Popular restaurant eliminates tipping, bucking industry standard

(TND) — Casa Bonita is a unique restaurant, with its pink façade, clock tower, indoor waterfall and cliff divers.

The iconic Denver-area restaurant, which just reopened following a pandemic-period closure, is adding another unique feature: no tipping.

The Denver Post reportsCasa Bonita won’t ask guests to tip. Instead, management has decided to raise the pay for service staff.

The newspaper says a bartender told one of its reporters that the tip was “baked in” to the price.

Will this no-tip trend spread to other restaurants?

Perhaps, but Casa Bonita is unique in still other ways.

The restaurant has a pre-pay ticketing system. Tickets cost $39.99 for adults and include food, sodas and unlimited sopapillas. The Denver Post says the food is picked up cafeteria-style.

Restaurant officials told the newspaper that they “found guests simply weren’t tipping,” and they believe that’s due to their “unconventional” way of charging for meals.

“In order to provide a higher-than-average, dependable wage, we shifted to a no-tipping model and doubled the hourly rate to more than $30/hr for our service staff,” management told the newspaper via email. “This shift also benefits our guests, who can enjoy Casa Bonita without incurring unexpected costs.”

One more unique thing about Casa Bonita: It was purchased by “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker out of bankruptcy during the pandemic closure.

They’ve reopened the restaurant on an invitation-only basis in the last week.