Sally's Middle Name, Chef Sam Adkins on 13th and H Street NE - Automatic Service Charge Has Been Jettisoned - Closing Mar 31, 2019

[Josh]

Finally, we were annoyed by the service charge.  Not by its existence, but by its execution.  The menu board says "No need to tip, service is included".  Verbatim.  So, one would assume that the prices on the menu board include service.  But, that is not the case, the bill has a service charge added ON TOP of the menu prices.  So, perhaps saying that "serivce is included" is not the best approach.  Given the horrible service we had, maybe we were just touchy, but it galled us to realize this when we got the bill.  I don't think I'll be back.

This is really unfortunate.  Did you speak with a manager?  Establishing a reputation for good service is important for any new restaurant, but especially for one trying to upend the tipping culture.

[lion]

A neighbor of mine was taken there by his daughter/family for Father's Day.  He enjoyed it.  That was my only non-online recommendation before I went.

Figure you might order everything on the menu, and do not order everything at once.

If your idea of a birthday dinner is the old back room at Palena, you would not like this.

Thanks Pat for answering my question. Sounds like a fun place but not a destination restaurant for those special occasions which feel better with a few quiet moments.

[DonRocks]

Thanks Pat for answering my question. Sounds like a fun place but not a destination restaurant for those special occasions which feel better with a few quiet moments. 

Yes, I was thinking of chiming in also, but Pat nailed it, and there was really nothing else to add.

[cheezepowder]

Because (unless I'm misunderstanding how they're distributing their service charge) this 18% does not go to the server; it goes to the restaurant, and the restaurant either:

1) keeps it (assuming their normally tipped employees are being paid a higher wage that accounts for the absence of tips), or

2) distributes it among all the normally tipped employees - perhaps equally, perhaps based on some other (presumably equitable) system.

What that 18% service charge *doesn't do* is go straight to the server. And that's why I think it's a giant leap in the right direction.

Now, I'm not saying it's impossible that a restaurant couldn't take advantage of normally tipped employees using this method, but there is *absolutely NO* reason to think Sally's Middle Name is doing such a thing - in fact, this discussion probably shouldn't even be in this thread because of "guilt by association." I'm all for Sally's Middle Name using this method, and I trust they that they're doing the right thing with this service charge; if they weren't, word would get out quickly in this internet-driven world.

According to Jessica Sidman's article:

At their new H Street NE restaurant, Sally's Middle Name, owners Sam and Aphra Adkins have decided to forgo the traditional gratuity system. Instead, an 18 percent "service charge" will be automatically added to every check. That money will be split evenly between front and back of the house employees.

...

No one at Sally's Middle Name will make less than $10 per hour plus their share of the service charge.

[DonRocks]

Having the menu tell customers that they don't have to tip but not mention the mandatory 18% service charge, smacks of bait and switch, and certainly makes me less likely to patronize this place. 

And that menu is where?

How about someone commenting on my review of Brine, that took about 4 hours of my time, and about $150 of my own money to produce.

[astrid]

Finally, we were annoyed by the service charge.  Not by its existence, but by its execution.  The menu board says "No need to tip, service is included".  Verbatim.  So, one would assume that the prices on the menu board include service.  But, that is not the case, the bill has a service charge added ON TOP of the menu prices.  So, perhaps saying that "serivce is included" is not the best approach.  Given the horrible service we had, maybe we were just touchy, but it galled us to realize this when we got the bill.  I don't think I'll be back.

[DonRocks]

You know, I suspect this isn't an institutional issue, so much as one employee writing the wrong thing on the chalkboard - they've made it pretty clear what they're doing. Instead of, "No need to tip, service is included," the board should say "We add an 18% service charge to your bill so all our employees are fairly compensated - there is no need to tip." (That's a bit verbose, but I'm sure they can figure it out.) 

