I’ll have you know that I tipped a buck for all 3 of my drinks tonight, and they were all less than $5.
Doing my part to be a good customer.
I would just like to add to this discussion, as I prepare to log off the net and go to work (and Saturdays suck–2 weeks ago I came home with 7 bucks):
I DON’T WANNA GO TO WORK!!!
I only had issues with tipping out at one place I worked because the bartenders got regular wages as did the bus people.
9 out of 10 times we were getting our own drinks and clearing our tables anyway. Needless to say it was not a place that was run too well and I didn’t work there very long and then they went out of business.
These people got regular wages and didn’t have to claim tips but we had to claim tips and the pay out wasn’t accounted for. So I was claiming money they were getting free.
When I was a cocktail server at Fox and Hound I worked with one bartender out of three. He and I were a great team and worked out of one well and everybody just got into the habit of he and I being a team.
I would put in my drinks and by the time I made it from my station to the well they would be up. Great guy and I miss him terribly even though I lost at pool and had to call him Big Pappa. (Three years later and I still do!)
Cocktail servers are in about the same boat as bartenders really.
Quarter beer nights can kill a person and we used to have our local radio stations come in for those and they would have us set up a comp buffet and give away prizes.
Jam packed wall to wall people only there for the radio station and tips suck. $1 is four beers and nevermind the fact that they aren’t ordering apps. or the fact that you have to be a contortionist to move through the crowd without spilling their drinks and without trying to get caught up behind people who won’t move out of your way so you can get the drinks out there in a hurry.
Big Pappa had a love hate relationship with those nights. Nobody wanted to come to the bar for their drinks so it was an easy night but yet no money in them either except the tip out which wasn’t very much if we didn’t make much on the floor.
Lisa Ann I didn’t understand your post?
You would rather get your apps after your meal so you get a hot meal?
Depending on how busy the kitchen is the apps and drinks should be put in five minutes before the actual order so you get your drinks then your apps and ideally your food ten minutes after your apps. so you have time to enjoy them and then get a refill before your meal comes.
But this isn’t a perfect world and lord knows that doesn’t always happen.
As a cook I actually made a server cry once (at F&H) for the fact that she came to pick up her hot food and forgot to put in the apps first.
Middle of a rush and she is yelling at me because she forgot. Nope, don’t think so. Good thing it was wings. Fast, easy, and the food stayed hot.
Cooks go through alot also you know. I grabbed another servers order of wings, dropped a new batch and everybody was happy.
At this point in time it was August and we had no air conditioning for a week. Not a good week to piss off your head cook.
Yep, I’ve done it all in the resturant business. And if you want to know about stuff that goes on after hours that is a whole new thread.
Sorry, you’re wrong here. I don’t eat there, and all the time you take to wait on me is 2 minutes, max. You don’t refill my drinks (you mentioned that), you don’t clean up after me. I’m not asking you for more <dressing/sourcream/salsa/bread/.whatever>. You’re not asking me “how is everything?” halfway through my meal. I’m not sending anything back if it is bad. I’m not taking up space in your establishment that eat-in, TIPPING customers will likely fill. I will never tip on a to go order.
And before I get the “you don’t know what it’s like, you bad tipper!” shit, I worked as a waiter. I still tip 10% for really bad service, I often go over 20% for good service. I have only ever stiffed one waitress in my entire life.
But tipping on an order to go? Fuck no.
That was actually me that said I would rather have my food before apps then have it be cold. In the restaurant that I work in we write the appetizers on the back of the ticket and hang it up. When the table is ready for their entrees, we turn the ticket over, they pull it down to the counter and start making the food. Sometimes when it gets busy the cooks get a little flustered and just start pulling down anything that we put up without checking to see which way it’s facing. That’s when the mistakes happen.
Two things contribute the the slowness of the mistake process. One: if it’s busy the fry cook (he makes all the appetizers) is probably pretty backed up with orders, he doesn’t speak english very well at all, so tryig to explain to him that he needs to break his line and make someting, can be a bit of a chore. Two: Our fry cook is also insanely slow he has no concept of urgency. It can take him up to ten minutes to make a plate of apps, that is defenatly enough time for the food to get cold. I have never had anyone get to angry about me bringing the food early. I have never had anyone complain about it at all, not that it happens very often. They always understand and don’t care. I just assumed that most other people would feel this way too. Guess not.
I once had a guy come in with his teenage son. Son ordered a burger and fries; dad had a Ceasar salad. I brought the drinks and the rolls that came with the salad. A little later, as I was passing by their table, dad barked, “How’s that salad coming?”
“It’s coming…” I said, knowing what he was getting at, but wondering how he didn’t know that his salad was an entree.
