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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
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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-
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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-
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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now,” Russell thought to
herself. “How can that be?”
Julie didn’t seem mysti-
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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. Being a husband,
he asked her what she’d
done now.
“It’s not what I did,”
Russell responded. “It’s
what a ewe did.”
“Well,” he asked, “What
did a ewe do?”
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