I found the series of articles as a whole to be an enlightening account from the perspective of a restaurateur who tried new things in San Diego.

This was Part of 5 of a series that begins here:

http://jayporter.com/dispatches/observations-from-a-tipless-...

Prior to this aside from being a patron of restaurants my only knowledge of the restaurant biz was based on Setting the Table which Fred Wilson blogged about here:

http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2007/01/setting_the_tab.html