Dignity or a Generous Tip? For Waitresses, Sexual Harassment is Part of The Job
Editor's Note: Listen to the audio player above for the full interview.For Brittany Bronson, clocking in on the job means balancing sexual harassment and her feminist ideals.Bronson serves cocktails at...
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Restaurant Bans Tips—And Profits Nearly Triple
Here's a revolutionary idea, and one that completely goes against the foundation of the American restaurant industry: What if restaurants did away with tipping and owners paid their staff at least...
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Report Reveals Bias in NYC Restaurants
There's a big difference in the workforce in the front and back of the city's restaurants. A new report says that workers of color make up about two thirds of behind the scenes restaurant jobs. White...
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From Wall St. to Pour Gourmet by Anita Schillhorn van VeenThe Great Recession: My Life After the Layoff by Jamie Flanders
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Restaurant Grades: Pending Grade
A restaurant that receives a 'B' or 'C' on its second inspection can opt to post a 'Grade Pending' card in the window while it waits for a hearing before an Administrative Tribunal at the Health...
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Restaurant Grades: 'C' Grade
The dreaded 'C.' It is the "Scarlet Letter" of restaurant grades. With only three possible grades, the 'C' is the lowest mark a restaurant can receive.The Health Department hopes the threat of a 'C'...
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Restaurant Grades: 'B' Grade
As the new food inspection program rolls out later this month, if a restaurant receives more than 14 points, it will not receive a grade at that time. Instead, the restaurant will be re-inspected at...
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Restaurant Grades: 'A' Grade
In school we learned that an 'A' was awarded for a score between 90-100 points, a 'B' for 80-89 points and a 'C' for 70 to 79. That’s not how the New York City’s new health inspection restaurant...
View ArticleBack to School: New York City Restaurants Receive Letter Grades for Sanitary...
Starting later this month, color-coded grades based on restaurant food-safety conditions will begin appearing in prominent locations to the entrances of New York City’s nearly 24,000 eating...
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Celebrating Mardi Gras with King's Cake and Good Luck
Mardi Gras in New Orleans is the pinnacle of the party. But how does New York get down? Listening to some traditional New Orleans funk is an option, as is getting a few strings of beads if you're out...
View ArticleCentral Park Boathouse Workers On Strike
On Tuesday at noon, approximately 60 hospitality workers at the Central Park Boathouse Restaurant walked out or failed to come in for their shifts, protesting alleged abuses by restaurant owner Dean...
View ArticleCommunity Board Considers Closing Bars Early
A Harlem community board is mulling whether to ask bars, nightclubs and restaurants to stop serving liquor two hours before last call.This week, Community Board 10 tabled a recommendation that would...
View ArticleRestaurant Workers' Group Releases Ethical Eating Guide
Ethical eating is not a new concept. Five years ago, Michael Pollan began talking about how the food we eat affects the health of the environment in "The Omnivore's Dilemma." More recently, in the...
View ArticleJiro Dreams of Sushi
Director David Gelb talks about his latest documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which tells the story of Jiro Ono, who’s considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. At the age of 85, Ono...
View ArticleStudy: Diners Eat Less When Restaurant Has Soft Music, Lighting
Soft lighting and mellow music in fast food restaurants can lead to increased satisfaction and lower calorie intake, say the authors of a new study.After making adjustments at a fast food restaurant...
View ArticleRags To Riches: The Golden Krust Story
Lowell Hawthorne, president and CEO of Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill, talks about his new memoir, The Baker's Son: My Life In Business, and his experiences as co-founder of Golden Krust.
View ArticleThe Culture Gabfest: Drooping and Slumping Toward Insanity Edition
Slate critics Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens and Julia Turner discuss Pete Wells' epic New York Times review/takedown of Guy Fieri's restaurant, Philip Roth's retirement and the Rolling Stones' lack...
View ArticleMicropolis: Mystery of the Chinese Double Menu
Why, in this era of foodie hordes, Instagramming their way across the five boroughs, do some Chinese restaurants in New York City still have double menus?It’s always mystified me that a business would...
View ArticleLessons from San Francisco as Paid Sick Leave Bill Passes NYC
The City Council passed a landmark paid sick leave bill on Wednesday. The bill, which would require five paid sick days a year, would affect 300,000 New Yorkers and apply to businesses with 20 or more...
View ArticleA Modest Proposal: Ban Tipping
Freakonomics radio host Stephen Dubner discusses the recent episode that describes inequities in the way people tip.
View ArticleCraft Beer Jam: Making beer with downtown NYC brewpub 508 Gastrobrewery
New York City is home to just three brewpubs, and one of them is downtown's 508 Gastrobrewery. As we continue our toast to Good Beer Month, the city's 30-day celebration of local beers and the bars...
View ArticleVeggies Take Over Pricey Tasting Menus
Once upon a time, a tasting menu at every nice New York restaurant would start with caviar, and include fish, pork, and red meat. Now, it often begins with leaves, then moves to kale chips, then...
View ArticleVideo: Lopate and Locavores - Tips From Your Waiter
WNYC host Leonard Lopate kicked off the series "Lopate and Locavores" with a panel of former and current NYC restaurant wait staff who shared insider tips and tales of what it's like to be on the other...
View ArticleBathroom Attendants in Restaurants: Service or Servitude?
