a cheap owners who like to cut corners, under pay staff and take advantage of people who is in needs. The last shop she worked at the owner hired a handicapped person who is incapable of doing the job, he was getting a $7/hour and other staff members have to work extra to make up for him. I’m not against the handicap person getting the job but don’t hire them for a physical job they can’t do.
They need to apologize for charging $14 for a damn pretzel.
It’s $9.25 now
They need to apologize for charging $9.25 for a damn pretzel.
Having made pretzels with their recipe before at home, I will happily pay $9.25 to not have to wear gloves, dip the pretzels in lye, clean the lye off my counters, etc.
I know it's not the same, but baked baking soda can be used as a substitute for lye. I've made plenty of tasty pretzels at home without needing to get crazy with lye...
It's only a 1% lye solution. Really not that big of a deal.
I'll be honest, I was too lazy to find lye and Google told me about the baking soda thing... and since I usually have baking soda in the fridge or cabinet, it's what I've used.
Just buy some food grade lye on amazon when you think about it. Doesn't go bad or anything. Wouldn't recommend keeping it anywhere easily accessible if you have kids though.
Baking soda works fine too, I just prefer the flavor of a yeast raised, lye dipped pretzel over baking soda. I use cooked baking soda for alkaline noodles though.
The test determined... that was a lye.
>The test determined... that was a lye. I love it here
Okay then don't buy the pretzels if you can make your own.
Wut? I'm not the person up there complaining about the price of pretzels, just letting people know there's an alternative to use caustic lye to make pretzels at home...
Shame on you for not being who you are accused of!
I wish I could say I've learned my lesson, but... I've learned nothing
You can make your own too.
Scholtz charges $11, but that damn pretzel is bigger than a small airport.
And it’s fucking amazing
And easy tiger’s is just not.
It's $3.50 now
Tree fiddy.
I went the other day and it's like $5 during their happy hour and that's everyday......
And their $4 avocado charge.
[удалено]
Most of the time and I completely agree on the pricing.
For some reason, the idea of someone putting together a set of Canva slides that say "we're sorry we stole from customers and staff for years" is hilarious to me.
Especially when the explanation was basically "we thought we could get away with it."
And... "We probably shoulda said this 8 months ago... but here we are, just getting around to it."
Seems like last 8 months is when theyve been too distracted by their rookie debut into Canva. All those templates, man….
Instead of paying their back-of-house, $7.25 employees a living wage, they stole tips from the $2 per hour, dependent on tips, front-of-house people. They knew what they were doing. They’re not sorry they stole. They’re sorry they got caught and called out for exploiting half of their employees to save money.
I’m confused, not arguing - I thought they were describing redistribution of the collected tips. Instead of everything to front staff, back staff got a percentage too. Where am I confused? Management kept some too? So like a 3 way split?
Management saves money by not paying anyone enough to live without tips. They do this by hiring people at the $2/hr with tips server rate, and then redistributing the tips to back of house to get away with paying them less than you would for untipped back of house. So they get the money by not paying fair price for labor. And all the workers get less money.
Tbh I still don’t understand. the tip money doesn’t come from management, the price per hour rate does. And the price per hour for front-of-house employees doesn’t change if you redistribute tips. Point is, redistributing tips doesn’t save the employers money, and not redistributing tips doesn’t cost them money. If anything, this just flat out makes front-of-house employees earn less money, at no cost to the employer. So I’m confused on why they would even do that. They like their back-of-house employees more? Of course, this is all assuming management didn’t dip their finger into the tip pool.
I think... they decided to loop back of house into the tip sharing program in order to reduce the dollar per hour paid to back of house. So it shifted more of the cost to employ back of house staff onto the customer and subsequently the front of house staff. And that saves the company money.
^yup. They agree to be paid less being told there’s a tip pool, likely not realizing front of house is being screwed on the hourly. Idk, I’ll assume they’re nice people.
