Servers wages include a ‘tips reported’ line. This is not simply tips charged to a credit card but often is calculated based on the amount of the tickets assigned to them. I found out that one restaurant on their ‘to go’ orders filed them under servers, so when the guy did the 10 prime rib dinners to go and didn’t leave a tip ('cause who the hell thinks of leaving a tip on a to go order?) the server was screwed royally.
I tip 20% of bill (including discounts/comps etc) generous plus often leave a rubber ducky or some other little toy. I often get supurb service the second time I go places.
Maybe I am misunderstanding, but are you saying that the servers give you free food and drinks? And that you tip based on what the food would have cost? Are they authorized to do so by management? If not, it sounds a lot like they are stealing work product from the company and selling it to you. You might want to check with the owner, just to be sure it is OK.
I have worked as a manager in a relatively pricey restaurant and I can assure you that any server giving away food and drink would be fired on the spot. I have also worked as a cook/sous chef, and it would have really chapped my ass to see my work given away for free by a waiter who, more often then not, would stand in the kitchen to count his tips while I was looking at another hour or so of clean-up.
Well…if I take up a larger than usual amount of time, I tip more. Just as if I am an only patron and the restaurant is busy but I am taking up a whole table for 2 or 4.
God it’s gotten to the point where I go out of my way to make sure the waiter has a good experience with me. I an overly apologetic if we sit on the table too long. I encourage my boyfriend to finish his beer fast once we’ve paid so they can turn the table over, if the waiter appears I make sure to add a request to everyone else’s so I don’t run them back and forth. I feel VERY guilty eating by myself. I am scared of the waiter seeing me as a spoiled bitch. I’d probably tip 20% if they did anything short of punching me in the face. I would rather die than have someone at my table complain or send something back. I’m hot tempered though so my attempts to appear not crazy have only a moderate success rate.
Tipping says more about the person leaving the tip than it does about the waiter’s performance. I think what is says is usually “yuppie guilt”
You DO realize that tips are shared among all the waitstaff, right?
Of course you’re right about the inequity, crappy environment = crappy pay. It’s true far beyond the restaurant industry, the same observation applies to a lot of office jobs in my experience.
And consider the disparity between teachers in the wealthy suburban schools vs. those in the inner city.
IMHO the manager of the restaurant in question was foolish - why piss off a group of otherwise desirable customers?
Bingo. The more people that do things at your table (host/Maître d’, busboy, steward, bartender) then the more people the server has to share his/her tip with at the end of the night. I just work in a little chain restaurant, and I only have to tip out to the bartenders and the hosts, but the hosts at our place get more than they do in other places because we have no bussers, the hosts and the servers share that responsibility.
And trust me, the level of service at a $100 a meal place is MUCH better than a $10 diner. Would you honestly be satisfied with the service you get from Mabel at The Greasy Spoon if you were eating at Ruth Chris’s Steakhouse? The waitress shows up in a stained apron, with pencil and pad of paper in hand, and says.
“Yeah hon, what can I get you?” all while absentmindedly chewing some gum? You ask a question about a wine paring with the meal and she goes,
“Oh, it’s all the same stuff, darlin’. get you drunk good!”
When the food comes she just plops the plates down says “here you go!” and leaves.
And while Mabel deals with drunk assholes at 3 AM, Pierre has to deal with entitled assholes who think they deserve anything and everything just because. Honestly, an asshole is an asshole no matter how much money they have, and it’s a bitch to deal with them as customers.
But I agree with the fundamental point that several people have made that the amount of work a waiter has to do to uncork a $10 vs. $50 vs. $250 bottle of wine is generally identical. Tipping based on a portion of the bill for food makes some amount of sense, because there’s at least some correlation between how much is being paid and how difficult it was for the waiter to server (ie, more money equals more separate courses served to more people). Sure, some main courses are more expensive than others, but the difference between the pasta and the prime rib isn’t anywhere near the difference between the cheap and expensive wine.
Actually, most places that I know of this isn’t the case. As said, other people get tipped out, but we don’t pool our tips and divide them up equally (unless you were just referring to tipping out.) That’s not really fair. If I do a really good job, and Bob does a shit job, why should he get my money? There’s always a couple guys who complain every night about getting poor tips, while most of the rest of us do pretty good. I want to say to them:
“Do you really think you two always get poor tippers more than the rest of us?”
Sorry, I meant among the various other team members (dish clearing, water filling). Just couldn’t think of the word busboy.
Although when I worked at Graeters (ice cream shop) we did share our tips among all the staff. Personally I was the worst waitress ever - spilling hot coffee on men’s laps, flinging pencils across tables, etc. I tend to tip very well
PunditLisa - I’m guessing your lunch wasn’t at Skyline? Dying to know exactly where, though.
Try playing out the same rationale for food. “all you’re doing is slapping down a plate of food in front of me, so it shouldn’t matter if I bought the blue plate special or the filet mignon”.
And, are you aware that the “tips reported” line item for servers is (IME) based on the total tabs that they served? So, regardless of effort, they will be ‘charged more’ for tips reported for the bottle of Dom P than for the Ali G’s version of bubbly.
I do, as best I can. But it’s not always possible to know. I don’t always keep track of how many drinks I order.
Yes, and I’m pretty sure they’re authorized to do this-- for the regular customers. They know they’re getting a lot of my money, and they want me to come back.
Usually it’s the bartenders doing this. I like to eat at the bar, unless I’m with a large party. It’s a lot more fun, and the bartenders are given some latitude with the how big a pour they do (wine), and comp’ing drinks. I often know the owners of these places, too, and they know what’s going on.
Yes :smack:
That’s such an easy one to remember, too. Who would want to be Mr. Pink?
This is another example of something that isn’t really the customer’s problem but we’ve all gotten this waiter over-sensitivity thing now. It ruins the fun if you have to think about all the issues that go on behind the scene. Sometimes I just want to go out to eat and not worry about what percentage the waiter has to tip out the B team. (at my restaurant it was 0.5% except bartender was 1%) I also don’t want to worry about the waiter’s student loans, their babies at home, or their coke habit. From the customer side of things, 120 dollars is a lot for wine!!!
Yea, I’m obviously asking you to care about their personal life.
No, I"m pointing out the reality of how our system works IRL in USA. When you purchase a meal at Mickey’D’s, you’re also paying the salaries (plus taxes) of the employees there, as is everybody else.
when you dine out at a fine dining establishment, and order big bucks items and refuse to acknowledge that your choice will acrue larger tax burden for the person serving you, and therefore fail to pay an appropriate tip 'cause it ain’t your problem, you’re being an asshole. MHO and all, you know.
If you can’t afford the tip, stick to fast food or picnics.
My WAG: “Delta” is math/tech slang for “difference”, so I think yojimbo was saying that when his group goes out to eat and spends a little less than their budgeted amount, they leave the remainder of the budgeted amount as their tip.
