Arbol Cafe

The owners of the Arbol cafe do not allow their workers to keep their tips. While getting paid 7 dollars an hour to bus, clean, set, take orders, run food, do dishes, and bleach bathroom/floors, the tips from customers are kept by the owners. Tipping the owner is considered rude and telling servers that they can't is poor practice.
After a four hour shift (28 bucks) with no tips, which one time a server made 30 dollars in tips I was unable to keep it.
The place has all the potential, but has bad policies. NEVER TIP! Your server doesn't see it.

"response to "John Smith" aka: Diva" by thearbolcafe (1 review)
February 26, 2008 - We regret and apologize at having to respond to such a base, unfair and inaccurate comment made by the waitress, "John Smith". The cafe has been open all of three months and is undergoing drastic rennovations. Prior to our hiring any person, we make it quite clear that they will be paid above minimum wage to start. It is also our clear intent to not have waiters or waitresses but rather, persons who are interested in working and growing as a team and excelling in the project's full potential. Many of our customers have offered their time and skills, free of charge, because they too share in the same spirit of what we have to offer to the community.As newcomers into the Northern Liberties community, we feel a true responsibility to complete a project that is long overdue. A quaint cafe with attached garden seating. Our goal is to bring to the community a relaxed, casual, family atmosphere where tipping is optional for the customers and not needed by the staff. All money generated goes towards financing the rennovations as well as aiding us in being able to pay the workers well above minimum wage in respect to their ability and contributions.We want to thank everyone for their support, generousity and interest in Arbol Cafe. This is a true gift that has been placed in our hands and we vow to remain true to our purpose and sincerity no matter the resistance from those we may never be able to please. Our vision is clear and exspansive, we do hope that you will know Arbol Cafe first hand and understand how the impossible can be overcome against all odds. Thank you again and we apologize for any doubts that may have surfaced, yet we are certain that our heart, actions and intentions are whole and just.

Tips are not meant for a business to pay their employees and are certainly not meant for a cafe to make renovations. Tips are meant to ensure "prompt service" and intended for the person who gave it to them. Though your statement was eloquent, all food service owners go into debt when opening up these types of business. I am a owner myself, and if the statement above is true, seven dollars an hour (though above minimum wage) isn't enough for anyone to live on. Service industry (even if their title isn't waiter) people know they make little money and make it up in tips. When people tip, they think the person waiting on them, receive that extra money. It's not for renovations, it's not to pay employees, it's money for good service provided.

People don't work for free and especially for that little.

Seven dollars an hour for a waitress is alot but your servers do more then wait tables . They clean bathrooms and wash dishes ,bus tables they should be making $10 an hour aleast . Not a good practice for a business . They are stealing from those waiters and waitress

I, too, am a restaurant owner in the city. I am surprised that you are able to staff your restaurant under these pretenses. Personally, I regard my staff over my guests. If I make my staff happy and interested in working for me, they will in turn give great guest service, with good attitudes, resulting in more return business and the creation of a successful company.

Your staff will not like working for you, the turnover will be very high. Guest satisfaction will be low. I hope you've got great food, because your service will not help you one bit.

It is deceitful to your customers not to make it clear in print where the tip money is going. I am angered by your poor business practices, and I hope that you will change your policy immediately.

Very cheesy and unethical,I believe. I won't be coming back after knowing this. I tipped my server because he did a good job and gave good service to me, regardless of what his wage is. I am angry and feel like the owners stole from me. It's no different than putting money in a box at church that was meant to help a family, and the church decides to buy new seating with it. It is deceptive, and if I knew what it was for, I would not have tipped. I am calling the news.

wowwww the fact that you would even attempt to justify this must be one of the most pathetic things I have ever heard. I have been here a handful of times and enjoyed the atmosphere but knowing this my friends and I shall make sure never to step foot into this place. I gave my waiters healthy tips because they were nice and did a great job, not because I believe my food was worth more than menu price. disgraceful

I cannot believe the owners would even attempt to justify these cheap and unethical practices. Shame on you. What a self centered excuse to be greedy. The waitstaff deserve better. If this is how you treat your front of the house "teamplayers" I shudder to think how you regard your customers. The news and everyone who will listen should be notified this policy needs to change and the waitstaff is owed an apology.

"Our goal is to bring to the community a relaxed, casual, family atmosphere where tipping is optional for the customers and not needed by the staff. All money generated goes towards financing the rennovations as well as aiding us in being able to pay the workers well above minimum wage in respect to their ability and contributions."

