On December 23rd, a customer visited the Jack Rose restaurant and paid a total of $116,28 for their meal. When receiving the bill, this included a surprise surcharge that represented 4% of the meal before tax. This was described as a ‘2023 recovery surcharge’ and added $4.08 to the bill. Unsurprisingly, the customer was shocked at the addition of this fee and took to social media to highlight the controversial addition.

Over the past year, a number of Washington DC restaurants have introduced similar surcharges instead of raising their overall prices. This has been to combat the Initiative 82 bill that increased the minimum wage for tipped workers in the city. Regardless, the result has left a sour taste in the mouths of customers.

The receipt was first posted to Reddit and gained over 280 comments. Here, many users blasted the eatery for the surcharge and pointed out that Jack Rose was already an expensive restaurant. Intriguingly, the Jack Rose website states: ‘Jack Rose has been operating with immense cost of business increases. Post-pandemic deficits, labor/employee benefit increases & supply chain shortages have unfortunately resulted in the need to include a 4% recovery surcharge on all checks. It is our hope that this is a temporary policy that will only span 2023.’

With this said, perhaps diners shouldn’t be too quick to lambast the restaurant as this policy may be dropped within a matter of days.