[astrid]

What's communicated to the customer in an authoritative form is what counts - that includes what the wait staff tells the customer, what's printed, what's on the website, and what's on the chalkboard.  If the owners allow their waitstaff to write misleading stuff on their menu board, that's an institutional issue.

[DonRocks]

Cool. You guys go ahead and keep discussing this as you like.

I had removed my posts because it was becoming clear that this was not a discussion that I choose to be a part of; I'm restoring them *only* not to break the flow of existing conversation.

I will end by saying THANK YOU to Sally's Middle Name for taking an important first step towards proper wages for ALL employees, including the kitchen staff.

And with that, I have nothing more to say until my next review, which I hope will be soon.

[jayandstacey]

A lot of digital ink was spilled on this board about the potential tax implications of the service charge...all without actually knowing what they are.  It seems like something that one might choose to seek out the answer to before getting upset and implying shadiness on the part of a restaurant's owners in a public forum.

No - I'm not in that business.  If I walk in, I'm the customer.  They've made two choices:

1. To stand out - both from other restaurants and from other businesses.

2. To suggest that this is for the betterment of employees vs what other restaurants do, yet not do what the majority of other (non-restaurant) businesses would do, which is to simply charge a price and sort it out in the office.

I'm not implying shadiness, I'm asking why they chose THAT path over a true single price.   Were they afraid of how the raised prices would look?  Are they taxed differently?  Do the employees prefer this?  Is there some other driving factor?

I appreciate the want to better server's lives.  And I know these models: tipping and paying a flat price.   I'm instead asked to participate in a new model of the "service charge" - why is a new model required here to accomplish the goal?   That's what I'm asking.

BTW, in the case of plumbers, those are labor rates based on hours spent on the job - not a markup over the cost of the materials (as with the service charge).   In the case of restaurants, that would in some ways make more sense - a "wait rate" that is $x per hour, charged by how long you sit at your table and how many people you have.   Isn't that in some ways more in line with their actual delivered service, and the opportunity cost of the waitstaff?   Why wasn't that model chosen?

[Rieux]

Glad to see they've changed the way they explain the service charge! It's clearer now and not misleading (which I think was probably an error on the part of the person who wrote the menu the night I was there, not nefarious).

I do think they should just raise the prices of each item by 18% and say tip is included, though.

[DaRiv18]

Sally's Middle Name to Host Free Weekly "English as a Second Language" Classes

Seems to me that the automatic service charge has been framed as a social justice issue, so since that door has already been opened . . .

[Marty L.]

OK, so I finally pulled myself away from Maketto to go to Sally's, for the Monday "brunch."  Had the brisket "hash" -- which was fine, solid -- the potatoes and peppers were very fresh -- but nothing special . . . and ridiculously overpriced at $15.69 for a very small plate.  (It was a perfectly fine size for lunch -- but, just to give you a picture, about half the size of your standard-issue diner "hash" plate, if that.)

In fairness, it was listed at $12 -- still much more than it ought to have been (my $9 dish of brisket and scallion pancakes today, across the street at Maketto, was twice as large and much more distinctive . . . and delicious).  But my charge, which included mandatory 18% tip and tax, was $15.69.  Which is why I'm posting . . .

After all the tumult on this board, I finally understand what y'all were talking about.  It's not as if SMN *lists* the dishes at the price that includes the tip, European style (which would be refreshing); instead, it's simply that they add on a mandatory 18% tip to the bill automatically, as many places do for large parties (e.g., six or more).  No big deal for me, since I'd ordinarily leave at least 18% anyway, and at Sally's the service was very friendly and efficient.  But frankly, I can't see any reason why they would do this as a matter of course.  My understanding is that other places do it for large parties because such parties on average leave very small percentage tips.  But Sally's does it no matter what the size of the party.  To what end?  To save everyone the trouble of calculating a tip?  Makes no sense to me, and I can't believe most customers will be happy with it.

