In the past three years, the number of licensed retail food licenses issued in Denver has decreased by about 22%, according to the Department of Excise and Licenses in Denver.
It’s common in Denver metro restaurants to not only expect a 20% tip, they’ll sometimes sneak a tip in and then not tell you so you tip twice. Others bake in random restaurant fees that they claim go to the kitchen staff, but even if that were true, why not just raise your prices instead of lying to the customer?
Best one, the state passed a law allowing businesses to charge a different price for using credit cards, (they called it a “fee”) with the caveat that the restaurant/business has to post somewhere that they do it. Often, a tiny sign near their register you’ll never walk up to or pass by because they take your card and whisk it away to the machine. I was at one place where they charge the credit card fee by default and you have to be aware of it to ask them to remove it, otherwise they’ll charge you the credit card fee when paying cash by default. That particular “establishment” also whisked your cash into a back room to make change, as they figure everyone’s going to pay with card, so why have a till at the register? Better be fast at counting change in your head to make sure they gave you the right amount of money back.
Unless you do your research, read reviews, and ask up front about how pricing works, chances are you will always be surprised and charged more. About the only restaurants safe from this nonsense is the big chain restaurants, which means people will either frequent them to not get fleeced, not notice or care, or, like myself, stop eating out almost entirely.
Other notables I’ve observed:
One place did the reverse, if you paid cash, they rounded up your change to the nearest dollar and pocketed your owed coins.
One place did the double-ghost-tip thing, and made a mistake on the order, and claimed they didn’t have the ability to reprint the original transaction receipt. They actually wanted to take your phone to go take a picture of the register screen.
Other side of the coin, one will frequently see posts on front range subs over on the alien site of restaurant employees having their tips stolen by the store owner, so they don’t always even make it back to the employee, or the management takes a “cut” or any other contrived kind of money laundering idea one could conjure up.
Some restaurants claim to be “cash only” to act hippie and stick it to the man…but what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a little tiny ATM, and eight tiny dollars in fees!
Probably some I forgot. Good riddance if you’re going to run your establishment like that. (There are still some honest ones, here and there.)
It’s common in Denver metro restaurants to not only expect a 20% tip, they’ll sometimes sneak a tip in and then not tell you so you tip twice. Others bake in random restaurant fees that they claim go to the kitchen staff, but even if that were true, why not just raise your prices instead of lying to the customer?
Best one, the state passed a law allowing businesses to charge a different price for using credit cards, (they called it a “fee”) with the caveat that the restaurant/business has to post somewhere that they do it. Often, a tiny sign near their register you’ll never walk up to or pass by because they take your card and whisk it away to the machine. I was at one place where they charge the credit card fee by default and you have to be aware of it to ask them to remove it, otherwise they’ll charge you the credit card fee when paying cash by default. That particular “establishment” also whisked your cash into a back room to make change, as they figure everyone’s going to pay with card, so why have a till at the register? Better be fast at counting change in your head to make sure they gave you the right amount of money back.
Unless you do your research, read reviews, and ask up front about how pricing works, chances are you will always be surprised and charged more. About the only restaurants safe from this nonsense is the big chain restaurants, which means people will either frequent them to not get fleeced, not notice or care, or, like myself, stop eating out almost entirely.
Other notables I’ve observed: