Bottom line, packhouse is gimmicky, like a guy who wants to start a restaurant chain.
I think the no-tipping is over the top for gimmicks, though.
I think based on the reviews I saw at yelp, dude would be better off with a normal plan for paying waitstaff, which keeps the waistaff cost FLEXIBLE and LOW for the BUSINESS.
When it’s busy you can schedule more, slow schedule less, with some people part time and no benefits.
Good waitstaff will prosper and stay, bad will flake off, because the good will make very good pay in tips. And they don’t have to be too pushy to upsell customers, just give customers what they want.
What restaurant owner wants to pay fat hourly W-2 pay to waitstaff. That’s nuts.
They have to pay the backend; all the prep work and cleaning - that cost can’t be shortcut, or quality goes in the dumper. And 2 good managers are needed, chef on the back, manager in the front - this is very important in order for the business to run well.
Restaurant 101, just do the basics, there is no shortcut for long-term success.
After the honeymoon, you find out if your restaurant is worthwhile as a business.
Just for kicks, I found an old Pal’s menu still online:
http://www.allmenus.com/nj/west-orange/31880-pals-cabin/menu/
And what happened with the Pal’s brand...
Depending on the place in the discussion, the pro-tip crowd will either say that they are religious in tipping and always give 15 or 20% in tips no matter what, or that not tipping will starve out the bad waitresses.
My impression is that tipping is rarely what gets rid of a merely average waitress, or that the totals vary so greatly for one over another waitress in the course of a year, based on whether.
Besides, in many restaurants it all goes into a pot anyway, and surely among the easiest of employees for supervisors to monitor quality of work, is a waitress, observing them is one of the duties of the supervisor.