You just shot yourself by admitting that the tip money goes making outdoor seating and paying, paying! you waitstaff.

If it weren't for the lomito sandwich, I wouldn't go to Arbol at all. Beth, one of the owners, just isn't the type of person who can make you feel welcome like you should in a cafe. I've even seen her ask a cutomer to finish up and leave so she could turn over the table. I really never expected to see that in a coffee shop. The fact that she misappropriates the tips to herself isn't much of a surprise to me.

First of all: citypaper, please post my comment this time. I was the first person to comment on Arbol's tipping policies, and I didn't see my opinions, altough I don't think I could have offended anybody. All I have said ( and I repeat it now) its that not allowing servers to keep the tips they earn its ovbiously wrong, and that its a shame that Arbol cafe is using traditionally related to Argentina food (lomitos, alfajores con dulce de leche, empanadas) when they could have had in their menu authentic paraguayan dishes such as Mbaipu, Chipa So'o, Sopa paraguaya, Chipa de almidon, etc. Thanks

Hey lay off the Arbol! Oscar has fair trade everything and he is the sweetest guy south of Girard. You'll be eating from their outdoor grill this summer

It's great that they use Fair Trade products, but that is not relevant to the fact that they keep their servers tips. Tips that are intended for the service that was provided by the server. If customers want to contribute to Arbol's renovation fund, then start a collection box and customers can opt to pay into this. It is deceitful to not disclose this information to the customer.

People. It is not stealing from the employee to pay them a wage that is far above the normal restaurant wage. It is not stealing to involve the employee in what is basically a profit-sharing arrangement. And it is not deceitful to tell any future employees the situation ahead of time and have the willingly sign up.

Arbol cafe is a model business run by two people who care about what they are doing and the people they are serving, as well as the people that work for them.

Their food is out-of-this world good and they deserve better than to be slandered on internet message boards. Go try them out. Talk to the owners (They are so friendly it is hard not to. How many other businesses are like that?), you'll see.

Be Serious Please: You are an idiot. Whether it's fair to the employees is irrelevant. They know the policy and they can go find another job. The owners keeping the tips is deceitful to the CUSTOMERS. The owners are free to implement whatever wage and price policy they want. But it is clearly morally wrong - if not illegal - for the owners to keep tips for themselves without disclosing it to the customers. If they can't afford to renovate the place on their own dime they should either raise prices, get a loan, or get into another line of business.

Profit sharing arrangement, Serious Please? What % share of Arbol does a worker receive? When you're at any restaurant or cafe with table service, and you receive the bill from the server, it's an assumption that the tab goes to the house and the tip goes to the server. If patrons knew tips were being seized to benefit the house, people likely wouldn't tip.

If the owners provide the bulk of the service, they're more than welcome to put their tips back toward the house, but operating under the myth that a server is somehow eventually 'profit sharing' in the 'enterprise' is the sort b.s. that I was now the exclusive province of Internet startups trolling Craigslist for content producers.

Even the claim that they'll pay minimum wage at the expense of tips belies their knowledge that the value patrons perceives in a server
collectively exceeds minimum wage. Arbol's exploiting that assumption to benefit themselves.

Other posters got it right, there's no way Arbol will be able to maintain servers in Philly's or even Northern Liberties' restaurant worker market.

I do not live in your city and stumbled upon this thread by accident. I am STUNNED that a restaurant owner would try to justify stealing tips that customers obviously intended for the waithelp. If this isn't illegal, it should be! I live in Honolulu where these slimey thieves would be out of business once the public knew what was going on.

using tip money to by seats and calling it fair assumes the waiters get a share of the equity when they resign or if and when the business ends (all business end at last). Please change this cheating so God will bless your business and generations to come.

I am reasonably sure this is outright illegal. I seem to recall at least one specific instance of exactly this practice making the news... Don't remember specifics. Wish my brain worked better than it does.

Keller does something somewhat analogous, but he does it right: Per Se charges a sevice fee, and then divides the proceeds among the staff. As Arbol is doing it (and I simply cannot believe they confirmed it for the record - and seem proud of this) it is deceptive vis-a-vis the customer (the tip becoming in effect an additional, undisclosed charge), and it is outright criminal with regard to the waitstaff.

