Cucina Toorak dumps weekend, card surcharges to please picky locals

Weekend and card surcharges are off the menu at a restaurant in Melbourne’s wealthiest suburb, as posh locals refuse to fork out extra.

A restaurant in Melbourne’s richest suburb has sensationally scrapped all weekend and card surcharges because its well-heeled customers are refusing to fork out extra.

Cucina Toorak owner Gabriele Piacentini has decided to absorb the cost and remove its 10 per cent weekend and flat 1.4 per cent card surcharges to please picky locals, as the hospitality industry desperately tries to stay afloat under rising cost of living pressures.

“Almost every second transaction, people were complaining about the surcharge,” he told the Herald Sun.

“They’d ask ‘what is that?’ and say ‘I’m not paying that … that’s disgraceful’. It got to a breaking point for me mentally and I had to do something I felt was ethical.”

In one instance, a customer revoked on giving a $50 electronic tip as it incurred a card fee.

If paid separately to the meal, the Herald Sun has calculated this additional charge to be 70 cents.

Cucina Toorak is dumping all weekend and card surcharges to please locals as customers would complain almost “every second transaction”. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Mr Piacentini, who has been in the industry for 24 years and has run restaurants in Toorak for the last two, said he could still make ends meet by getting more people in the door.

“About 80 per cent of my customers are Toorak locals. They are wealthy but don’t muck around with these sorts of things. That could be the reason why they can afford to live in the wealthiest suburb,” he said.

“As a restaurateur, I have to find ways to make money and I have to ask why they are choosing my restaurant over anyone else? I want to show the customer that we are only charging for the product. We make our pasta from scratch and take pride in our service. Now without the surcharges, they can just enjoy that experience.”

Mr Piacentini said he’d done the maths and knew how to make up for lost revenue.

“I’m still charging $40 for a pasta, which isn’t all profit, but by taking surcharges off I will get more leverage that investing money into a marketing campaign,” he said.

“If we make $1000 revenue, an extra ten per cent is $100 and 1.4 per cent is $11.40 … so really to make an extra $111.40 I need to attract another 1.5 customers, which I believe I can do.”

Cucina Toorak was also not passing on its usual 15 per cent public holiday surcharge to customers. It still pays staff the appropriate award rate.

“When you make decisions like this, there’s no going back. But I did it (scrap surcharges) because I really hope that customers appreciate what we’ve done,” he said.

“I’m confident I am doing the right thing for me and my business.”

Restaurants typically apply weekend, public holiday and card surcharges to cover inflated staff wages on Sundays and public holidays, and the fee to use EFTPOS in their venues.

Cucina Toorak’s move comes as both the federal government and Reserve Bank review debit card surcharges as part of a crackdown on excessive card payment fees.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last fortnight: “My government’s No. 1 priority is to ease the cost of living for households and businesses, and this is another step to protect Australians. That’s why we have announced this additional funding for the ACCC while we wait for further work by the Reserve Bank of Australia.”