Jackson Jambalaya

So each employee gets an average of $220, which after taxes is......

Well done, Feds.

other than the cakes, not that great.

Beg to disagree, 9:31. Blue plates are out of this world.

This tip thing is ridiculous. Ho one "waits tables" there. There is a tip jar right by the cash register that rings up the sale. Are the feds saying the "ringer upper" is entitled to the tips, and to hell with the bus boy? Or the employee that finds your number on the table and drops off your order? We go there weekly and I ALWAYS assumed the tips were being spread around proportionately. Ridiculous.

stealing from those who can least afford it.....I will not eat there any more as THIS is one reason why the poor have to use government assistance programs...what a bunch of pieces of shit.....did Patrick Kelly work there too?

Not that great? The early bird breakfast with cheese grits is tasty.

Mama Hamils ALL DAY LONG! ho hum blue plates at primos...

Pete's Omelet is a keeper.

@10:04 yes, they are pooled tips. The problem is they allowed management to take a cut, which isn't allowed.

You should only go Mama Hamils if you want to see obese people fight over a food trough. We should start using an obesity index to limit medical care. Lay off the buffets and you get medical care. I've always wondered why the rest of us, through increased insurance premiums, have to pay for smokers and diners who have no self control.

Didn't Starbucks have the same problem? This tipping is getting out of hand. I don't mind tipping a helpful waiter at a restaurant like Galatoire's, but buying a cup of coffee or having someone bring to your table the food that you had to order at a counter is pushing it.

Well why not, 10:46? Some dumb ass(es) in power declared this illegal. The Primos owned the restaurant. Owned it. Paid or presently paying for it. If these were the rules when people accepted their job there, the feds should butt out.

If the old saying about "takes one to know one" is true then you should be able to spot one a mile away.

Tip sharing is a reduced form of Socialism. If someone is busting their @$$, why should they share with someone who is not? I recognize that with the various types of employees, its more complicated than that and tip sharing supposedly incentives team work. Im not sure that it does in reality.

When I saw the headline, I thought Primos got busted for hiring illegal aliens to cook for them. I like Primos, especially breakfast there, but they, of all people, should know and follow the law. I'll bet they will do so in the future.

Mama Hamil's buffet joint is not appealing to me. As others said, the place is full of morbidly obese people giddy about piling as much food as possible on their plates. Buffets are gross anyway. People paw through, handle, sneeze and breath on everything in the buffet line. At least restaurant employees who handle food are subject to testing for TB, etc., but customers - who also come into contact with the food - are not.

Just relieved that it wasn't the Elite that got in trouble.

11:13 - no, the Feds shouldn't butt out because the restaurant "rules" were illegal. The "dumbass(es)", as you say, would be the Congress of the United States. This is a good law that keeps management from abusing their staff. Tipped employees can be paid a "tip minimum wage" far less than minimum wage. When this is the case, the employer benefits by paying less in employment taxes.

Looks like they would have gotten a 'heads up' from the same debacle at Crechales a few years back. Every employee there, including the gal at the register and the owner were cutting the tip pool and no way for anybody to know what the formula was.

All food service jobs are hard work. There are more people putting you food on your plate and cleaning up afterwards than there are waiters bringing your cheese grits to the table.

Always thought Primos was a good place. What a shame they were cheating their lowest paid workers by giving part of their tips to management.

none of this would be an issue if restaurant workers were paid a living wage..

@5:04 I've worked as a server and bartender in the Jackson area. If someone is not making at least 12-15 dollars an hour they should be fired for being terrible employees. Employers have to pay at least minimum wage if the 2 dollars and change mandatory minimum per hour plus tips do not equal minimum wage. A good server at even a moderate priced place like Babalu or Kiefers should be clearing around five to ten dollars a table plus the two dollar minimum. Many servers and bartenders at upscale places are making more per hour take home than the young lawyers they are serving on the weekend.

I"ve eaten at the Primos once off Highland Colony at lunch. Did the Blue Plate and it was awful, the service was pitiful and I wont waste my money in there again.

I was a waiter once....If i am a good waiter and give the customers good service and they tip for MY GOOD SERVICE....The owner should not put my tips in a JAR...POOR MANAGEMENT!!!! OLD FASHION......MANAGEMENT...THAT IS THE DIVINATION OF THE PRIMOS....GREEDY.... Somethings NEVER Change!!!!

Primos has chosen a service model similar to McAllisters. They should choose the same tipping restrictions, i.e. ZERO tips. Sorry Primos, but I have no desire to make your register attendants’ payroll for you, saying nothing of the employment taxes the restaurant is avoiding.

The best sugar cookies and fudge squares in the known world. Also Sat Spaghetti is amazing. Fried green tomatoes and squash casserole are some of the best. Maybe all you haters are ordering wrong.

@10:02 when I leave a tip, anywhere, I expect that money to go directly to the workers - not to the boss. I don't care if they don't wait tables - I care that they're working to cook me a meal.

Right. The arrangement at Primos is similar to McAlisters. You walk up, place your order. The cashier gives you a glass. You get your own drink and refills. A busboy brings your food. That's the extent of the "service". There is a tip jar by the cash register. It is not known if Primos will accept Fifty Cent coins.

I strongly suspect the staff isn't paid the $2.xx per hour that waiters and waitresses are paid at most restaurants.

As for what waiters make in tips, they don't all make as much as you think they do. You'd expect them to do quite well at some of the more expensive restaurants. However, by the time the establishment gets through with making them work in two or three man teams AND split tips with barbacks and busboys, well, the pay goes down.

Nice to see our favorite drunk is back.

6:32.....I’m a long time regular at Primos. The food is delicious and always served hot and promptly. The servers are thoughtful and accommodating. The restaurants clean and appealing. Maybe it’s just You...

Primos has always been a favorite of mine. I've been eating there since the 50's. Their food is great and always has been. I loved Northgate, downtown, and all their locations. The family is honest and hardworking. Their employees are treated very well. Some have been there for 40 plus years.
You won't find a better place to eat, nor more honest or better owners anywhere.

Wouldn't have happened if they hadn't left Northgate.

My daughter works at Primos
Gets $9.00 as her base pay plus tips
Which average out to $2.00 per hour worked

Not bad for part time job while you in school

“Don Primos is one of the most considerate, unassuming and steady business owners in Jackson. He has creatively built upon a great, local family brand. I have known him for decades and have observed the respectful way he interacts with his team members. Anyone who has casually observed can attest to this.
This Department of Labor rule is another example of Big Government over-reach and micro-management. This article should have been entitled, “Big Brother Dictates Entrepreneur’s Business Plan”.
The reality is that a restaurant manager is working right alongside his/her team and is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of that team. Whether or not a business owner chooses to share a portion of tips with the manager should be his/her prerogative.
That said, once all of this was brought to his attention by the DOL, Don painstakingly corrected. Another testimony to his good character.
Primos has employees that have worked there for not just years, but decades. You don’t stick around that long if you are being unfairly compensated.
Eat at Primos - A great Jackson tradition.
Great people and great food.”

You think that’s bad, I once went over 8 months without receiving a check for the hours I worked at Fernando’s Mexican Restaurant in Pearl. The wait staff were being “paid” $2.17 -$3.17 per hour by law as minimum wage, which increased by a dollar during my tenure there, but they would just straight up withhold the checks from the entire staff. It started as a check missed here and there, and then escalated to downright criminal delinquency when they figured out that besides a few semi-irritated queries as to why we weren’t being paid was all that the majority native Latin American staff were going to offer in defense of this shamefulness, as they didn’t really have much leverage with taking the matter to the authorities believing the authorities would care much more about the validity of their work visas than the missing checks. Which is a sound concern. The staff were all terrific people that I admire to this day, and I don’t blame them at all for not speaking up, because it just wasn’t in their best interest when considering all the possible consequences of doing so. It is a family owned restaurant and the family knew they had the upper hand with the one exception of me, the sole gringo native who could throw a wrench into their deviant schemes. The checks were supposed to be given out once every two weeks so if you were full time, it would still only be $50-$75 each check, which isn’t exactly putting anyone into a new tax bracket, but still would have been nice to have what was legally due to us. I never blew any whistles out of loyalty but if just one of my co workers would have asked me too, I would have. They ended up ‘settling’ with us after almost a year of no checks in what they said was the estimated sum of what they missed out on paying us, but no one knew if that amount was even correct, it surely wasn’t accurate legally, and definitely wasn’t any more than what we were owed. I ended up quitting soon after due to a different family member whom I had not come to know and befriend coming in and taking over day to day operations and just being a total dick. It was the straw that broke the back for me. But I did make decent tips there. Definitely a quantity over quality of tip situation. Meaning that To make decent, it was necessary to turn as many tables as possible quickly for a $3 average tip rather than concentrate on certain tables for big tips. I did learn Spanish which has proven immensely helpful