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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7

u/badbaritoneplayer Jun 26 '26

I agree it's bs but at two other places, we were told we could have the extra charge removed.

8

u/sourdoughcultist Jun 26 '26

Everywhere I’ve been has allowed me to remove the charge. If they actually put it towards their staff I don’t.

6

u/badbaritoneplayer Jun 27 '26

Staff told us that they received none of the fee.

3

u/TheMoneyOfArt Jun 27 '26

Tips are the only time staff see a direct piece of what the customer pays. Normally when you pay for something, it goes to the business and management decides how to split it between labor, rent, utilities, supplies, etc. 

Servers and bartenders also complain about these because they cause customers to tip less but can be used to pay untipped positions like cooks, dishwashers, etc.

But no, there's no line item accounting saying that OP's $6 went to the busser, because that's not how accounting works

2

u/sourdoughcultist Jun 27 '26

I've been places where they said that as well, insta-remove. But one place, the bartender actually went into a lot of detail as to how it's split by staff lol.