Do away with tips. That's what The Linkery in San Diego decided to do, according to a recent story in the New York Times. Not a new idea at all. But perhaps it's a strategy that could benefit and even smooth over some of the longstanding grudges in the restaurant industry.

Here's why.

In troubled times, the incidence of dine-and-ditch goes up, as does just some garden-variety chintzy tipping. If restaurants instituted an automatic service fee (15 percent? 18 percent?) and forbade additional tipping, a server's income would be somewhat assured (alright, not in the case of dine-and-ditch).

But then what's a server's incentive to give good service, you ask? We routinely go to restaurants and take out our frustrations about poorly prepared food on the server. Steak not prepared to your liking? Express your dissatisfaction at the end of the meal via your tip. But it wasn't the server's fault. There's not a lot of evidence that good service is rewarded with a good tip, or bad service with a bad tip.

People's tipping habits are idiosyncratic. There are unfortunate stereotypes in the industry: African Americans are said to tip more poorly than their white counterparts; women are said to tip worse than men. I have no evidence to support the former, but I have read studies that, sadly, bear out the women-and-tipping phenomenon. A standard service charge would have the added benefit of encouraging servers to treat customers equally (not, "ugh, that table of four older women is definitely going to undertip").

Studies indicate that Americans prefer discretionary tipping by a wide margin. Still, superstar restaurants like French Laundry, Per Se in New York, Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and even our own Bern's have a built-in service charge. In most cases, it's because that service charge is pooled and split between servers, captains, bus staff and even the kitchen staff.

This brings me to another longstanding beef in the industry: Cooks often make a lot less money than servers, for work that is arguably much more skilled. I'm not saying serving is not difficult, stressful work, but someone can be competent at it within six months. At a high level, learning to cook is a multi-year commitment. This inequity fosters a spirit of mutual distaste in many restaurants between the "front of the house" and the kitchen.

I'd love to hear the thoughts of folks in the industry. What are the pros and cons to a standard tipping system?