But, to reiterate:  I don't really care much about the tip policy; service was good; I like the set-up a lot; and the food was perfectly fine.  I'd be eager to return and try more items.  But, at least based on this one meal, the pricing seems out-of-whack, and therefore it'll take some really enticing reports to convince me to go there instead of Maketto when I'm over that way.  (Ocala is very good, too -- but also overpriced.)

[lhollers]

fine, solid -- the potatoes and peppers were very fresh -- but nothing special . . . and ridiculously overpriced at $15.69 for a very small plate.

THIS.

The food *is* good, and, as I, JoshNE, Don, and others have mentioned above, is the type of food I want to see more of and want to eat. They're taking fresh ingredients, not doing too much with them, and letting the individual parts shine on their own.

That said, Marty L. nailed it: their plates are: "fine, solid ... but nothing special" and ridiculously overpriced. People have been mentioning SMN in the same breath as Rose's - come on. You can go to Rose's and get a full meal composed of excellent, thoughtful dishes for roughly the same price as cut / grilled / sauteed fresh fruit and vegetables.

Again, I do like SMN, and, as an H St. resident, I want them to succeed; the food is just far too overpriced for what they're currently pumping out.

Also, no comment on the tipping policy - I always go 20%, so anything that saves me money and contributes to more income for FOH *and* BOH, I'm cool with.

Cheers!

[DonRocks]

Finally, we were annoyed by the service charge.  Not by its existence, but by its execution.  The menu board says "No need to tip, service is included".  Verbatim.  So, one would assume that the prices on the menu board include service.  But, that is not the case, the bill has a service charge added ON TOP of the menu prices.  So, perhaps saying that "serivce is included" is not the best approach.  Given the horrible service we had, maybe we were just touchy, but it galled us to realize this when we got the bill.  I don't think I'll be back.

Rieux,

You left out the uppercase letters, exclamation point, and the blue asterisks.

Thank you for telling it like it is.

Sally's Middle Name?

Mud.

*NO NEED TO TIP,

SERVICE IS INCLUDED!*

[Tweaked]

Per Bar Marco's website:  We do not accept gratuity.  Our kitchen and front of house teams are paid a salary. Our prices reflect this.

(it's that easy for Bar Marco to state their policy...no confusion over what 18% tacked on means and what that represents)

The single experiment I've seen that seemed extremely promising was at Bar Marco in Pittsburgh.  

[cheezepowder]

Johnny Spero is doing a dinner at Sally's Middle Name on Dec. 8.  Info on his instagram.

[Josh]

Has anyone been for dinner recently? After our meal at brunch today I'm in no hurry to return.

A broccoli rabe "frittata" was more of an omelette, albeit one that was dry and salted as though it were meant to be cured for the Winter.  The fried chicken had leathery skin, no crunch to be found, and was served with potato salad that may well have been bought from Giant down the street.  My son ate his $5 scrambled eggs without complaining, as though he understood without me saying how annoyed I was at the cost of his dry bowl of protein.

The cider doughnut was delicious, but not enough to make up for the sad portions on offer elsewhere.

We were with family and friends, and put on a good face, but damn was I embarrassed to have brought out of town guests to this restaurant today. I hope this brunch was an aberration.

[JSnake]

I find that brunches are more often than not far worse than other services at restaurants.

[Tweaked]

We dropped in for dinner at Sally's on Saturday night, at around 8pm.  We were told it would be about 30 minutes for a table, but the bar area was empty so we grabbed some seats.  Perched at the corner of the bar, the three of us had a nice view of the kitchen and the bartenders/servers.  I liked the relaxed vibe of the place.  It felt like a cool, neighborhood place.  If I lived near H Street, I could see myself stopping in regularly. 

