Why this famous NYC restaurateur is banning tipping

It's a plan Mr. Pink could get behind: Major New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer, the owner of 13 restaurants in the Union Square Hospitality Group, plans to phase out tipping at his restaurants — a move he hopes will benefit both his wait staff and kitchen staff. The no-tips model, common in Europe, means the menu prices will be all-inclusive, with some items going up in cost by as much as 35 percent, The New York Post reports.

The changes will start at The Modern, a sophisticated cafe and dining room at the Museum of Modern Art, and continue to be rolled out across Meyer's other restaurants in 2016, including Blue Smoke, the Union Square Cafe, and Gramercy Tavern. It's all a part of a vision that's been in the works for Meyer since 1994, when he wrote in a newsletter that "the American system of tipping is awkward for all parties involved."

"I'd see nights where waiters were crying because somebody from Europe would walk out without leaving a tip," Meyer explained to Eater. Meyer further elaborated to The New York Times that the gap between kitchen and dining room staff has "grown by leaps and bounds," with kitchen income increasing "no more than 25 percent" in his 30 years of work, while wait staff have seen increases of 200 percent. Legally, kitchen staff cannot take a cut of the tips made on the dining room floor.

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"Think about the opportunity to innovate," Meyer told Eater. "There's not too many more ways I know to roast a chicken, or sous vide a chicken, or do whatever you're supposed to do to a chicken. But fundamentally, the cost of going out to a fine dining restaurant is false. I feel that the prices on menus, for a restaurant that's really trying to offer good value, don't accurately express the true picture of what it costs for the people to make that happen."