6 Questions with Bonnie Morales on Going 'No Tipping' and The Additional Tip Line
Read time: 4 min
By Sophie Braker
First restaurant job?
My parents owned a restaurant when I was in high school. I helped them out a lot: prep cook/server/barista/counter/cashier. It was called Still LIfe Cafe and was a cautionary tale on what not to do if you want to open a restaurant!
2. What’s a food / drink you always have on hand at home?
Mozzarella curd! Freshly pulled mozzarella has no equal so I always have curd in 1# bags in my freezer at home to defrost and pull anytime.
3. How does your new pricing (and no tipping) model reflect what Kachka stands for?
Kachka is a very personal story with a mission to share my family’s culture. I recognize that it takes dozens of other people to help us share my family’s story though. With the new wage model, it really feels like we are working together to share it. The old model is broken and exploitative – it’s hard to feel like any of your bigger goals and dreams matter when you’re part of the problem.
4. What has been the biggest challenge of rolling out ‘no tipping’?
Honestly, there was nothing hard about it in practice. Everyone says that it can’t be done and making the decision to go against the grain was the hardest part by far. Everything else is more problem solving with little details.
5. What has been the most rewarding thing about having this new model?
I have always found tipping to be so inappropriate and disrespectful to all who participate – a black market economy that subsidizes wages so that we don’t have to think too hard about how much our food costs. Removing tipping has been such a liberating experience. The most rewarding thing is that I feel like I can finally be proud of what we do for a living. I know that we are doing everything we can to make sure that the staff we employ are making a fair wage.
6. Best advice for a restaurateur looking to get away from tipping?
JUST DO IT. The more places that do it, the easier it gets. Also, like I said before, it’s actually really doable and not some sort of unsolvable riddle. I do have some small pieces that I think are critical:
DO NOT OFFER AN ADDITIONAL TIP LINE. Please don’t. I feel like the places that do it are just being performative in their desire to remove tipping.
Make sure guests/customers know that this is your policy before the bill hits their table. Do your best to communicate your message about why you are doing this in as many places as possible.
Talk to others that are doing it successfully. I am always happy to talk through our experience with anyone who needs help setting it up in their business. Reach out to me if there is no one in your network that is doing it yet.
Pay attention to your guests and ignore the noise on social media. When we first transitioned, we had people coming out of the woodwork online telling us we were doing the wrong thing. The reality is that those people are not our customers. Meanwhile, people walking in the doors at Kachka were supportive of our change.
Watch the Videocast with Bonnie and Jensen - BSP404: What Restaurants and Customers Need To Know About Kachka's 'No-Tipping' Business Model
Bonnie Morales is the James Beard award-nominated Chef and Co-Owner of Kachka and Kachka Lavka in Portland, Oregon. The first-generation American daughter of Belarusian immigrants, chef Bonnie Morales grew up in Chicago immersed in the culture, food, and drink of the former Soviet Union. Morales went on to be classically trained at the Culinary Institute of America, and top kitchens in New York and Chicago. In 2014 she returned to her roots and opened Kachka with her husband and business partner Israel Morales. Kachka’s garnered countless accolades, and Bonnie Morales was named a Rising Star Chef by StarChefs, and nominated for Food & Wine's The People's Best New Chef. Kachka has been lauded in myriad publications, and was most recently featured in the Netflix series “Somebody Feed Phil,” as well as the Emmy award-winning docuseries “The Migrant Kitchen.” Morales’ first cookbook, Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking, was published in 2017 to critical acclaim.
