Mr. Colicchio said that the success of the car service Uber, whose fee includes service, “is making it possible at least for younger generations to swallow this.”

His flagship restaurant in Manhattan, Craft, began serving lunch last month with service included in the price; tips are strongly discouraged. Mr. Colicchio said that he planned to decide soon whether to do the same at dinner and at some of his other restaurants. “None of the waiters has quit yet, so that’s a good sign,” he said.

By increasing prices and ending tips, Mr. Meyer said he hoped to be able to raise pay for junior dining room managers and for cooks, dishwashers and other kitchen workers. Compensation would remain roughly the same for servers, who currently get most of their income from tips. Under federal labor laws, pooled tips can be distributed only to customer service workers who typically receive gratuities, and cannot be shared with the kitchen staff or managers.

“The gap between what the kitchen and dining room workers make has grown by leaps and bounds,” Mr. Meyer said. During his 30 years in the business, he said, “kitchen income has gone up no more than 25 percent. Meanwhile, dining room pay has gone up 200 percent.”

Image Danny Meyer Credit... Evan Sung for The New York Times

The wage gap is one of several issues cited by restaurateurs who have deleted the tip line from checks. Some believe it is unfair for servers’ pay to be affected by their race and age, their customer’s moods, the weather and other factors that have nothing to do with performance. A rash of class-action lawsuits over tipping irregularities, many of which have been settled for millions of dollars, is a mounting worry.

Scott Rosenberg, an owner of Sushi Yasuda in Manhattan, said in an interview in 2013 that he had eliminated tipping so his restaurant could more closely follow the customs of Japan, where tipping is rare. He said he also hoped his customers would enjoy leaving the table without having to solve a math problem.