thirteen sutton stories on inflation, policy, labor, tipping, covid, and cuomo.
why this restaurant critic wasn’t dining out during the heart of the covid pandemic in 2020
“For me, the low risk of sending a single uninsured waiter to an ICU bed, someone who isn’t really there by choice, in exchange for the pitcher of frozen margaritas you happen to be craving in the late afternoon, is a morally indefensible transaction.”
trump tapped a fast-food CEO for labor secretary. that could be disastrous for restaurant workers
Puzder was such a problematic choice for labor secretary that I managed to whip up roughly 1500 words on him and on labor policy in just a few hours.
fini and the era of the $5 slice
Not just a review, but an inquiry into the rising cost of one of NYC’s quintessential foodstuffs — due in part to russia’s war against ukraine.
eleven madison park to raise prices following reports of low staff pay
I broke some news about the vegan restaurant’s move to increase the cost of dinner and raise wages in the wake of an Insider report on staff pay.
masa, already america’s priciest sushi bar, now starts at $1,000 per person
And why should we care? Because masa “is not an obscure private club for yacht owners. The chef, masa takayama, accompanied Anthony Bourdain during an episode of parts unknown, and has appeared on late night with Seth Meyers. The restaurant received a maximum grant of $5 million from the restaurant revitalization fund last spring, a pandemic-era program that most new york culinary establishments were shut out from. And masa is the only stateside sushi-ya with three Michelin-stars.”
restaurant workers are left behind in new york’s new paid parental leave program
I revealed how an early version of the state family leave program would pay most restaurant workers less than the minimum wage — and how programs in cities like san francisco would do better to keep workers earning their full pay while taking care of a newborn or adopted child. Published in 2018.
nyc’s indoor dining comeback fails restaurant workers
“If the last few years have seen the food world grapple with systemic issues like pay disparities, culinary credit, tipping, and harassment from either big-time chefs or everyday customers, the poorly regulated return of indoor dining — during a deadly pandemic, no less — feels like a middle finger to hospitality workers.”
your interactive guide to understanding the minimum wage
As candidates for the 2016 presidential election were debating raising the minimum wage, I carried out some restaurant industry-focused wage analysis for eater to show which states needed serious hikes.
which nyc restaurants pulled in millions of pandemic aid?
We relied primarily on the SBA freedom of information act release to get this up fast, using the data to show how local groups of panera bread and buffalo wild wings received millions in aid, while other independent restaurants were shut out
how the $900 billion stimulus helps — but mostly fails — restaurants and workers
This was part of my ongoing effort to detail precisely how COVID regulation would impact the restaurant industry. In this particular case, i detailed how unemployed workers would receive over $6,000 less than under the previous aid package.
cuomo is wrong to rush toward mask-free, before-times dining
“Cuomo’s strategy here is a great way to convince workers that the pandemic restaurant experience — where the customer is supposedly always right, even if it jeopardizes the lives of the service class — is on track to mimic the pre-pandemic one. So much has changed in our world. Yet for so many restaurant workers, not much really has.”
that fancy tasting menu date is going to cost you $1,000
A very specific type of NYC inflation: the metropolitan area is now home to roughly 15 restaurants where a dinner date will likely top $1,000 after tax, tip, and a few drinks per person, a pricing tier that has tripled in size since before the pandemic.
new york shouldn’t have excluded tipped workers fromo the full $15 minimum wage
I argued for an elimination of the state tip credit in this 2016 op-ed.