Animal

435 North Fairfax Avenue Los Angeles, CA, 90036

(323) 782-9225

Trendy, minimalist New American restaurant celebrated for its offal specialties & other meat plates.

 What We Believe 

We believe in everyone making a more equitable wage and strive to create more stability for all of our team members. We have a lot of respect for everyone who works at animal and hope that they choose to work here because they too believe in this model. The restaurant’s service charge model offers a forward thinking approach to service, in-house advancement opportunities, and professional growth for our team members. 

We expect friendly, professional, and courteous service from all of our team members, and our service charge allows us to employ a diverse mix of people with specific areas of expertise that elevates the dining experience for our guests.

We provide a safe and positive work environment where it is clear what the expectations are for each role and how they contribute to the animal experience.

At animal, we are proud of our model–which we are always trying to improve on–to create a more unified relationship throughout the whole workforce in order to provide the best dining experience for our customers.

Q/A 

The Facts About California Wages across all Industries 

  • In the City of Los Angeles, every employee must be paid a minimum of $16.04 per hour, regardless of whether they also receive tips or service charge distributions for additional compensation. 

Note: The City of Los Angeles minimum wage is higher than California’s minimum wage of $15.50 per hour, and more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

What About Tips? 

  • If customers have exceptional service, we encourage them to tip our employees at the percentage or amount they feel comfortable with.

Why is a Service Charge System Better to our Team Members?

  • We are one of a growing number of restaurants who operate on a service charge model. 

  • In 2015 - We opened Jon & Vinny’s on Fairfax and implemented an 18% service charge to every dine-in check. This was aimed at eliminating the wage disparity between the various positions that help make a restaurant successful. 

  • Post-pandemic, we reopened animal with the service charge model.

  • The goal was to create a better, more equitable, way to compensate all of our team members who participate in the chain of service. 

Who does the service charge go to? 

  • The service charge goes to our entire staff: including servers, bussers, dishwashers, cooks, sous chefs, drivers, farmer’s market team, bakers, dough rollers, etc. 

Is the service charge a tip?

  • No, the service charge is not a tip or gratuity, it is an added fee that is controlled by the restaurant (see why above). 

Why Not Just Increase Food Prices?

  • At its core, the service charge is about driving change in our industry – helping ensure our business can thrive in challenging economic environments and compensating each member of our team in a more equitable way – in a way that uniformly increasing our food prices doesn’t allow for.