Perhaps, but that's such a high societal hurdle that I don't see happening any time soon. I like the idea of that, but it's tempered with the realities of the present.

I'd be interested in knowing which establishments you're speaking of. I know they exist, but they (in my experience) hardly ever last that long. I'm a restaurant consultant by trade, and have about 75 restaurant clients. I'm in California, a state that (thankfully) does not allow for paying less than the state minimum wage for tipped position, and can tell you that it's now the norm in California for labor cost to exceed 40% (yes, even in tipped establishments) of sales, and while that's good for the income of the staff, there's basically nothing left on the bottom line. Labor cost is high, costs of goods are high, rent is high. Anyone considering opening a restaurant would almost certainly be better off putting money into a CD; no risk and almost guaranteed to return more on your money.

Traditionally, 30% labor, 30% costs of goods, 30% overhead (including rent) has been a rough guideline. That returns (in the best of cases) 10% to the owner. You open a restaurant with $1 million in sales, you get $100,000. If your labor it at 40%, there's nothing left and thus no reason to open in the first place. That there still are places trying is amazing.

Again, being in California I get a skewed look at things. Skewed because benefits for employees is already required and in many cases paid time off too. $17/hr plus tips isn't a lot, but it's as livable as things get living in CA.

The harsh reality is that while in many states the tip credit allows restaurant owners to offload the cost directly to consumers, in more progressive states like California or Washington state, labor is close to pricing themselves out of the market.