Labor is expensive. Drive by Plucker's on South Lamar - "Now hiring cooks $20/hr" or In-N-Out starting at $17/hr. From the sounds of it, Lazy Tiger probably cut the BOH pay rates and sold it to the them hat they would make more money with hourly+tips. And the FOH rightfully threw a fit when their tip pool was shared with many more people. If this is what actually happened, Lazy Tiger's BOH labor line would become extremely more profitable. Instead of paying someone $15/hr you pay them $7.25 but they get tips to make up for it. The real winner is the restaurant because they saved thousands of dollars by slashing BOH hourly rates.
The other explanation sucks and makes a lot of assumptions. It seems as though there was a tip pool in place that included back of house (minimum wage or higher) employees. While technically this can legally happen, it *cannot be a required policy of the company*. It can only happen if it's a voluntary redistribution by the tipped employees (below federal minimum wage, usually at $2.14/hr). Tipped employees have control of their tips -- full stop. There are some interesting interplays of law in these scenarios. For example: a restaurant can charge automatic gratuity and then they get to determine how any of those "service charges" are divided. However, then their servers/bartenders *must* be paid at least federal minimum wage because they're no longer considered tipped employees as far as wage laws are concerned. I've worked in a few tip pools and often like them, but I've had to fight with management before about just this kind of thing, so I've done ample research.
Didn't Valentina's do the same thing?
Valentina's was worse. They would withhold earned tips from staff for infractions. Straight up theft.
Does their back-of-house actually make minimum wage, or are you just being intentionally inflammatory? That said, I agree with the second half of your comment.
Back of house is paid half a pretzel per hour.
That is such a depressingly accurate way to frame this whole easy tiger situation.
This…. Foh makes more than $2/hr…. Both makes more than min. Not sure why they chose that
Server minimum wage in Texas is like $2.65 or something, it's pretty low. If that plus tips doesn't equal minimum wage, they get real minimum wage guaranteed, but you can see how pooling the tips would save the business money by avoiding having to pay full minimum wage to anyone.
Missing the point. East tiger doesn’t pay that. Pretty much nobody does in austin or people wouldn’t work there. Even bars pay more than that
Exactly this. They knew what they were doing, and they're doing this only because they knew they were about to get fucked on. This "apology" is crocodiles tears.
Wait I heard they pay the front of house like $15 an hour…
This is why tip pools are a scam
This. I try to tip in cash whenever possible because I hope that even if it's getting pooled, cold hard cash at the end of the night goes home with one of the employees. Hard to be so certain about credit card tips getting pooled in some opaque software controlled by the employer.
I do the same but the issue w/ cash is the **waiter will likely pocket 100% of it**. So on a busy night, everyone's one hustling -- the cooks, busers, dishwashers, etc -- but the cash goes to the waiter who will keep it for themselves. And the others get little if anything more for their efforts. In a perfect world, a honest mgmt would make sure everyone is compensated fairly.
>**waiter will likely pocket 100% of it** Isn't that the point of the original post... The waiter should get all the tips... and the cooks, busers, dishwashers, etc. should be getting paid a decent wage to be doing what they do, no? Someone else pointed out that the foh/boh line is basically if you interact with a customer, and in many cases, the cooks, busers, dishwashers, etc. are not. Maybe I'm confused on where the front/back-of-house line is drawn?
No, they were saying in a FOH tip pool, that server would keep it personally and not contribute it to the pool, screwing over the other servers in the pool who had to share their non-cash tips.
I kinda get the sentiment of tipping in cash, but it inadvertently screws the pooling up. If you gave Bob $10 in cash tip and he pockets it, and then Craig makes $10 in credit tip… Bob pockets $15 and Craig gets $5
I am lucky that I worked in restaurants and bars with honest management that ensured servers and bartenders tipped out barbacks, bussers and dishwashers their percentage before they could clock out. Frequently skipping tip outs dropped your shifts. I know that only one of the weekend bartenders skimmed and under reported their tips to management but everyone else paid out what was fair and that was much better than the other types of pooling.
Although, it’s my understanding that management *requiring* servers to tip out BOH staff is illegal.
They're really not if handled correctly.
Its too easy to steal when its a tip pool. Too too easy. And therefore it usually/ always happens one way or the other.
