Chef and co-owner Gabriel Rucker and co-owner Andy Fortgang announced they will ban tipping at the SoBu restaurant, effective in June.
Le Pigeon have discussed eliminating tips since last fall when New York restaurateur Danny Meyer announced all the restaurants in the Union Square Hospitality Group would be eliminating tipping, according to the official press release.
“While this will represent a change for Le Pigeon’s guests, we are confident that our guests will likewise find this arrangement beneficial,” says co-owner Andy Fortgang. “We are confident as well in the service team, made up of experienced professionals that love what they do and take service very, very seriously,” states the press release.
Tipping provided Le Pigeon no viable feedback, but the restaurateurs will start a web or email based feedback system, according the press release.
The tipping elimination trend started earlier this year in Portland.
Northwest Portland restaurants Park Kitchen and Bent Brick also went to the no-tipping model back in January, although a recent study concluded that most diners (55 percent) still enjoy tipping, and think its elimination would lead to poor service. However, this thinking was more confined to older diners, as opposed to the younger respondents who felt tipping is an out-dated notion.
(READ MORE: Portland Mercury)
