TGI Friday's sets up independent tronc committee made up of staff: TGI Friday's has introduced a 12-person tronc committee, which has collectively made the decision on how tips paid via a customer’s card are distributed among its restaurant team members. The committee has reached the decision that 65% of card tips will be allocated to waiters and waitresses while 35% will be allocated to kitchen and door team members. All cash tips will continue to be kept solely by the team member to which they are given. The tronc committee’s decision will come into force from February. The committee will meet every six months and team members will be paid for any time preparing for or attending the tronc meetings. Jacqui Mcmanus, culture and people development director, said: “We passionately believe all tips received at Friday's should go to our team members, and that’s why 100% of tips go, as they have always done, to our hard-working team. As there are many team members – front and back-of-house – that contribute to our guests’ Friday's experience, we wanted to put the power back into the hands of our people and as a result have introduced a tronc committee that is tasked with deciding the best and fairest way to distribute tips received via card payment. The committee has met and unanimously agreed that card tips should be shared among team members – 65% of tips will go to waiters and waitresses and 35% of tips will go to kitchen and door team members. This reinforces the previous decision to share out tips among the team. Each team member will continue to retain 100% of cash tips they are given individually, and our tipping and pay policies will remain separate.” Any team member or first level manager was able to apply to be part of the tronc committee. From this, Friday's randomly selected 12 team members to make up the committee, within the parameters of having three team members who have front-of-house management experience and three team members who have back-of-house management experience; as well as one team member in each of the following roles – server, line cook, serving assistant, host, kitchen assistant, and bartender. TGI Friday's as a company cannot interfere with the decisions reached by the tronc committee on the distribution of the tronc.

Lost Boys Pizza to open second site, in Camden: Neighbourhood pizza concept Lost Boys Pizza is to open its second site, in Camden. Alex Fisher and Peter Crozier-Clucas launched the concept in Archway in June last year. Now they are opening a venue in Eversholt Street in Camden in December. It will feature the company's signature black charcoal pizza, cocktails and strictly 1980s soundtrack upstairs, while downstairs will be Croque Monsieur – an absinthe bar. The new venue will take inspiration from the Frog Brother Comic Book Store in the Lost Boys film and feature an open kitchen at the back of the restaurant. Fisher and Crozier-Clucas have opted for a menu on the walls while the ceiling will be adorned with black and white comic book pages. Outside, the 45-cover garden will have a retractable roof. In the basement, Croque Monsieur will offer an extensive range of brands that can be enjoyed in their purest forms, as well as cocktails. Fisher and Crozier-Clucas met 20 years ago while working at TGI Friday's and then spent their formative years working for brands such as Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, Wahaca, The Living Room and Giraffe before climbing the management ranks to oversee branded restaurant operations and expansions in the UK and abroad and developing a reputation in consultancy.