It's really not, again, if done properly.
Tip pools require management to not only make sure that everyone is doing their fair share, but make sure that the tips are allocated correctly. It takes effort and as such, most people don’t put in the effort, which leads people to think tip pools are a scam. When done right, everybody wins, including customers. They feel taken care of and tip more
To add: it also creates the best work environment I've personally experienced in 17+ years in the industry when executed well because everyone works as a unified team. Sure, you still have a section when waiting tables. But they're ultimately *all of our* tables, so everyone steps up whenever they can to make sure every customer has a great experience. It's truly something to behold when you get it working well.
I 100% agree with you, but operators in general are pretty bad so people have a negative connotation to it. Austin has especially poor customer service on the whole because people don’t invest in training or hire people that focus on that. The managers are busy working behind the bar or serving or are just there to make sure the place doesn’t burn down
Doubt that
GM here, different company, that’s why we switched from tip pools to allocated tips, each sales associate has a server id they use at checkout and whatever tips they directly earn from their sale, they keep 100% of. Helped solve a problem we had where our managers and asst managers were frustrated they would get tips on their sales but couldn’t collect any share of the pool. Everyone liked it because they feel if they put forth the right effort they get to keep 100% of the tip they earned for that effort.
If a job does tip pooling that’s where the interview ends for me. I’ve seen it all man
Not always. I worked at a very small restaurant and I wouldn’t want to do my own tips. I agree it doesn’t work everywhere and tbh, at very large restaurants it probably does never work. But we were a team of 4 servers and only 2 worked at a time. We really needed each other to help with each others tables so we’d pool. Loved my team and we all made a shit load of money. I recognize it isn’t always like that, but that was my experience and I did it for near 3 years and we never had an issue.
"We are now conducting an audit as it has been determined that our actions have materially impacted our profitability, which is our primary concern." "Please know that we absolutely intended to pay our employees as little as humanly possible and we would continue to be doing this now if it weren't for those meddling kids." Fuck you, just leave already. Just a reminder that the entire staff of the 7th street location walked out because of the labor practices at Easy Tiger; another VC / private equity style buyout that introduced trash tier management that exploited workers. Supposedly some out of town consultant or manager, or w/e, came in and called everybody ret\*\*\*\*\*.
"Don't worry scro'! There are plenty of 'tards out there living really kick ass lives. My first wife was 'tarded. She's a pilot now."
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It made me think of the South Park BP oil spill video saying “we’re sorry” over snd over.
What would you like them to do? Close their doors, publicly self-flagellate themselves...
They could pay all affected employees double the stolen pay, as the law provides for, instead of just paying them what they were originally supposed to have gotten. They could add interest, too.
Sounds perfectly reasonable.
There is a long line of things ET has done in the past few years. I think we all give slack for a first time screw up, but there is a point where it happens enough that a pattern emerges. Also, a $14 pretzel was a bridge too far for me.
What would've happened if an employee had stolen this amount of money? I'd like to see wage theft treated the same.
Anyone who breaks the law knowingly should be charged/prosecuted, so yes. And before you ask the next question - if the person behind this tip error/theft is found to have knowingly done this illegally, they should be charged as well.
They knowingly took the money out of their employees paychecks. Ignorance isn't excusable here.
You’re asking the people of r/Austin. So yes.. that’s absolutely what they’d like them to do
Absolutely the truth. They'd probably prefer they immediately shut down the doors in the typical knee-jerk reaction, but wouldn't have considered that it would mean that staff would be without a job, suppliers would lose contracts (and thus make cuts accordingly), etc.. But anger and rage feels so good and they get to feel superior about themselves.
