Restaurant news not to be missed

?Shrimp sellers’ standing con

?No-tax-on-tips fails in an early vote

?Here come the new assaults on the tip-credit

If the restaurant business drew guests at the volume of media coverage it attracts, every operator would be logging sales jumps like Chili’s (a 31.4% leap in comparable sales for the most recent quarter, or the most astounding increase those of us of vintage can recall.)?

It may be the most-covered industry ever; what general-interest medium of scale doesn’t have at least one restaurant writer, digging in on the twists and turns of a field that’s watched more closely than Taylor Swift’s love life?

With a torrent of that magnitude, worthy developments can slide past without notice by the most avid observers. Consider, for instance, these matters that came to light yesterday, though even the obsessed had to dig for the coverage. Here’s what we found:

Mislabeled shrimp is a norm

A spot-check by a company that uses genetic analysis to identify the true origins of American seafood has blown the whistle on a con in wide use by seafood specialists in one of Florida’s renowned restaurant markets.?

The shrimp served by 42 of 44 seafood restaurants in Tampa-St. Pete’s isn’t actually the wild-caught, unfrozen variety described on the menu, according to the firm, SeaD Consulting. In tests conducted on behalf of a local fishermen’s collaborative called the Southern Seafood Alliance, the tech company found that most of the shrimp was cheaper and older stuff shipped into the U.S. from India, Vietnam and Ecuador. Yet customers were told that the seafood was freshly caught in the Gulf of Mexico (translation for Trump fans: The Gulf of America.)?

The shrimp is fine to eat; customers were at no additional risk, and it wasn’t as if they were being served some other species. But clearly the sizzle (and likely the price) were amped up, and patrons were successfully fooled. It’s a repeat of what’s been repeatedly discovered about what’s sold as redfish or grouper in many restaurants along the Southern coast.

Kudos to Tampa’s Salt Shack on the Bay and St. Petersburg’s Stillwaters Tavern for serving the genuine item.

‘No Taxes on Tips’ fails in an early test

President Trump made a stop in Las Vegas over the weekend to assure hospitality workers that he’ll make good on his campaign pledge to halt the federal taxation of tips as income. But he seems to be the only one who’s still convinced it can happen.?

Estimates of the tax revenues that would be lost have tarred the promise as unfeasible. Although Trump said he was already working with members of Congress to push through the change, it’s yet to be mentioned by House or Senate leaders as a matter to be addressed when they take up tax reform later in the current session.?

More cold water was thrown on the idea Monday by lawmakers in Virginia, one of at least two states where Republicans have proposed extending the exemption to state income taxes. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, an avid acolyte of Trump, proposed the change in the tax code as part of his State of the State address.

But a subcommittee within the House of Delegates balked at turning Youngkin’s request into legislation. Instead, Democrats in the group proposed an alternative measure that would instead raise the standard deduction for working families. Their argument was that more people would benefit from such a measure. Plus, Youngkin’s proposal would have cut tax revenues by at least $70 million.

There’s been no action yet on the two proposals that have been aired by different lawmakers in South Carolina to enact what Trump has proposed on the national level.

Here come the next attacks on the tip credit

As Trump was reassuring restaurant and hotel employees that he intended to let them keep more of their tip income, a union representing the workers was bitching that a tax break wasn’t enough. What would really change the fortunes of hospitality workers, according to the head of the local Culinary Workers Union, would be killing the tip credit on a national basis.

It’s a safe bet that won’t happen under an administration that is so profoundly pro-business. No wonder, then, that organized labor is resetting its sights on killing the employer concession at the state level.

In New York, where efforts to phase out the credit are as routine as cheering for the Yankees, the prospect of new legislative proposals drew a preemptive strike from a group of Latino restaurateurs. A trio of operators form the outer boroughs placed an op-ed in the New York Daily News this week, spelling out why servers and small businesses like theirs would be devastated by the elimination of the credit.?

It was a classic example of the grassroots advocacy that’s been so effective in thwarting dissolution of the credit time after time.?

Meanwhile, in Hawaii, legislation has just been introduced to phase out the tip credit in one of the industry’s costliest markets.?

The Hawaii Restaurant Association is pushing back with pencil and paper; it’s showing the public through fundamental math that servers would likely take a cut in income if their tips were diminished, even with a substantial hike in what they’d be paid directly by their employers.?

The situations in Hawaii and New York are no doubt previews of what operators elsewhere will be facing as their state’s legislatures give an ear to organized labor. Keep checking back for updates on how the overall battle is going.