The Counter-Service Revolution and the Emancipation of Full-Service Jobs
A bit about the media narrative spin via our food writers.
Food Writers For a Cause
Bethany Jean Clement, Tan Vihn, and Jackie Varriano are food writers for the Seattle Times. A series of three articles authored by Seattle’s favorite food critics recognize a shift in the types of restaurants that Seattle could support, with the emergence of counter-service establishments replacing full-service restaurants. The slew of articles caught our attention. It felt like these bloggers were finally catching up to what workers already know: That minimum wage hikes in the face of inflation, high rent, and other compression policies shouldered by restaurants are changing our dining scene. The articles feel like the Seattle Times is slowly backing into the hedge regarding its uber-positive narrative around minimum wage laws and the service industry. They seem ever so slightly to recognize that the wage hikes are making a negative impact.
For the past several years, all of us have watched the never-ending minimum wage hike edge out small to medium-sized full-service restaurants, not just from Seattle but from the entire state. The Facebook group Inslee’s List: The Dead Business Log has over 7 thousand members who track business closures from all over Washington. Their compilation highlights almost 650 businesses that have either ceased operations or undergone significant transformations, attributing these outcomes to what they perceive as anti-business policies implemented by Governor Jay Inslee. Not all of these are full-service restaurants, but this list gives a chance to pause and take inventory of what is happening in our state.
Restaurant Reckoning
The FSWA had noted a trend of daily restaurant closures every October leading up to the first of January wage increases since 2017/18. Chef Matt Dillion of Sitka and Spruce fame projected that there would be a restaurant reckoning as the wage climbs. Even though he recognized that the wage should be much higher, particularly for back-of-house workers, to match Seattle’s cost of living, he also understood the devastation a high minimum wage would have on small independent restaurants. Dillion closed Sitka and Spruce in 2019. We found ourselves in 2023 with the same trend, except the closures began earlier and were more significant.
Despite our own eyes, Seattle Times food writers would tell us all is fine and that there is an opening with every closure. Even as FSWA and others called them out, they conveniently forgot to mention that the openings mainly consisted of counter service and quick service restaurants, bars, and cafes. Noticeably missing were the full-service restaurants that workers could get excited about regarding opportunities.
In sudden recognition of the reality workers and industry leaders have been living, Bethany Jean Clement and Co. have branded this trend the “counter-service revolution.” In this article, the authors describe how it is an exercise in building community to stand in line, order food, fill your own water, and clear your own table. They go on to explain that more and more restaurants are going to the counter service model to mitigate the sticker shock consumers get when dining out.
Since the inception of the Fight for $15 in SeaTac and the subsequent adoption of the wage hike in Seattle on April Fool's Day in 2015, it was promised to be a panacea for workers who would now be able to afford rents, healthcare, and transportation. We were told through numerous hearings, articles, and media talking heads that workers would have more disposable income to propel the local economy. The whole Fight for $15 sales pitch revolved around workers being able to afford more and not live in poverty, making “subminimum” wages. Employers would win, too. No more nasty tipping culture and inequity. Higher skilled applicants would lead to a greater retention rate. $15 an hour would create a cyclone of economic opportunity for service industry workers and their employers. No one was going to lose.
Food Through the Lens of Revolutionaries
The word revolution has many definitions. As traditionally defined in Merriam-Webster, Revolution can be described as an “activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation.” The mandated minimum wage hike can be defined as revolutionary because its impact has changed the socioeconomic situation of our full-service restaurant work and culture. Counter-service openings are far from a revolution. They are simply a symptom or a negative outcome of poor labor policy surrounding the service industry. Despite our food writers' elation that they no longer have to deal with the formality of service and find waiting in line the best way to get to know your neighbor, they have glossed over the genuine issue of the job and wage loss this creates.
Bethany Jean Clement turning the negative consequences of the wage hike into a “revolution” is not surprising. As the once Kidd Valley Burger Babe who made winning a burger chain beauty pageant a political statement, we should understand that she writes through that lens with every word. However, as more and more restaurants close because of the bad policies, it’s getting harder for these writers to spin it away.
Ten years of an ever-climbing wage hike without a tip credit has been an unmitigated disaster for the full-service restaurant industry in Washington State, with the most intense consequences raising their head going into 2024. Again, the panacea narrative finds its way into Jackie Varriano's January 19th Seattle Times article, “How Seattle’s New Minimum Wage Impacts Restaurants, Workers and Customers.” Here, she describes how the “bump” in pay that one tipped worker would receive would “amount to about $36,000 annually”. But the server interviewed does one better in describing how the minimum wage hike does nothing and how tipping gives her the ability to afford the high cost of living that is raking workers through the coals. “I could not afford to have this job if the tips were not part of it.” This worker likely knows that she makes more through a tipping model than her employer could pay her in a flat wage.
Keeping the narrative away from reality continues with weekly columns about more counter spot openings while full-service spots close. And it’s not just the Seattle Times. Heavily negative articles like “Dining Out is About to Look A Lot Different” by Corey Mintz, who wrote a book titled The Next Supper: The End of Restaurants As We Knew Them and What Comes After, gets posted by Business Insider. Mintz is billed by Business Insider as a “food reporter focusing on the intersection between food, economics, and labor.” Even Bill Maher has had One Fair Wage and Restaurant Opportunities founder Saru Jayaraman repeatedly on his show to explain how awful tips and tipped wages are and why we need to raise the minimum wage.
It has become the media's job to shield the public from the negative consequences of progressive policies. Our local food writers, instead of investigating why our favorite local spots are folding in record numbers, how progressive policies affect inflation and food costs, or how our minimum wage is on a perpetual spin cycle, they seem to be tasked with keeping us from pulling back the curtain. These latest counter-service revolution articles reveal a weakened attempt at damage control regarding the minimum wage. It appears increasingly challenging to justify why numerous cherished local restaurants have closed their doors. Consequently, our food writers find it palatable to advocate for a revolution that could result in the decline of full-service restaurant work and culture.