Tell restaurant-goers what surcharges, service fees are used for

Restaurants were hit particularly hard during the height of the pandemic.

Roughly 90,000 restaurants temporarily or permanently closed by 2021 and the number of overall employees working in the industry dropped by 1 million, the National Restaurant Association reports.

The public is eating out again, but businesses still face challenges as they try to bounce back. Rising inflation, debt and the cost of third-party delivery apps are among the costly reasons some Chicago restaurateurs say they still need to tack on surcharge and service fees to the bill.

The extra expenses have left a bad taste in the mouth of many patrons dealing with financial hardships of their own. Much to the chagrin of some foodies looking for an affordable deal, 39 of the 362 restaurants participating in the 16th Annual Chicago Restaurant Week have been including surcharges and service fees for the 17-day event,

If restaurants are going to keep asking diners to dig deeper, they ought to make clear what the charge is paying for.

One example is Bar Sótano and Frontera Grill, both owned by Rick Bayless, that state on their menus that the usual 20% service charge is necessary “to pay our staff an equitable and dependable livelihood.”

Explicitly telling customers where the surcharge and service fee money is going is the best way to ease customers’ angst over paying more. If the service charge, for instance, goes to supplement the income of line cooks, dishwashers and others who work in the back, or to pay for employee health insurance or credit card fees, most diners will probably be glad to pay up.

A few restaurants may add these fees in place of a gratuity so servers are guaranteed a decent tip.

While the menus of Bar Sótano and Frontera Grill don’t specify that their service fees are for tips, it does tell patrons the money is for staff and takes a bit of the pressure off by adding, “Please feel free to leave something more if you enjoyed the service.”

This way, a conscientious diner who can’t spend too much money on a particular night doesn’t have to worry about leaving a huge tip, while bad tippers are forced to pay appropriately.

There’s no argument restaurant owners have it tough. But to gain more repeat customers and fewer complaints, be upfront about surcharges and service fees in the “new normal” of dining out.

The Sun-Times welcomes letters to the editor and op-eds. See our guidelines.