I'll start off by saying that we enjoyed just about every dish we had.  The fried green tomatoes with tartar sauce ($9) was our favorite, perfectly fried with a nice hit of creaminess from the sauce.  The grilled romaine with garlic dressing ($10) was also really good, nice char/smoke from the grill and smooth bite from the dressing.  The asparagus with rye berry salad and pea shoots was mostly successful, eating it was a bit of a tangled mess. The grilled spring onions with nettle pesto ($9) had nice flavors, but far too many tough stringy outer layers on the spring onions.  If you can't cut the outer leaves/stem with your knife, you either need sharper knives or you need to trim the spring onions better.  Braised collard greens with pork shoulder ($9) was also fairly successful, it could have used more pork shoulder, there was basically thin slivers of pork mixed with the greens, but the collards and broth both had nice flavors.  We finished with the lemon cake with butter cream ($10) which, for being gluten and dairy free, was surprisingly decent (and I mean that as praise), unfortunately the cake itself was a tad dry and could have used more lemon flavor.

Some caveats:  Spring produce is starting to appear, and I'm sure a seasonal focused restaurant like Sally's is excited by this, but we felt like many of the dishes were basically just salads.  Virtually everything we had was a plate of leafy greens, not a lot of variety for such a small menu.  Admittedly, we were mostly focusing on the vegetarian dishes, but they lacked a certain heartiness.  To me the dishes we had seemed like a collection of side dishes, tasty side dishes, but perhaps on Saturday night the menu was a bit one-dimensional (it does look like they mix things up regularly...the next day's menu had a cheese and fried bread dish, which we certainly would have ordered if it had been on the menu, as well as a pate and grilled bread plate).  I will be interested to see what they serve up over the summer, when there is more variety in the produce.  Overall, it was a fun dinner, and a lot of what we had was really tasty. 

Afterwards we took the DC Street Car to Union Station, which only sort of gets you near the back side of Union Station.

   

[DaRiv18]

Attention all congee lovers:  My favorite hangover brunch right now in the city is the Thai rice porridge here, with pork, green onions, and chilis.  

[DaRiv18]

Hangover brunch was excellent as usual. Also, they have abandoned the automatic service charge, diners will now leave a tip. 

[cheezepowder]

On 8/29/2016 at 9:14 AM, DaRiv18 said:

Also, they have abandoned the automatic service charge, diners will now leave a tip. 

Washington City Paper article about this change.

[Mark Dedrick]

Ate there on Sunday night, and the food was fantastic as always, particularly the Mole Pork Collard Greens. And the dining room was packed, which was comforting as it's often been close to empty when we've been by before. 

[DaRiv18]

After meeting Mark Dedrick for corndogs (as in, National Corndog Day!) and college hoops at the local watering hole, I decided to check out some new places on the strip of my old hood.  Some fried oysters at Po Boy Slim.  A rum old-fashioned and some pickled okra at Hill Prince.  And finally, dinner at SMN.

Started of with fried oysters, which were delicious.  Next, grilled duck liver over a leaf salad, with macerated cherries.  Duck livers seem to be twice as big as chicken livers.  Again, delicious.  Main course was a pillowy potato gnocchi in pork headcheese sauce, topped with microplaned Parmesan.  Incredibly light, this was like eating pork cotton candy.  Finally, had an apple crisp with vanilla ice cream.  I probably had no business eating all of that, but hey, it's been a tough month!

This is my favorite spot on H Street NE proper, still. 

[lhollers]

On 3/18/2018 at 1:49 PM, DaRiv18 said:

After meeting Mark Dedrick for corndogs (as in, National Corndog Day!) and college hoops at the local watering hole ...

Glad you made it to Big Board, though that day's level of packed was highly irregular.

[Josh]

On 3/19/2018 at 7:53 PM, lhollers said:

Glad you made it to Big Board, though that day's level of packed was highly irregular.

Funnily enough, after almost 2 years off H St, Big Board is the restaurant I miss the most. By the time I left, my beloved Boundary Road had gone through a number of changes and Liberty Tree was a shadow of its former self.  Toki was always delicious and unattainable because of the wait. Maketto was...ok, maybe Maketto is my most missed, but BB is close! Big Board was a couple blocks from our house, and such a solid, dependable choice. Great beers too.