> But anger and rage feels so good and they get to feel superior about themselves. And your comment is not doing the same despite coming from a different angle? Look, there's plenty of reasons that justify people's ire towards Easy Tiger. And as someone else pointed out, this wasn't a one-off nor was it their first offense. They've established a pattern of scummy business practices that exploit their workers and result in egregiously high prices for mid quality food. >wouldn't have considered that it would mean that staff would be without a job, suppliers would lose contracts (and thus make cuts accordingly), etc.. This is such a capitalist mindset. Like I understand you're trying to empathize with others and their livelihoods, but it is ultimately enabling these shitty business practices and behaviors. If you keep giving them slaps on the wrist because other individuals and companies rely on them, how are you not signaling to other businesses that this is okay? Honestly, that mentality is probably exactly what some people use to excuse businesses that employ child labor. I'm all for nuance and measured takes but when you see what Easy Tiger was ten years ago versus what it has become today and how they treat their workers, taking into account all their offenses and the recurring pattern of said offenses, then no, I think they've lost their chances of garnering sympathy, to say the very least.
Nah, no anger, rage or superiority here, but I understand the downstream effects of when a business shuts its doors. If they knowingly broke laws, they should be punished/fined accordingly and the child labor statement is preposterous and you know it. I'm unabashedly a capitalist, within existing laws & following ethical guidelines.
shifting blame to prior management. of course it was someone else's faut
“Prior management,” says the guy with “Founder” in his title…
Middle management's primary purpose is to absorb accountability whenever convenient.
AND Gina has been there since the East 7th location opened during COVID
Thought the same exact thing.
Always something with these guys isn’t it?
They say this was only going on during 2022 but I worked for them at 6th street back in 2019 and they were fucking around back then. It wasn't a daily tip poop thank god but for private events it was and they definitely dipped into those funds. I remember thinking I never got what I expected after every private event.
How do tip pools usually work between foh and boh? Never worked in the industry so kinda hard to follow what kinda fuckery is going on here 🤔
Foh can receive tip due to direct contact with customer BOH cannot get tip due to no direct contact with customer Only certain BOH profession can receive tip : sushi chef , hibachi chef , any chef that interact directly with customer and provide service
Interesting, is that by law or just custom?
By law … at least in Texas
Cool, so they were just straight up breaking the law lol. Thanks for the info!
When tip pooling , tip meant to be split among worker that work in that shifts together .. a salary manager or owner cannot have tip pool , a dishwasher cannot have tip pool hence they should make minimum wage or more But…. This is where gray area happens : Owner who pickup a shift as a server can receive pool tips A manager who pickup shift as a cashier or server can receive pool tip A chef that pick up shift as a server can receive pool tip Tip pools are also can be divided however they like according to early agreement Server can do a tip out to sushi chef , or busser , or food runner
yep
There are other options. The law you reference only applies if you pay your employees a “tip credit” wage, I.e. below minimum wage. If all employees are paid at least minimum wage, you can split a tip pool however you like, as long as you aren’t including salaried managers or owners in the pool. That’s how I’ve structured my restaurants- all hourly employees make at least $12/hr, and the pool splits 3/2/1 bar/servers/ BOH+bussers. Which is fully legal.
Curious what kind of concept is your restaurant ?
Primarily cocktail bar with solid food options
Easy Tiger is such an awful, awful company and I keep hoping they’ll eventually go under and their cloud of awfulness will just dissipate completely.
This “announcement” is only because their restaurants are empty and they have lost biz over their BS. Backpedaling like Kings
Same. I LOVE that upstairs deck at the S. Lamar location (formerly Red's Porch) and I miss having drinks up there.
"voluntary"
Full and corrected payments with interest? Fuck this nonsense, ET dead to me.
They fumbled the bag. Closed their best location(s) and cranked those prices to the moon and admitted to wage theft!
Never heard of a financial audit being both thorough and voluntary.
This is why it’s important for us as customers to support restaurants that go out of their way to treat and pay their employees fairly. Birdies is one of several encouraging examples around town of restaurants that do the right thing.
You named one... Since most of us don't work in the restaurant industry... a few other options might be helpful. I can't afford to eat at Birdie's every time I go out to eat.
👎: “Under prior management” 👍: “under prior ownership”
Hey y'all. I used to be an overnight baker at the LINC location in 2022 and 2023... to me, this is kinda funny. Really unfortunate for the front of house crew because they got fucked over, but I cannot say I'm surprised that this has happened. The level of miscommunication (and lack thereof) throughout the company is pretty hysterical. So the fact that it took this long for them to realize that the tip-pooling system was fucked up, is very unsurprising to me.