Argle bargle fooferaw, then the burger and salad came up at the same time. Was he going to sit their eating while his son didn’t have his order yet? Then he got agro because there were no free seconds on rolls. Sigh.
I’ve never had anyone get touchy about food being brought out fast either but I have had some people get touchy about not having apps out first.
No more posting on three hours of sleep for me. Now that I re-read your posts I can see where you were going with that.
We had some pretty kick ass cooks there and two great managers who would go back and check the tables for you to make sure all was well.
Damn I almost miss that job. I guess I miss the environment the most.
I understand your point, but it is the waitperson’s job to make sure that the job get’s in on time adn that the food is brought out in the proper order. Of course there are times when it is unavoidable. I’m not referring to those times when the kitchen is at fault. I’m talking about when the waitperson ducks out to talk to their SO and lets the appetizer get cold.
Well, for one thing, even if you disagree with the policy, it shouldn’t be the employee that has to suffer.
Take it up with managment, write your local politicians about changing the laws for waitstaff, but don’t take it out on the poor waiter/waitress.
Look, I understand that there is an expectation of 20% tipping from customers, because employers and idealists have to justify the minimum wage.
I don’t go out to eat in fancy restaurants as much as I used to, because I can’t justify the expense including tip in light of other priorities. Particular celebrations however can be justified and I always tip, because more often than not I have enjoyed the service and I accept this “norm” of society.
But what about the floor person at Zellers or K-Mart who helps you with where something is or puts back the clothing items you took to the dressing room. They serve you for minimum wage and no one tips them. In fact, it seems to me that a growing segment of the population are working for minimum wage.
Any wonder that they question the practice of tipping their bartender for a beer?
But, grien , I don’t get minimum wage. I get $4.50/hr at the bar and servers make something like $2.70/hr, with the understanding that tips make up for the rest–minimum is $5 and change IIRC. Working the bar, my average check is less than a server’s, so I get paid a bit more by the hour. I also make drinks in a timely manner for the servers, so I get a bit of their tips for helping them out. Believe me, if I could get paid $10 or $11-something an hour like the cooks, I’d give up tip-share gladly.
But I don’t. And if I report my tips honestly, I make even less per hour, as I found out today.
Well that really sucks Stofsky. I live in Canada, and I always assumed that restaurant/bar service personnel were covered under minimum wage law.
We are and we aren’t covered under the law.
If your two dollars and whatever plus tips claimed don’t average out to a minimum wage then the establishment has to make up the difference.
So, one night I could work a five hour shift and not wait on one table because it’s a slow night in the middle of the week at an odd hour.
That would be five hours at $2.09 no tips. But the next night you work five hours on a good shift and you make $75 in tips.
Now with ten hours on your check and $75 in tips it averages out to over minimum wage.
And you pay more in taxes. I have actually seen servers get almost nothing on their weekly checks because their tips and taxes.
And most places are set to computer where it gives you a total you have to claim.
Somewhere around 15% of your total food sales for the day? It’s been a while since I had to figure this out.
Anyway if you have a night of slow tips and you don’t make your 15% of your food sales you still have to claim it or risk getting in trouble with the IRS.
Service people are red flagged all the time to make sure they are claiming 100%
If you have a string of bad nights you get screwed.
Oh but wait! Didn’t I say that the employer was supposed to make up whatever you didn’t in tips? Yeah, can we say loophole?
Kinda makes you wonder why people get into the service business in the first place.
Percentages mean nothing. Only service does. I tip from 0%-100%, depending on service. Poor service, no tip. Great service, huge tip. I recently tipped 0% on a $60 meal in Washington because we were insulted openly by the waiter. And I was damn proud to stiff him too.
And, I recently tipped 50% to a waiter when I went to Chattanooga for work. Why? Because he didn’t just treat me like a customer, her treated me like a fucking human being, and acted at least like he was happy to be serving me. So he got about a $20 tip on a $40 meal (no drinks).
Don’t take this one personally. Some of us are terrible with names. Sometimes I’m introduced to a client that I hope to do $100,000 of biz with, and forget their name within 10 seconds.
So… what do you do when you tip the bartender a hundred percent, and they still insult you?
Anyone at the NYDope at the Red Rock can back me up on this, specially Puhna.
I don’t drink alcohol. It’s an old habit, basically, I was on medication in high school, never got to seriously liking it. I drink diet cokes. Various reasons, among which being that there’s less chance of getting confusion with, say, Mr. Pibb at a fast food joint… to cross reference with another thread on here. Not to mention that the vending machines are never out on hot summer days.
So.
Order a diet coke. Get ignored for ten minutes till the bartender decided to give it to me. Overtipped. Hey, maybe they’ll remember me next time.
Order a diet coke for me and for Puhna, after he’d been given an O’Douls he wasn’t wanted. You know, it takes a lot of guts to order coke in a bar, apparently.
