Financing

Why more restaurants are adding service fees

A Deeper Dive: Scott Lawton, CEO and cofounder of bartaco, joins the podcast to talk about tacos, customer loyalty and the growing trend of surcharges.

Why are more restaurants adding service fees?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Scott Lawton, the CEO and cofounder of bartaco.

Bartaco operates 27 locations, specializing specifically in tacos. Lawton talks about how the chain was founded and discusses its current growth plans.  

We also talk about the lure of tacos and why they’re so popular these days. And I ask him about loyalty, and how the chain has been able to build it among its customer base.

But we also talk extensively about service charges, which have grown in popularity in restaurants—and many other industries, for that matter. Lawton discusses his reluctance to add them to one of his restaurants, and why the chain ultimately gave in and may add them elsewhere.

We’re talking tacos and service charges on A Deeper Dive, so check it out.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on Spotify.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

Despite their complaints, customers keep flocking to Chipotle

The Bottom Line: The chain continued to be a juggernaut last quarter, with strong sales and traffic growth, despite frequent social media complaints about shrinkflation or other challenges.

Operations

Hitting resistance elsewhere, ghost kitchens and virtual concepts find a happy home in family dining

Reality Check: Old-guard chains are finding the alternative operations to be persistently effective side hustles.

Financing

The Tijuana Flats bankruptcy highlights the dangers of menu miscues

The Bottom Line: The fast-casual chain’s problems following new menu debuts in 2021 and 2022 show that adding new items isn’t always the right idea.

Trending

More from our partners