Why did Danny Meyer resume tipping?

Danny Meyer decided to resume tipping primarily due to the pandemic's severe impact on his business and the outpouring of gratitude shown by customers towards the serving staff during the reopening phase in New York in 2020. During this period, customers expressed their appreciation by giving generous tips to servers who were risking their health to serve diners outdoors. Seeing this, Meyer felt it was inhumane not to allow his servers to accept these tips, leading him to resume the tipping system. Additionally, he implemented a policy where a portion of the revenue was shared with the cooks, who are typically ineligible for tips, to ensure they also benefited from busy nights 1.