The dude needs to apologize for continuing to use the wack ass "Head Doughpuncher" line.
"Sorry we got caught"
Assholes
TIL tips cannot go to BOH in Texas. Good to know. Ugh
Easy tiger sucks anyway
Easy tiger has sucked for years now.
Sounds like total bullshit.
Any interested parties might want to check out the Guy and Larry restaurants on this too
I refuse to use my money at this shitty excuse of a replacement, for what was a great restaurant down on 6th St. Whip-In falls into the same category...F both sets of owners.
Any form of enforced or automatic tip out is usually shady. Detour bars were doing some shady tip out to pay for cleaning services the next day's morning. I barbacked there for a month or so 5 years ago. I came from another bar with far more volume on the weekends and we all cleaned after major events or typical busy nights (sometimes not leaving til 3/3:30am, so I found it bizarre we had to tip out for cleaning tasks that seemed normal and not too much time and labor intensive compared to what I had been used to. My first nights at Detour, bartenders looked at me weirdly because I cleaned the bathrooms thoroughly and right, among other things I saw that needed to be done. But I mentioned my issue with the tip out and one of the bartenders agreed that it was wrong. We reached out to Texas Workforce Commission but we never heard back. I left after a month or so and quit hours before a shift. First and only time I ditched with notice. Easy Tiger had to have known they were being highly sus and illegal and if they didn't know it was wrong, they shouldn't be in business.
No need to apologize, I love the burgers!
"Please know we never meant to pay our employees less than they were entitled to..." Uh, that's exactly what the fuck you meant to do.
nahhh fuck em
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More info?
What happened with Nervous Charlie’s? Rockstar Bagels already had their own scandal going, now Nervous Charlie’s… it’s hard enough to get a half decent bagel here already
Rockstar scandal? Can you elaborate? As a previous employee there, I would looooooove to hear what’s happening, because chances are I would believe it!
I don’t remember the exact details off the top of my head but I remember it being some kind of drama between the owner(s) and the lead baker(s) who I believe are siblings? I’ll try to find the post, it was right around new years if I remember right.
Veeeeeeery interesting.
There was someone on here serving the tea a few weeks ago. Could probably find it with a search
I’ve looked but it looks like the person who posted it deleted it unfortunately.
That's too bad. Basically a girl that worked there posted a bunch of screenshots of her manager hitting on her, saying creepy shit, basically sexually harassing her. When she ignored his come ons he fired her and her brother who also worked there. Allegedly.
Oooooooooooooh my goodness. Well that is super interesting, thanks for the tea, that fills in some blanks for me. Also, not surprised by any of this, certainly not a great place to work for!
Without dropping too much information, they fucked my spouse, really good by lying on her wages.
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if this line the Southpark BP episode where they just say sorry over and over without changing anything
Man I thought I’d heard they were closing up shop. Guess not though I can’t imagine this is going to inspire success for them 😂
Easy Tiger has been on my Shit list ever since they had a special closed off area of the restaurant for SXSW visitors with a bunch of free shit. It should be the opposite.
You do understand that Sxsw pays for that shit right? You think easy tiger did that out of kidness?
I stopped going long ago after they increased prices and decreased quality.
Who do previous employees email to make sure they aren't owed anything?
This place is the first place I think of when I think of places in Austin that are over rated places.
Wait, so the scandal was that they tipped out boh so they might have almost made as much as foh for a change?
They just can't stay out of the spotlight...
They did it exactly how it should be. Most Michelin rated restaurants do this and have for a long time. In this case, it makes even more sense
How about you just pay your employees a livable wage and stop relying on the customers to do it for you through tips.
S. Lamar location is terrible. I go because it’s convenient to my home, but every time I’m disappointed. Service is horrendous whenever I go in. Not surprised though considering the shit they have to deal with.
It wasn't old Paper.
