In a few weeks, Chef Phillip Frankland Lee and his wife and pastry chef Margarita Lee will open a new location for Scratch Bar & Kitchen in Encino, California, after shuttering their Beverly Hills restaurant this summer. And in the new space they are trying out a radical approach to service: they won’t employ any front-of-house servers. Instead, they are hiring twice the usual number of cooks and having them serve the guests.
The Lees’ move is a bold solution to the challenges of growing minimum wages and a deep divide between the front and back of house, and they are ready to take the plunge to ensure everyone is paid fairly. Phillip thinks a 30-seat, innovative restaurant is the perfect place to experiment.
Be curious to see how it goes- however I would prefer the cooks simply focus on cooking. Some guy asks a ton of questions and wants to chat with the “server” for a bit, and things get neglected in the kitchen? I am sure I am oversimplifying as there would be some sort of coverage plan in the kitchen, but still would rather have the cooks specialize on just cooking the best possible food.
We enjoyed a meal in Studio City at his other restaurant The Gadarene Swine. It was very good, but not excellent. We certainly have a lack of fine dining options in this part of the valley, so hopefully this restaurant is good and makes it. It is in a tough location being in a strip mall with a CPK. I really dislike the parking garage there, but I suppose we’d likely just Uber it to and fro. Hopefully the corkage fee is reasonable.
Dumb idea. I’d guess it’s a goner in the short-term. It’s anti-specialization. Cooking and serving are different tasks. They require different mentality and skills and there’s an efficiency to having each in their own area rather than moving back and forth, let alone the potential health issues.
It’s an even worse way to address revenue/wage equality for front and back of the house than just increasing prices and paying your employees adequately.
Kitchen staff act as front of house at Schwa in Chicago and they have had a Michelin star for years. It’s also has always been very difficult to book a table there.
Yeah, maybe they ought to hire somebody to answer the telephone. I’ve tried many times to get a table on Chicago trips and never was able to speak to anyone. Part of the popularity is that they have a great chef, which the L.A. place might not, and they undercharge for the food/corkage. To the point where word is that they all work for peanuts and are barely profitable. It’s also tiny so they don’t need to try and do the dual duty on any sort of scale. I’d love to go to Schwa, but it has to do with the food-wine in relation to cost not their dual-role staff. Nothing against Poppy or Andrew who live out that way, but the SF Valley is not necessarily a place where progressive/cutting edge is a big draw.
To a certain extent. There are dedicated cooks and “noncooks” It is also a very tiny restaurant. You could say the same applies to Elizabeth restaurant in Chicago, I have had many plates served to me by Iliana Reagan but she still has front of the house.
A few restaurants can use this model. What will be more prevalent is automation in fast food/quick service and eventually less personal in full service restaurants.
When I googled El Audra’s absolutely nothing came up. I thought David might have been at the leading edge of some new great underground restaurant. El Ideas looks cool to me. How hard is it to get into?
One other downside to the cook as server is that one loses out on those starving models and actresses as server in favor of some chubby dude with a beard and tons of tats Just kidding, I actually like being able to find out details of the food. I think the idea could be ok, but ONLY in situations like Schwa and El Ideas where it is tasting menu only, and there aren’t more than 25 tables in the night.
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Just kidding, I actually like being able to find out details of the food. I think the idea could be ok, but ONLY in situations like Schwa and El Ideas where it is tasting menu only, and there aren’t more than 25 tables in the night.