It’s hard to say what Zuni Cafe, the groundbreaking Californian restaurant on Market Street, is better known for: its iconic wood-fired roast chicken or its award-winning service. Since the start of the pandemic, the dining room has remained dark for more than a year, its legendary lifetime servers sent home. At the end of April, those servers received that long-awaited call: Zuni planned to reopen for indoor dining in the upcoming weeks. But there was a change: After 42 years, the restaurant had decided to cut tips and introduce a service fee. Zuni’s servers, shocked at the prospect of a dramatic pay cut even in the service of greater equity for back-of-house employees balked at the initial offer and reached out to multiple media outlets, as first reported by SFGATE.
Legendary Zuni Cafe gets rid of tips, joining a wage-equity movement in Bay Area
Legendary Zuni Cafe gets rid of tips, joining a wage-equity movement in Bay Area
But not all staffers think the new model, where diners get a service charge, is in their best interest
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Legendary S.F. restaurant Zuni Cafe will add 20% service charge to bills when it resumes indoor dining in a few weeks.Kimberley Hasselbrink/Special to The Chronicle 2020
When Zuni Cafe reopens for indoor dining in a few weeks, it’ll shift from a traditional tipping model to adding a 20% service charge to diners’ bills a way to boost wages for the restaurant’s lowest wage workers. The San Francisco institution will join a long list of Bay Area restaurants that have switched to a service charge in the past several years, though some businesses have struggled to maintain a tipless model because of higher taxes and difficulty in retaining staff.
Modern Italian Restaurant Itria Expected to Open In the Mission This Spring Bringing With It Square Pizzas
A pair of seasoned restaurateurs from notable Bay Area eateries, like AL’s Place and Rooster and Rice, is set to open a new modern Italian restaurant in the Mission District this spring. (Nonetheless: expect Hawaiian-style pies at the new restaurant.)
Nature is, in fact, healing and San Francisco s beloved dining scene, too, is coming back from the brink.
New taprooms are opening. Additional, yet-menued Mexican restaurants are expected to grace the Castro. Watering holes are finding continued success in offering to-go cocktails. And sometime in the coming months, San Franciscans can expect a new Italian restaurant to make its way on the scene pizza-centered Itria, which will take over the former space belonging to now-closed Obispo at 3266 24th Street.
New Italian Restaurant Brings Bubbly Pan Pizza to the Mission This Spring
A former chef from AL’s Place and an investor from Rooster and Rice are teaming up on a new modern Italian restaurant, taking over the old Obispo space
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Angelina Hong/Itria [Official]
Two veterans from popular Bay Area restaurants AL’s Place and Rooster and Rice are bringing a modern Italian restaurant to the Mission this spring.
Itria is taking over the former Obispo space at 3266 24th Street, Thad Vogler’s colorful and short-lived rum bar, which sadly permanently closed during the pandemic, leaving the prime Mission location empty for more than a year. Now, Itria is a new project from Daniel Evers, a chef who came through the kitchens of vegetable-centric AL’s Place and pasta-obsessed Cotogna. He’s teaming up with Min Park for the new restaurant, an industry expert with experience managing operations and marketing for restaurants like the popular fast-casual Rooster and Rice, as
The most significant San Francisco Bay Area restaurant closures of 2020
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1of11The dining room at The Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena , Calif., on Thursday, March 31, 2016.Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle 2016Show MoreShow Less
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People dine at the sushi bar at Ichi Sushi in San Francisco in 2014John Storey / Special to The Chronicle 2014Show MoreShow Less
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Russell Stein plates a margherita pizza at Mozzeria restaurant in San Francisco.John Storey / Special to The Chronicle 2012Show MoreShow Less
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Bar owner Thad Vogler makes a Mojito at Obispo, a rum bar in the Mission.Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle 2018Show MoreShow Less