An above-the-board alternative would be to have a no-tipping policy, and then solicit donations, somehow. That way everyone would know where they stand.

I for one am not going anyhere near the place until I'm certain they've changed this practice.

Might be nice for the CP to do a follow-up to the review, seeing how badly they dropped the ball first time around.

Wow! I just saw the comments on this article and I am shocked. How could anyone ever work at this place? Why would you want to work at this place? I've heard of restaurant employees pooling tips (front and back of house) but for the owners to keep the tips is ridiculous. Arbol Cafe has lost my business as well as my friends.

Any good server or bartender knows they make well over the minimum wage (at least twice the amount).

I doubt Arbol cafe is paying it's employees $14/hour.

If you work at Arbol Cafe, just quit. There are other places in the city that you could work at that will give you YOUR tips.

That BS hippie/dippie comment from the owners was rather sad too. It came off as "Yeah, well you see, we want to like make it fair for everyone. Like, we'll keep the money and plant flowers. Then the employees will be happy."

Pathetic.

Can someone please tell me who to report these people to? It must be illegal to steal workers' tips. They will have to pay more to be at minimum wage in PA.

the arrogance of the owners is amazing. They wish to take tips and justify it as their for-profit business is so greatly needed for the community? Gee, I also assume that they are paying proper tax on all of the tips they have taken from workers and the customers who have assumed that the gratuity was for the waitstsff.

Did anybody read the PW write up of Arbol this week? It seemed a desperate cry from the owners. It was all about how great the owners are. Not many mentions to the food. It seemed like it was geared at fixing this thread. The service wasnt mentioned until the last paragraph, when it stated that the service was poor, but it wasnt worth not coming.

I am angered by PW printing this in a blatant remedy for Arbol. Looks like somebody was paid off!

Wow, this story has gotten big enough that it's travelled all the way to Costa Rica. I used to live in Philly and I, for one, am appalled at the owners' treatment of their employees and cannot imagine how they managed to hire anyone to begin with. Shame on them.

If they refuse to change their unjustifiable policy (I don't care how they try to paint it), I hope that my former neighbors will band together in the true spirit of brotherly love, support the waitstaff, and boycott the Arbol Café.

I'm sorry, when I as a customer choose to tip the wait staff, I do it because I am choosing to tip the wait staff; I am not tipping the decor. The cost of renovations should be covered from the cost of the food. To take money from waitstaff - however well paid you may believe them to be - is fraudulent.

This is such bullshit! I'm reporting Arbol Cafe to the proper authorities. There is something that can be done.

Arbol Cafe owners, please read the following. This will be you in the near future. If the courts can take down Starbucks, it can certainly take your rinky dink business.

SAN DIEGO (March 20) - A Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered Starbucks to pay its California baristas more than $100 million in back tips that the coffee chain paid to shift supervisors.
Saying baristas were entitled to $86 million in back tips plus interest, San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett also issued an injunction preventing Starbucks' shift supervisors from sharing in future tips.

Cowett said the practice was a violation of a state law prohibiting managers and supervisors from sharing in employee tips.

SAN DIEGO (March 20) - A Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered Starbucks to pay its California baristas more than $100 million in back tips that the coffee chain paid to shift supervisors.
Saying baristas were entitled to $86 million in back tips plus interest, San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett also issued an injunction preventing Starbucks' shift supervisors from sharing in future tips.

Cowett said the practice was a violation of a state law prohibiting managers and supervisors from sharing in employee tips.

I am so glad I read about the horrible practices of this restaurant today. I am now going to ask every single waitperson who serves my family if they are allowed to keep their tips or not. If not, there will be no tip at all.

I feel really sorry for the people working at that place who have no idea what a GOOD restaurant job really is. I hope they all quit and that operation closes up for good.

Hey, this is the server who posted the comment in the first place. I wanted to say thank you for your server support. I am going to grad school and make most of my money to pay rent, school loans, etc. through the server industry. It's nice to see that people can see how selfish this policy is and have my back on this one.

I posted this in the first place angered that I was taken advantage of. Maybe more mad at myself for working the four or five shifts I did before truly realizing what was happening. Thank you again everyone. Continue to support your local cafes, just not this one.

Ate at Arbol this past weekend: the food was incredible, the chef did a fantastic job. I liked the decor and overall style of the place.
The service was, well, unusual. This was before I read this thread of comments. I'm truly dissapointed because I loved the food at the Mate.
When a restaurant is making so money good choices , why mess up and make this choice- to rob your employees of their tips? Please change this policy, I want to continue to go to the Arbol and enjoy your fine food and delicous Mate.