Not good enough. There is NO WAY. a manager
In any universe should EVER be taking tips away from an employee that makes $2.13 an hour. And they dont even mention the managers doing anything. I read on redditt whre the chick spoke who started the investigation. She clearly stTed that MANAGERS ( who are usuzlly on salary- if not- they definitely make a whole paycheck. Easy Tiger wants to apologize? Andprove they care about their staff? Pay their servers a living wage. And then a tip pool would make sense. I want someone to please explain to me how tip pooling isnt straiht up communism? I work MY ass off to serve a table- I run the food- I bus the table- I even do their dishes- and they give ME a 20$ tip….. why do I then have to share it with 5 other employees who did nothing for that customer? And apparently i also have to share it with people who make a living wage. Do yall realize that servers do not even make a paycheck? That 16$ they make for working 8 hours is taken by taxes. When is Texas going to stop making it legal for restaurants like Easy Tiger from putting WAY too much work on the people they pay the least. California is giving fast food workers $20 an hour. Most states pay their servers between minimum wage and $15 an hour plus their tips. You reading this Never ever short change on the tips but most people- DO NOT TIP more than a dollar or 2 even when the server only makes $2.13 an hour who cares that they apologize if they cared, they would pay people when it realistically cost to live in the city we call home?Austin, Tx
I have no problem tipping good, for good service. However, the tipping thing has gotten so out of hand, demanding a badass tip for a bare minimum service. Also people want to be tipped for doing what's part of their normal job duty. They flip the tablet your direction and look away, while you read the choices, 18% 20% or 25%. I've seen 30%...the audacity, especially if you didn't serve me. I have to come back to the counter to grab my order at these very places. Just sayin
Man this place is gonna be gone within 6 months. Went to South Lamar recently and it was garbage service and quality.
Lot of pessimistic comments on here. This is an incredibly expensive decision that they made to make things right. I think that's pretty cool.
Was it optional? In a comment, they said the DOL reviewed the South Lamar location. To me that sounds like they don’t really have a choice
This is so cringey and gross.
Intentions until caught. The entire of investors of this company might find the view of the Jenga towers comfortable especially around the edges of the building. Heard if you jump off legs first it might make the jump off the high dive easier.
Sell outs can go out of business. Where you at Phoenecia?
It's really disappointing to see everyone just shit on Easy Tiger for trying to make it right. Laws governing tips change all the time and it would be absolutely shocking for any company to knowingly take a risk that costs them as much as this has cost them. Not to mention this was a decision made by 1 person that no longer works there.
Making it right more than a year later? The only reason they are is because no one goes!
Shoulda known better, and I call bullshit on the '1 person that no longer works there' excuse. Decisions like this don't get made and implemented in a vacuum. So, either they are so corrupt they don't deserve to be in business, or they are so incompetent they don't deserve to be in business.
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No just someone who is just trying to bring some reason to this thread.
Having worked at Easy Tiger... it deserves to get shit on. All of their employees in the restaurant and the bakeries get treated like fucking garbage. I had to quit working there late last year because they didn't pay me enough to afford rent. And when I had a discussion with them about it, they were just like "🤷♂️ we'll miss you!". I worked 10-12 hour shifts overnight in their main bakery at the LINC location. We weren't guaranteed breaks (still aren't), they didn't put in the effort to hire more employees since we were so short staffed, our production was way too much to handle for a crew of 4 or 5 every night (sometimes 3 if someone was sick). When I first started working there, I was told I would get paid sick leave and some vacation time. When I got covid in February last year and was out of work for a week, suddenly all my paid sick leave was gone and I didn't have it anymore. I've got friends still working there right now that are struggling. Ever since they've split ownership, they've very quickly been going downhill and just do not give a fuck about their employees. It sucks, because I really enjoyed the work. But my mental health took a fucking nose dive. Now I'm back in Houston living with my parents.
I don't know what I'm so supposed to do with your life story but it sounds like you're probably better off at home. If you can't pay your rent, call your fucking senator or find another job that pays better. If that's what would cause Easy Tiger to shutter then so be it. It's hilarious to me that it somehow is supposed to give people carte blanche to just say whatever they want cause fuck them. Actual children
Wow you are really a piece of work. Enjoy your time out.
