A Letter To Our Guests

July 31, 2018

Dear friends and patrons, 

Chickadee is a small independently owned (and owner-operated) business focused on serving simple and elegant food in a fun atmosphere, while supporting the communities that help us function every day: this includes our local farmers, employees and other small businesses within the IDB, but most importantly our Chickadee staff. We strongly believe that in an effort to deliver the best hospitality experience to you our guests, and to our extended community, we must first foster a positive work environment here ‘at home’. It takes an entire team of people to help operations run smoothly and provide quality food and service during your visit with us here at Chickadee. What you may not know, however, is that kitchen staff most often arrive before the rest of the team, and are among the last to leave each night, yet still struggle to make a livable wage. In an effort to bridge the wage gap inequality between our Front of House employees and Back of House employees, we are instating a 4% Kitchen Administration Fee. 

 

Why do we need to introduce the Kitchen Administration Fee?

We have long been aware of the controversial wage gap inequality between FOH employees (bussers, servers, bartenders) and BOH/Kitchen teams (dishwashers, line cooks, prep cooks) and that is an aspect of our industry which, simply put, we can no longer abide. FOH employees earn their living from gratuities that traditionally are calculated as a percent of total revenue, while BOH employees are legally restricted from participating in tips and service charges. With an increase in the cost of doing business in Boston, resulting from various factors such as increased minimum wage, to mandated health insurance, and state mandated paid sick time, it is becoming increasing more and more challenging for small business owners to be able to carve out enough from their bottom line to accommodate adequate wage increases for Kitchen employees. As a result, we are excited to join a movement of likeminded restaurateurs and participate in a business model which will allow for a more even distribution of wages, and thus improve working conditions and ultimately our employees’ quality of life. 

 

Are there other options to consider? 

While we have explored several different avenues to bridge this gap, including ‘simply raising prices’, to instating an automatic gratuity, to doing away with tipping altogether in favor of raising prices and building-in a guaranteed wage, after much discussion with our colleagues and our team members whose opinions we value deeply, we have found the most acceptable is to add a modest kitchen surcharge of 4%.  This fee will directly affect Chickadee’s top line and ensure a concrete distribution of more balanced wages to our hard working kitchen team.  Your contribution as a guest will help to provide a better quality of life vis a vis higher wages for workers that often spend 13 to 15 hours a day in the restaurant yet still have trouble making a livable wage. We appreciate your concerns about this matter and are happy to hear your feedback. Our Chickadee staffers love what they do, it is plainly obvious to us (because we love what we do, too!) and we want to share our enthusiasm and passion for hospitality with you- thank you for helping to support our team in a way that directly impacts their day to day lives. 

 

Sincerely, 

John daSilva + Ted Kilpatrick

Owners, Chickadee