Get insulted, still overtip (Hey, it’s not like it’s that much money, and we are having fun.)
Go back a third time for a diet coke and vodka for… who was playing the strip find the hidden objects game?
Get told, “At last you’re getting a real drink.”
Felt like going ballistic. Didn’t, but if I still remember it this long after…
What the hell is up with this attitude? I saw it in Coyote Ugly, too. (John Goodman was very good in it.)
Some people don’t drink, but wind up in bars. Some people are designated drivers.
And some people want to have fun sober.
What, might I ask, is the problem with that?
No, I’m not straight-edge, they’re mostly jerks, even the ones that aren’t racial supremicists.
So here’s a new question: what’s the most you’ve ever tipped someone?
I once tipped not-quite-50% on a meal at Applebee’s - I’d had a shitty day and the waiter was terribly friendly and helpful. Chatted and joked with us, listened sympathetically when we bitched about our day, was very polite about refusing my underage friend’s attempt to order a drink. Plus I’d just gotten some cash for my birthday and was feeling rich.
Slightly OT: hey, Anthracite, do you remember what restaurant it was? I live not far from Chattanooga.
On a recent trip to Washington, my girlfriend and I popped into what used to be my old neighborhood bar in Georgetown. We were waiting on some other Dopers to arrive for dinner, which would be upstairs. It was summer, hot as hell, and we were tired, thirsty, and very much looking forward to having a beer or two.
Now, it’s been several years since I lived there, and I’m just a face in the crowd, so I had no expectations from the bar staff.
We walked in, and the bartender immediately remembered me, even though we’d never really hung out or been friends. He waved us over, set us up with a couple of free rounds and appetizers, and proceeded to talk our ears off. He wanted to hear about what had been going on in my life, he talked about his life and his plans, he gave us more free stuff (including several shots,) and generally acted like we were long-lost friends. It was wonderful, friendly, human service, and he guaranteed that I will not only go out of my way from now on to stop in when I’m in the area, but that I’ll tell my friends about it and get them to do the same (it’s Garrett’s, by the way, and Larry’s a hell of a barkeep.) It made us feel wanted and special.
Larry got a HELLACIOUS tip when we went upstairs for dinner. That kind of service and friendliness deserves to be rewarded.
I know I’ve told this story before, but Larry is the reason we were more than just a little tipsy when we met the other Dopers for dinner. 
I’ll just answer some of these posts at random instead of C&Ping the posts–another day of Applehell, so I’m tired.
I agree that there’s no excuse for bad service, but remember that if you’re eating at the bar, you may be dealing with someone who is dealing with the equivalent of a full, understaffed Friday night at a table. I’ve got 15 seats at my bar, and at times I’ve had up to 10-12 separate checks. That’s like a server with 12 different tables–except that servers never get more than 6. So that means that I’ve got up to 15 people wanting more tea, different dressing, etc, etc. And I’m in middle of a closed horseshoe, so I’m never far enough away that someone doesn’t feel bad calling out to me the second their tea gets to that 1/3 mark whereas they’d probably be more patient if the server were two tables away. Meanwhile, the phone is ringing, and if it rings more than twice, my pointy-haired manager is coming out from surfing the web in his office to bitch about answering the phone. I do my best to take care of everyone (although I know a lot of bartenders who don’t, but I come from a retail/customer service background and it’s hard to shake), but sometimes I just don’t have time to do more than take your order and hit you with another tea.
As far as non-alcoholic drinks, well, I do day bar, so I serve more cokes in a shift than rum & cokes. I will admit that a tea with a meal will get more attention than a water (free) because “I’m waiting for someone to meet me,” because, honestly, the guy with the water ain’t gonna leave me shit, while the guy washing down his steak with an iced tea probably will.
And on that note, I’m going to leave you with a revelation that I never had until I got into this industry: waitstaff is a mercenary bunch. The more expensive your drink or dinner, the better service you’ll get because your 15% is more money. A day is rated by how much money you got, not by how nice your customers were, which manager was on, how much you upsold for the contest, or anything else. If you go someplace regularly and notice another regular getting better service, it’s because the other person’s a better tipper. No more, no less. I don’t like it–I was a regular at Applehell and have several friends who come in to drink but are lousy tippers, and economics require that I spend more time with the regulars I didn’t like because they give me more money.
The Big River Grill. I go there all the time, and I think I’ve had everything on the menu.
Tipping a buck for opening my beer is a bit much, as it takes about 7 seconds from when I ask for it and when it is set down in front of me. So, I usually give a big tip on the first one, and then every third or so, so it averages out. Pouring a beer on tap gets a bit more, and actually making a drink is worth tipping at 25% or whatever, because that involves skill and time.