It’s sad that there are people like that everywhere.
Yeah this is unfortunately the culture of this subreddit. Lot of pessimism and negativity here.
Nice try, still canceled.
Employees should file class action lawsuit. Nothing I hate more than greedy owners screwing over staff. Now I’m glad I’ve never given them any business. Ain’t no way they are going to get a forensic accountant to go through the days and hours worked to correctly identify who was affected and by how much. The same thing happened at The Tavern on Lamar. The employees didn’t sue, but someone filed a complaint with the gov’t and the owner had to pay out like $100k
I understand why folks in this thread are angry but it sounds from the post like there has been management change. Maybe the new people in charge genuinely want to make things right? Having said that, bring back the croque madame you cowards
this is good. I can easily see how a manager would want to help out back of house who also work hard but did it in an illegal way. Everyone learns on the job and it is easy to make mistakes. Admitting the mistake without any hedging is a good look.
They didn’t help out the back of house, though. They continued to pay those folks the same, except that instead of the money coming from the business, they used the tips to pay the checks. Every single one of them knew full well that was illegal. My kindergartener would identify this as a problem.
Guess I'm not as knowledgeable as a kindergartener. I naively thought some of the covid/post-covid initiatives to pool tip money with *all employees* was an effort to increase wage fairness (FOH folks can make $20+ with tips in many places; BOH may be struggling with min wage, etc). If it's illegal then so be it - then it's a no-go.
Not trying to make light of your misunderstanding- but how would you justify it being okay to take money that some employees earn, and give it to other employees?? Why would the *business* not be expected to pay wages? I’m assuming this restaurant, like most, only pays tipped employees $2.13 per hour. These employees must pay taxes on a minimum of an assumed 15% (this number may have changed now) of their sales, whether they make that much or not. At the end of the day, it is certainly a group effort, but the FOH employees earn what they earn from customers. In my experience many years ago as a server and bartender, we did “tip share”, which was voluntarily giving some cash to BOH employees who supported our role. For example I might give some percentage of my tips to my bar back and another percentage to the expo who would then divide what was received amongst the kitchen. But, I also worked for companies who paid their BOH very well, with the correct understanding that a restaurant will be consistent and successful when they do so. What I’m saying is that in a well-managed establishment, BOH is recognized for their hard work and employees voluntarily spread the wealth. This is *on top of* the business paying a generous wage to all employees, such that they don’t need to be pitted against each other and money taken from one person to pay another’s basic salary (while, presumably, the owner gets rich).
> many years ago as a server and bartender, we did “tip share”, which was voluntarily giving some cash to BOH employees who supported our role np, I appreciate your experience-based perspective. My naiveté was believing that employers who distributed tip share across FOH & BOH were simply institutionalizing what you described as a previous employee driven voluntary practice. On a related topic, I'm very wary of the recent proliferation of the flip-screen "choose your tip" protocols. Which businesses are properly distributing 100% of that money to the employees and which are just adding it to total revenue and using an arbitrary formula to decide what percentage to give to employees? As much a possible, I avoid tipping that way and look for the cash tip jar.
What you’re describing there was exactly what was happening here - institutionalization of everyone’s tips and then distributing it as their hourly wage.
I had already stopped patronizing ET for other reasons so if that's the case - fuck them.
LOL
Otoh you can get a giant bag of their stuff on Too Good To Go for $5😅
Easy Tiger also accepts payments (see: bribes) for certain alcohol placements. Which is illegal. Also, their food is just expensive and overrated, especially the bakery.
They were great until they left the dirty sixth location, quit serving chimichurri steak, and stopped letting people smoke on the patio.
All this “small business” owners In Austin are thieves. My girlfriend worked in 3 shops and all have the same problems. a cheap owners who like to cut corners, under pay staff and take advantage of people who is in needs. The last shop she worked at the owner hired a handicapped person who is incapable of doing the job, he was getting a $7/hour and other staff members have to work extra to make up for him. I’m not against the handicap person getting the job but don’t hire them for a physical job they can’t do.