[Pat]

Closing March 31st, per Popville.

[Mark Dedrick]

On 3/21/2019 at 10:04 AM, Pat said:

Closing March 31st, per Popville.

I've been very sad since I got their e-mail earlier this week. What a blow. 

[DonRocks]

14 minutes ago, Mark Dedrick said:

I've been very sad since I got their e-mail earlier this week. What a blow. 

This made me sad also - I suppose it seemed almost inevitable (the restaurant has ever-so-slowly unraveled since its opening), but it still makes me sad. They tried to do the right things, and they succeeded for awhile.

[Bart]

Two things:

1).  What do you mean when you say it has slowly unraveled? I don’t recall hearing any chatter about the place declining. 

2)   Does anyone know what they meant when they said they’re excited for their next chapter?   Are the same people that are closing this restaurant opening a new one in the same place? 

 I was very confused by the message 

[DonRocks]

6 hours ago, Bart said:

1).  What do you mean when you say it has slowly unraveled? I don’t recall hearing any chatter about the place declining.  

No, unraveling wasn't the right word - it just seemed like SMN opened to the type of excitement that could draw crowds cross-town, and over the years, it became more of a neighborhood restaurant in the minds of the public (I guess the only "major" change was the reversal of the service charge, which I thought was pretty ground-breaking at the time). I've been here 4-5 times, and went from being "dazzled" to merely "very happy," which hardly signifies an unraveling. For the life of me, I think I remember an off-night which scared me away for awhile, but I haven't been here since Mar, 2018, and it wasn't on that evening.

PS - here's the menu from Mar 3, 2018 - I had the Fried Oysters, Mushroom Salad, Gnocchi with Vegetable Bolognese, and Lamb Shank Goulash that night, and everything was quite good.

[DaRiv18]

The restaurant is a reference to Sam’s sister. One of my favorite memories of the palace is when they invited the general public to celebrate their child’s first birthday with free cake. Keeping with the family motif, Chef presently resides at Brothers & Sisters, not surprising given their family’s closeness with the Bruner-Yangs. 

I am selfishly sad, but sounds like Sam and Aphra and genuinely excited for the future. They are good people and I think they are in a good place. 

[Deborah Lee]

A Burmese Restaurant From the Toli Moli Team Is Coming to H Street:  Thamee, meaning "daughter," will replace Sally's Middle Name

[DonRocks]

1 hour ago, dslee said:

A Burmese Restaurant From the Toli Moli Team Is Coming to H Street:  Thamee, meaning "daughter," will replace Sally's Middle Name

Eric?

[Deborah Lee]

5 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Eric?

Eric Shu-Pao Wang, GM & Co-Owner of Toil Moli

[Pool Boy]

I do not really know what I missed. Always sad to see a place close though.

[Mark Dedrick]

We ate there last night to pay our final respects. It was, as usual, a wonderful meal. I'm really sad to see it close. I'm excited about Thamee, but there are many other restaurants I'd have rather seen them replace. 

[youngfood]

3 hours ago, Mark Dedrick said:

We ate there last night to pay our final respects. It was, as usual, a wonderful meal. I'm really sad to see it close. I'm excited about Thamee, but there are many other restaurants I'd have rather seen them replace. 

Likewise.  Only I still need to pay my final respects.  Loved just about everything about Sally's.  Mark, where will you guys go instead?  I think we'll probably visit Sospeso and Maketto more often.  

[Mark Dedrick]

On 3/29/2019 at 7:52 PM, youngfood said:

Likewise.  Only I still need to pay my final respects.  Loved just about everything about Sally's.  Mark, where will you guys go instead?  I think we'll probably visit Sospeso and Maketto more often.  

Good question that we're still trying to answer! We'll be at Maketto more often for sure. I'm curious about the restaurant replacing Sally's, and we're going to try one of their pre-opening dinners later this month. And we probably need to give Sospesso more of a chance. Otherwise, I'm not sure. It's a huge hole.