Staff blog

Scott Hocker

In the Castro last Thursday night, politics welcomed a new dining companion: irony. 2223 Restaurant on Market Street was one of many eateries across San Francisco participating in Dining Out for Life, an annual event where 25 percent of food sales are donated to the Stop AIDS Project. According to the restaurant’s chef-owner, Melinda Randolph, city supervisor Tom Ammiano dined there with five other guests, one of whom purportedly refused to pay the four percent service charge of $13.31 implemented by the restaurant to offset the cost of the Ammiano-sponsored Healthy San Francisco program. They did, however, tip 20 percent on top of the 18 percent large-party gratuity. “I was gobsmacked,” Randolph says. “The service charge is intended to help mom-and-pop businesses like us deal with a $4,000-a-month increase in expenses. Then the supervisor comes in, and his buddy makes a scene and won’t pay it.”

As Ammiano tells it, his friend, San Francisco Labor Council executive board member Criss Romero, was the guest who made a stink. Romero concurs. “Before anyone else from our party arrived at the restaurant, I told the hostess that I didn’t want any political information related to the universal-healthcare charge on the table at dinner,” he says. So when the server dropped the check with the surcharge included, Romero became incensed. “I believe that because these restaurants don’t itemize anything else on their checks besides food and drink, they’re trying to draw attention to the issue,” he says. “We wanted a pleasant evening without politics being introduced.” Considering the animosity between restaurateurs and city hall these days, politics are likely to remain on the table for a long time to come.