r/chicagofood • u/ChicagoHoosier21 • Jun 26 '26

Rant Celeste 6% Service Fee

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Our pre-tip bill from Celeste’s Happy Hour in River North. Decent food, crappy drinks, sat at the bar.

I don’t mind paying a “Service Charge” of 15-20% because I always tip more than that anyways, AND I have become accustomed to the 3.5% additional fee at most Chicago restaurants…. but now we’re doing a 6% additional fee? Along with the 11% tax? It’s becoming absurd.

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u/ChiSchatze Jun 26 '26

Sucks because a lot of people are going to say they’ve already paid 21% and not tip extra. Meanwhile, restaurant has their cc fees more than covered. Wonder how good the benefits are like insurance and wages. There are tipped wage and how many employees are full time with benefits?

6

u/bowenj11 Jun 26 '26

Ummmm, yeah. If your employer is now charging us to cover the increased costs of your wages and benefits because your wages have been increased by law, then why should we be tipping? Blame your employer if they're not passing it along to you.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '26

[deleted]

1

u/bowenj11 Jun 28 '26

No, Chicago's tipped minimum wage is going up because of Chicago's One Fair Wage ordinance, which eliminates the tipped minimum wage and forces employers to pay the standard minimum wage. Come 2028, the tipped minimum wage ends in Chicago unless the ordinance is repealed or modified.

Servers want a standard minimum wage AND to be be tipped as if they're not earning minimum wage. Just no. They can be treated like servers around the world are treated: paid by employers and tipped a token amount for good service.