7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2015 At Oregon farm, twin lambs say hello to a tardy sibling Birth of third lamb follows others by 12 days By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press AP Photos/Matt Rourke Co-owner Cristian Mora, right, and Chef Brian Oliveira pose for a photograph Nov. 25 at Girard Brasserie and Bruncherie, a “No-Tip” restaurant in Philadelphia. The new restaurant offers French-inspired cuisine and food for thought: Customers are told they don’t have to tip. That’s because servers there earn about $13 an hour. They also get sick time, vacation days and health insurance. The restaurant has reignited debate over working conditions in the food service industry, where high wages and benefits are almost unheard of. No-tip restaurant offers food IRUWKRXJKWRQSD\EHQH¿WV PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Customers to Girard Brasserie and Bruncherie might be in for a surprise when they read the note attached to their bills: “Tipping is not necessary.” That’s food for thought in an industry where servers de- pend on gratuities for the bulk of their pay. Yet staff at the French-inspired restaurant earn about $13 an hour, and they get sick time, vacation days and health insurance. The economics aren’t easy, said Girard co-owner Brian Oliveira. Ideally, though, the provisions make for more loy- al and content employees, who then create a better experience for customers, he said. “We had to make less mon- H\DVRZQHUVDQGVDFUL¿FHVRPH of that, but in the end, it created a better environment and every- one’s happier,” said Oliveira, who is also the chef. The unusual model high- lights a debate about pay and conditions in an industry that employs 10 percent of the U.S. workforce, according to the National Restaurant Associa- tion. The group doesn’t track the number of no-tip models among the nation’s nearly 1 million eateries, but examples have popped up over the past year in Pittsburgh, New York, Los Angeles and near Cincin- nati. The federal hourly min- imum wage for non-tipped workers, such as dishwashers and cooks, is $7.25; the min- imum for tipped workers like waiters and bartenders is $2.13. Paid time off and medical bene- ¿WVDUHDOPRVWXQKHDUGRILQWKH high-turnover business. Congress hasn’t raised the tipped wage in nearly 25 years. The restaurant association, which has fought increased minimums, argues that requir- ing higher wages will force owners to lay off servers, cut workers’ hours or raise prices. Some cities and states, act- ing on their own to address growing income inequality, have established higher mini- mum wages that apply both to workers who receive tips and to workers who don’t receive tips. Among the highest: $10.74 an Displayed is a card presented with a bill Nov. 25, at Girard Brasserie and Bruncherie. ERIC MORTENSON — Capital Press A ewe at an Oregon City farm apparently had a single lamb 12 days after having twins. Something rare, ap- parently. People of course suggested the new lamb belongs to another ewe, but Russell said the pen was se- cure. “Nobody could have gotten in there,” she said. Others concluded the newcomer is a late triplet, but Russell said a veterinar- ian disagreed. The vet said Julie must have ovulated twice while Russell had a buck, a registered Suffolk named Junior, mingling ZLWKWKHODGLHVRIWKHÀRFN The vet said the double pregnancy was very rare. Russell and her husband live on 23 acres outside Or- egon City and raise a small ÀRFN IRU ZRRO DQG PHDW They’re both retired from the former Omark Indus- tries, a chainsaw manufac- turer, and raise sheep as a side business. The property was a dairy when her parents bought it in 1948, and they turned it into a beef cattle operation. Russell’s interest in sheep began when someone gave her a wether when she was in grade school. At this point, Julie and her three lambs appear quite healthy, Russell said. The new one is noticeably smaller than the twins, most likely because it’s 12 days younger. Russell said her ewes are good producers, with twins common. Two of her ewes in previous years had quads — four lambs — so Rus- sell is keeping an eye out as lambing continues. She had 27 ewes due to give birth this season. “This multiple birth thing is in our sheep,” she said. But twins followed by a single is something new for a ewe to do. PBS to air show featuring local elk People walk past Girard Brasserie and Bruncherie. hour in San Francisco, $9.47 an hour in Washington state and $9.25 an hour in Oregon. The state minimum for tipped employees in Pennsylva- nia is $2.83 hourly. After taking tips into account, that translates into a median wage of $8.25 an hour, or just over $17,000 per year for a full-time employee, according to Restaurant Oppor- tunities Centers United, an or- ganization seeking to improve FRQGLWLRQVLQWKH¿HOG But tips offer the poten- tial to earn a lot more — and sometimes much more quick- ly — than even a higher hourly wage might allow, said Geoff Bowman, a longtime bartender in Philadelphia. Currently in between bar gigs, he earns $2.83 plus tips as a server at Dottie’s Dinette, just few blocks from Girard in the city’s Fishtown section. Bow- man acknowledged the lack of time off and health insurance have been “speed bumps and challenges” in a career he oth- erwise enjoys. At Girard, the menu and checks explain that “dishes are priced accordingly” to provide staff with higher wages and EHQH¿WV $ ¿[HG SULFH WKUHH course dinner ranges from $31 to $42. Kelly Cinquegrana visited Girard shortly after its debut in late November, in part to sup- port the idea of a better working environment. The cost of the meal was reasonable — “equal to giving a tip, anyway” — and she gave the food and service a glowing review on Yelp. “I think it’s pretty important to want to treat wait staff well,” Cinquegrana said. So far, only one employee, a dishwasher, has used a paid sick day, said Girard co-owner Cristian Mora. Scheduling is harder than he imagined and margins are tight; the new ap- proach is “not for everyone,” he said. “A lot of people do make a very good living with the mod- el as it is now, with the guest leaving a tip,” he said. If you are intrigued by our local elk herds, Oregon Public Broadcasting has segment on the herd of elk making Gearhart their home. The elk that roam through Gearhart are about to become the stars of their very own television program. Well, at least a segment of a program. They will be featured on OPB’s show, “Oregon Field Guide” at 8:30 p.m. Thursday. The elk herd that visits Gear- hart sparked enough discussion last spring to warrant a town hall meeting where residents discussed possible methods of dissuading Courtesy of Gail Como Gail Como, Gearhart city treasurer and administrative as- sistant, shot this photo of the elk herd as it marched down Pacific Way in front of City Hall. the elk from coming to town. So far, they haven’t been dissuaded. After the initial airing Thurs- day, the episode will be repeated at 1:30 a.m. and at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, on OPB. WE OPE D-S N UN • Great brands! GET HARD-TO-FIND IND D .22 S ! OREGON CITY — Fern Russell was fetching water and feed for her sheep when she heard an odd noise from a pen on the lower side of the barn. That’s where she was keeping two ewes, each with twins. Lambing season is a busy time, and Russell had checked on the ewes and their twins just 45 minutes earlier, but she thought she’d better take another look. She saw one of the ewes — Julie is her name — murmuring to and licking a lamb lying in a corner of the pen. But wait; four lambs and the other ewe were right there too. ³7KHUH¶V¿YHODPEVKHUH now,” Russell thought to herself. “How can that be?” Julie didn’t seem mysti- ¿HG E\ WKH QHZ ODPE¶V DS- pearance. Twelve days after her twins were born, she ap- parently had another baby. “She was talking to it, making little noises,” Rus- sell said. “She claimed it. It was hers.” Russell walked up to the house and told her husband, Richard Rea, that he wasn’t going to believe what had happened. 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