Californian brunch-goers will now face financial penalties should they choose to overdo it on the Mimosas.
Several restaurants across the Bay Area have instituted $50 “vomit fees” for any patron who overindulges and gets sick on the premises. The fees come in response to a multitude of San Francisco-area restaurants reporting an uptick in the number of guests in their early to mid-20s getting too drunk and tossing their cookies — sometimes right there on the table.
At Kitchen Story in Oakland, where a sign advises patrons to “please drink responsibly and know your limits,” $50 is automatically added to the check of any guest who gets sick on-premise in a public area. Co-owner Hoyul Steven Choi told SFGate that the warning was initially put up two years ago in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It became a very sensitive issue for customers and staff having to clean up. But this is not unique,” he says, in reference to the sick fee. “It’s there to make the customers stop and think about other people.”
Choi says they put the signs up in the restaurant after noticing similar signage in other establishments, hoping it could be a solution to the number of vomiting incidents occurring during brunch service. Kitchen Story’s fellow co-owner, Chaiporn Kitsadaviseksak, told SFGate that the sign has helped significantly decrease the number of vomiting episodes, and says he can’t remember ever having to actually charge the $50 fee.
A similar charge is slapped on any unruly guests at San Francisco’s Home Plate, where the $22 bottomless brunch is accompanied by a potential fee for “any incident” stemming from intoxication. Owner Teerut Boon told SFGate how the monetary obligation has reduced the costs of clean up, as drunken guests now go throw up outside. Wonderful.
While vomit fees are not a typical practice in most restaurants, the charges are fairly common in other industries like ride sharing apps. Uber and Lyft which charge up to $150 for any riders who succumb to their sickness while in their car. Maybe it’s only a matter of time before similar signs are posted in beloved brunch spots across the country.
