Halifax restaurant that doesn’t accept tips offers fair wages, profit sharing with employees

The Bonfire is Halifax's first tip-free restaurant and serves up a new option for diners.

A restaurant in Halifax is offering a unique concept to its customers: a tip-free zone.

Vincent Morley is the co-owner of The Bonfire in Halifax, which he says is the first tip-free restaurant in Atlantic Canada, though a few businesses have experimented with the practice before.

Everyone employed at the restaurant is paid $20 an hour and offered profit shares. According to the establishment’s Instagram page, 50 per cent of the restaurant’s profits are split among floor staff, with further profit-sharing incentives for managers.

“We believe that a business built on collaboration is a better foundation for a restaurant experience,” said Morley.

Morley said the idea stemmed from his own experiences working in kitchens for more than 20 years.

“I was tired for feeling overlooked and expendable and we wanted to take a different approach to owning a restaurant,” Morley said.

“And we think by having a foundation of treating our employees with more respect, the guest experience will end up being better.”

He says as a tip-free restaurant, they do not accept tips, even if the customer wants to leave one.

“We’re seeing a lot of culture shock where people get their bill. Even though they heard about it and that’s why they came here, they go, ‘Oh, we’re not allowed to give you money?’ And it’s, ‘No, that’s not what we’re doing here. We don’t believe in you subsidizing the wages of our employees. We pay our employees fairly and we are profit-sharing with them. We believe it’s a better way to work.’”

Each month, employees are shown exactly how much money the restaurant took in and how much was spent, with the remainder divided between everyone.

“Our guiding light behind all things has been to make the experience comfortable,” he said.

“And being comfortable to us means not just the atmosphere. It means that the food is accessible. So, people who have dietary restrictions, dietary preferences, know that we’re taking allergies seriously and it’s really important to us that people feel safe eating here.”

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Paul Dewitt.

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