A little revolution is happening inside an important room in New York restaurants. No, not the kitchen. The bathroom. Recently, the Soho restaurant Balthazar announced it will eliminate its bathroom...
View Article2013's Best New NYC Restaurants are Pricey, But Worth It
This was the year when an Italian chef and a Korean chef made mashup dishes. When one of New Yorker's fussiest cooks opened a new restaurant. When people stood in line for hours to buy a cronut for...
View ArticleWomen Rule the Kitchen, But Not the Best Ones
Men continue to dominate most labor sectors, but women rule in one of them: The food service industry. Still, they are not getting the most prestigious jobs in the kitchen.Women represent only six...
View ArticleFreakonomics Radio: Should Tipping Be Banned?
Broadcast time: Friday, June 20 at 9pm on 93.9FMTo an economist, tipping is a puzzling behavior – why pay extra when it’s not required? In this episode of Freakonomics Radio, host Stephen Dubner looks...
View ArticleThe $150 Dining Experience the Pros Ignore, But the Public Loves
New editions of New York's restaurant bibles are out — and they aren't on the same page about the city's top dining experience.Sushi Nakazawa in the West Village, with has a $150 tasting menu, was...
View ArticleWould You Pay More for Dinner if You Knew Tip Was Included?
Patricia Cohen, economics reporter for The New York Times, discusses her story about some restaurants adjusting to wage hikes for their workers by increasing prices and eliminating tips (or adding a...
View ArticleWhy Not Tipping Your Waiter Can Be Better for Everyone
The practice of tipping restaurant servers is on its way out at one of the city's largest and most influential restaurant groups. Danny Meyer, the CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group, announced...
View ArticleThe Tipping Point
Adam Gopnik, staff writer for The New Yorker, takes the occasion of Danny Meyer's announcement of the end of tipping in his restaurants to review the history and meaning of the restaurant...
View ArticleRestaurateur Danny Meyer Says "No Tipping" Model Works
It's only been about a month since Danny Meyer, New York City restaurateur and founder of Shake Shack, implemented a "no tipping" policy at his restaurant The Modern. And according to him, it's going...
View ArticleBrian Lehrer Weekend: Fiction Writers, Best Books of 2015, No-Tipping Policy
Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.Marlon James and Curtis Sittenfeld on Fiction (First) | Best Books of 2015 (Starts at 16:40) | Danny Meyer's No-Tipping Policy...
View ArticleThe No-Tipping Point
The restaurant business model is warped: kitchen wages are too low to hire cooks, while diners are put in charge of paying the waitstaff. So what happens if you eliminate tipping, raise menu prices,...
View ArticleSteve Martin, Edie Brickell on 'Bright Star.' Jesse Tyler Ferguson is 'Fully...
Steve Martin and Edie Brickell talk about their bluegrass-inspired musical, “Bright Star,” along with the show’s breakout star Carmen Cusack. Five-time Emmy Award nominee Jesse Tyler Ferguson returns...
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When To Stop Looking for a Better Date or Restaurant
Last week Brian Christian, co-author of the book "Algorithms to Live By," taught us how algorithms can optimize how we live. They can help explain that messy pile of papers on your desk, or why you...
View ArticleDim Sum: Dumplings & Buns that Make the Perfect Bite
From the cavernous Chinatown restaurants where carts of dumplings are wheeled around, waiting to be pointed to and picked up like an eager single teenager at the prom, to foie gras, flank steak and...
View ArticleThe History of Restaurants Revealed
Centuries before the restaurant became a dining destination, a "restaurant" was actually a medicinal broth that contained ingredients like capon, gold ducats, rubies and other precious gems. So how did...
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How this Harlem restaurant changed America
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders met with the Rev. Al Sharpton at Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem. Photo by Brendan McDermid/ReutersEditor’s Note: This Thanksgiving week, what better...
View ArticleThree Food Critics Walk into a Restaurant...
Melissa Clark guest hosts today!New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells, New York Magazine’s chief restaurant critic Adam Platt and Kate Krader, Food Editor at Bloomberg Pursuits, join us to talk...
View ArticleA History of America Through Its Restaurants
Melissa Clark guest hosts today!In his new book Ten Restaurants That Changed America, Paul Freedman selects the restaurants that have influenced the U.S. – starting in the 1830s when the first...
View ArticleRestaurants nationwide seek ‘sanctuary’ status for immigrant employees
The national debate over immigration policy could be coming to a diner near you.From down-home delis to upscale bistros, dozens of restaurants nationwide are seeking “sanctuary” status, a designation...
View ArticleSanctuary Restaurant Movement to Protect Workers, Immigrants
Restaurant owners were having trouble finding workers even before the presidential election. Then President Trump got elected."We're already going through the worst labor shortage in this industry,...
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What happened at DC’s restaurants when immigrant workers stayed home
Jesse Miller prepares a dish Feb. 16 in the kitchen at Bar Pilar, a restaurant on 14th Street in Washington, D.C. Miller’s kitchen staff, all immigrants, went on strike Thursday during a “Day Without...
View ArticleThe Rise Of The Restaurant
Hungry for information? Then learn about the history of the American restaurant.
View ArticleHow to Remake The Restaurant Business in the #MeToo Moment
All this week, WNYC is discussing the adversity and harassment faced by women in a series we're calling Beyond Me Too. Earlier this week, WNYC's host Jami Floyd spoke with Jen Agg, a restaurateur and...
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