tipping

$2-3

This may be insane, but I think the extra dollar I give the Waffle House waitress on my $7.59 ($3) breakfast makes almost no difference to me but probably brightens her day because at least one person was marginally nicer than usual?

tipping very attractive waitstaff more than your usual% - classic or sad?

Sad, but apparently we do this subconsciously as well.

worked with a super-cute girl who was a dance major, she always took off her butt towel when she had a table of men, claimed that she didn't realize she did so.

xp yeah milo i've always kind of thought that--like it everyone rounded up on their tips that waitress would see a big benefit compared to all our small losses?

Yes, precisely. Why do I suspect that this has deeper implications regarding one's political affiliation?

butt towel? what kinda restaurant was this

i am confused about the connection between butt towel and being a dance major

dancing makes your butt sweaty I guess

butt towel - folded napkin waiters carry on the back of their apron to clean up spills, wipe hands, etc.

dance major - she had a rockin' booty

got it

^^^see, I understood completely what was going on here.

I have a pretty fast and hard 1$ per 5$ rule for meals (inc drinks) and $1 per drink for drinks alone. My wife, if I would let her, would likely tip 100% all of the time because she briefly worked as a waitress. I have actually used the good vs bad service rule to decide when I tipped pre- or post-tax; I have also used the "woah she is cute" rule.

xp: kinda confused as to how ppl were confused by milo's story? unless it was comedy naivety

i was genuinely confused, let's not dwell on how dumb i am

not everyone is familiar with the term "butt towel"

comedy naivety on ilx?

i sort of figured out butt towel from context clues but i didn't know dance major was code for nice butt! then i was like, was it a restaurant/dance studio? what is the significance of the dancing?

lots of xps - Chicago has a 10% sales tax, incl. on food/drinks at restaurants, so it can make a significant difference when calculating the tip. I basically will calculate tip based on the pre-tax bill if I didn't like the service, and calculate tip based on the bill w/ tax if I did like the service.

Jeff and I went out to dinner with a causal acquaintance and her husband one night (they were buying us dinner for some reason) and the husband made a big production about how it is improper to tip on alcohol sales at a restaurant, and that you should only calculate the tip based on the food bill, minus booze, which he then proceeded to do despite our pleas to let us leave the tip, as he had been so generous with the bill. I have no idea where he got that crazy idea, but we were mortified. And if anybody had pulled that bullshit on me during my server days, I would have been really, really grumpy about it.

brb, opening a potato restaurant/dance studio covered in Jennifer Beals iconography

it will be called Mashdance

xp: I used to do that but then realized it was bullshit

I just thought the term 'butt towel' was funny, that's all

sorry that you disagree

Fuck any asshole who doesn't tip on booze.

dance major = somehow knows to do handsprings/prove bendiness whenever the male gaze 'pon dem.

Oh no Jenny! The only reason I ever used to shill drinks is it was the easiest way to double your tip in a jiff (and it was pretty lol in Mormon country as it was way easier to get someone to buy a strawberry lemonade than a beer).

dance major = somehow knows to do handsprings/prove bendiness whenever the male gaze 'pon dem.

that actually describes the male dance majors I know much more accurately than the female dance majors I know

And the most flagrant examples of both sexes generally go to Sarah Lawrence.

Abbot, I know!!! At the redneck bar where I worked, the only way I was able to make anything even vaguely resembling a living was by dumping lots of Bud Light down their gullets. Plus then in the semi-find dining setting, the bottles of wine and cocktails are the real money makers.

I took a totally unscientific poll after that dinner, and most people I knew (incl. some long-timer servers) had never heard of such a practice. Conclusion: dude is wicked cheap (which is a sad conclusion because dude was a six-figure big law associate).

I think the idea that these iron laws of tipping exist is pretty silly.

I mean it comes down to: this person is getting you stuff and you want to say thanks. 15%ish is the socially accepted guideline, but I mean, if I order a $30 steak instead of a $5 salad and all the waiter has to do is bring me the plate, I don't think the waiter really deserves 6x the tip. so I tend to overtip in case #2 and undertip in case #1.

Ugh I just keep thinking of that episode of Friends where Rachel's dad (?) took her and Ross out to dinner and paid for all the huge meal, booze etc but was leaving a stingy tip, so Ross tried to sneak some cash down to bump up the tip and Rachel's dad was all "OH YOU THINK I'M A CHEAPSKATE, PAY FOR THE WHOLE THING YOURSELF IF YOU'RE SO AMAZING"

When a family member visited us in the US it was like that at every meal, without the accusations of cheapskating but it was kind of implied. At least he had the excuse he wasn't from here.

a 20 percent tip on a 5 dollar salad alone is one dollar

tipping scales linearly, sorry iatee but you are a disgusting savage when it comes to tipping ;_;

also that is not "all the waiter has to do"

I was kind of embarrassed to go out for a meal w/some friends & they all were busting out their little cell phone tip calculators so they could come up w/exactly $0.78 as the 20% tip. And asking the server for change (coins from dollars!) so they cld leave that exact amount for him. Which would not have been so bad if he hadn't had to come up w/8 individual checks, and if we hadn't all been sitting there for *three hours.* I left him over 1000% tip (still not that much) bcz I felt so bad about my friends leaving him a little pile of pocket change.

I mean over 100%

my range of tipping is like 0-30 tbh

iatee you know that waiters are paid less than minimum wage and have to make it up through tips, right?

one thing I am ruthless on is getting short-changed; if that happens, I don't tip, period

(in this age of credit/debit cards, that rarely happens, tho)

my waiter friends make more money than my non-waiter friends who are in crappy jobs, so I don't have much pity over that

but yes, I do know that max

i hope all yr waiters go pee in yr salad

OTOH have you ever had servers give you back more? Say they owe you $10.38, and they give you back $11. A pretty clear ploy for a bigger tip but also a nice gesture of potentially reciprocal generosity. This happened to my friend & she was so confused she just left the extra $0.62 as a tip & nothing else. I covered for her once again. I think I need to quit going to restaurants w/this girl.

I tip 20% on the total and only vary if the service is horrible (in which case I may not tip - but only if it's really egregious) or just bad (15%) and that's very, very rare. I hardly even think about tipping, it's just automatic.

She is a simple girl who is used to eating at Chipotle.

my waiter friends make more money than my non-waiter friends who are in crappy jobs, so I don't have much pity over that

― iatee, Monday, March 1, 2010 2:27 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

are you only eating at restaurants where your watier friends are working, and only getting served by your waiter friends?

huh?

nobody I know works at fancy restaurants

and I don't eat at any

im just saying--your waiter friends salaries arent necessarily indicative of waiter salaries in general. and if your non-waiter friends are getting paid less than your waiter friends, it doesnt make it ok to pay waiters less--it makes it wrong that your non-waiter friends arent getting paid enough