Wayfare Settles Surcharge Issues; Is SF Service the Pits?

Wayfare Tavern. [Photo: joeyparsons/Flickr]

SAN FRANCISCO—Wayfare Tavern is the latest restaurant to come to terms with the city regarding the Healthy SF surcharge scandal. They don't have to pay anything, as they distributed all unused healthcare money to employees at the end of the calendar year, and no longer collect a surcharge. The Chron has a list of all restaurants to be cleared or pay restitution; the biggest offenders still outstanding are janitorial firm Trinity Building Services, Prospect, The Cheesecake Factory, Max's Opera Cafe, and the particularly odious Squat & Gobble, which collected $160K and didn't pay out a dime. [Chron]

SAN FRANCISCO—Speaking of restaurant employees, Michael Bauer posed an interesting question today: is service at restaurants better outside of SF? He thinks it is, if only for sheer quantity: "Having traveled back east recently, I noticed that the service staff seemed to be larger at restaurants in New York than in San Francisco. Actually, they also appear to be larger in areas just outside of San Francisco. I think that one of the ramifications of the cost of doing business in San Francisco — higher minimum wage, health insurance and no tax credit for owners — has affected the number of people on the floor...San Francisco is an expensive city to live in and our per capita ratio of restaurants to residences is one of the highest in the United States. Staff is spread thin." [Inside Scoop]

THE MISSION—Supervisors David Campos and Scott Weiner are co-sponsoring a bill to loosen restrictions on liquor licenses in the Mission, which were tamped down back in 1996 when the neighborhood was quite a different place. The new rules, which likely won't see approval for several more months, could mean beer and wine at the Roxie Theater and more full liquor licenses for local restaurants. [SFist]

BERKELEY—Conflict is brewing on Telegraph: Rasputin founder Ken Sarachan wants to open a new ice-cream and cookie shop, Dream, in a portion of his record store, which is right across from existing and megapopular ice-cream and cookie shop CREAM. It's a provocative move (really? that name?), but considering the sizable lines at CREAM every night, it might not be all that detrimental. For now, the City Council has voted to table Dream's license application until a public hearing later this year. [Berkeleyside Nosh]