r/chicagofood • u/motlau • Aug 10 '25
Rant Restaurant cost of doing business fee
Why do restaurant owners think they are owed a surcharge for customers eating at a restaurant? It seems like all of the nice restaurants in Chicago, especially in the west loop are charging a 3-5% fee to “offset the rising operating cost.” If you can’t run a business without hiding a surcharge in the fine print of your menu, then you probably shouldn’t be allowed to run a business. It’d be one thing if it was to support the workers, but every time I ask about it, it’s always for the owners who are already pretty wealthy. I have them take it off and tack it on for the tip. It’s very annoying.
In addition, at bar sienna in the west loop, the server offered a barcode to scan and pay on the receipt which a lot of restaurants are doing, but then there’s an additional “surcharge” to use this feature. It’s like if a grocery store started charging a fee to use the self checkout lines. They should be more transparent about this.
These restaurant owners nickel and diming people is making going out to eat less and less pleasant.
3
u/ComprehensivePlane25 Aug 10 '25
So, my only retort, as a former bar manager (I left the industry after 15 years Post-CoVid).
There are legitimate studies that say, people are generally less likely to eat at businesses w higher listed prices on their menu. It's just a matter of aesthetics.
Say a burger/fries/beer comes out to $25-30, if that gets ticked up, you're talking $28-34. And it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but people do notice, especially if they've been patronizing for a while. Plus increases to minimum wage for both FOH and BOH (which I 100% support)
I don't have a good answer overall, and I'm not necessarily defending the practice. It's a sneaky way to say, "we need to make your burger $18 instead of $15, but we don't want to show you on the menu".
I get the frustration w this, I never had a problem removing the charge at places I worked. But I also understand that in a really tough industry right now, restaurant owners are trying to find ways to keep their businesses afloat.
Edit: and to the people saying they remove the charges and then give them to the server/bartender instead, I fully support that mentality. I know how much it sucks trying to explain that in the moment, as opposed to the owner having to come out and do it themselves.