Holy fuck you guys don't let waiters/waitresses keep tips!

Man, you guys haven't seen hate mail yet. The Consumerist just picked this up so you've now got a national audience for your thievery.

Welcome to the internet. Your shoddy practices made it out for everyone to see. You may want to go ahead and change your policies if you want to have shot at staying in business.

Actually, if the owners are paying $7 per hour, they are not paying "well above" minimum wage, as they claim. Minimum wage in PA is $7.15 per hour.
Someone above asked where these practices can be reported -- answer is the PA Department of Labor and Industry, Bureau of Labor Law Compliance.

I cannot believe what I just read! I put myself through college on tips and these sleazy characters try to rationalize stealing - yes stealing; not profit sharing - from their employees to renovate their cafe and line their pockets? I believe a boycott, if not outright picketing is in order.

UN FUCKING REAL! I eat here nearly every week at lunch.

Never again.

I hope you bastard owners are reading this as myself..and my SIX co-workers who dine there regularly (and have tabs upwards of $200) are never going to return.

Word of mouth is spreading...

To respond to Be Serious Please 4/9/08 comment,
As Nadia noted, the original comment by the server was that s/he was paid $7/hour, and that figure is NOT, as the owners claim, "well above" minimum wage, nor is it, as you assert, "far above the normal restaurant wage." Restaurant owners must pay at least the legal minimum wage; if their employees are tipped, the owners don't have to pay the full $7.15, but if the employees aren't getting their tips, then the owners must pay the full $7/15/hour just to meet the bare legal minimum. And as NOLIBS Bartender points out, most tipped employees - certainly the ones at establishments catering to people who can afford $300K NoLibs condos - make far above the minimum wage.
The Bureau of Labor Law Compliance's Philadelphia office can be reached at 215-560-1858
or 1-877-817-9497.

Some FYI's that some people are unaware of:

- Servers & Bartenders usually make $2.83 and hour, Bartenders making a bit more in some establishments or receive shift pay.

- In restaurants that use newer POS systems, the employee pays the charge for running the credit card.

- It is illegal for the owners to keep the tips. I've dealt with this before myself.

I don't get how anyone would want to work for them.

TO "Be Serious Please"... it may not be "stealing" but it is dishonest to take money that the patron intended for the SERVER and keep it for yourself.

Another Service Industry Employee:

I'm suprised to hear that about the POS system. I used to work in the credit card industry and I would think that under the merchant agreement the resturant has with their bank that they would not be allowed to pass that fee onto employees as it could discourage card use.

It's the same reason that you can't institue a "service charge" for using a CC (You can give a cash discount though).

My former girlfriend was a teacher who waited tables during the summer. It's a lot of work for little pay. Keep the tips is just scummy and unjustifiable.

wow- I'm speechless. Needless to say, I won't ever be dining here. The wait staff should get legal representation; I'm sure these greedy yuppie owners will change their policy if you strike at the heart of the beast- their wallets. And if they say they can't run a business without resorting to ripping off the employees, then maybe it's time for them to get into a new line of work.

Arbol is stealing worker's tips, they will eventually be prosecuted for this and they will lose in court. Or, more likely, they'll be out of business long before that happens because this sort of disgusting behavior, and not their food, is what they'll be known for until the day they close their doors.

For you Montgomery County folks, "El Cancun" near 202 & Germantown, apparently does the same thing. Their waitstaff gets $10/hour but the house keeps all the tips. Even if you leave cash on the table, it is (supposed to be) picked up by the bussers and goes to the register.

Craig Laban should editorialize on the owner's deceitful tipping policy. If the owners intend to keep the tips, that information should be printed on the menus in a prominent place. Who do they think they are lying to? Obviously everyone. They are hiding behind a liberal veneer. There argument is just untrue. Northern Liberties is a hotspot. There are tons of restaurants there that aren't lying to the customers and cheating the staff.

In response to Adam's comment: The fact that my PW review of Arbol came out as this shit storm was happening was merely a matter of bad timing. I ate at and wrote about Arbol before I'd even heard about or seen the comments on here and the tipping situation. Believe me, it makes the former waiter in me nauseous. This is especially unfortunate because the food is so good. But "paid-off"? Come on, dude.

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