tipping

So I will be paying a visit to the land of tipping next week. So remind this poor soldier, what do you tip in bars? In the distant past I remember it being something like one dollar a round, but I bet this has changed.

Also, is 15% the minimum tip in restaurants now?

Yes. 20% for very good service.

Drinks: a dollar a drink for the first round, unless you're buying like six drinks - then you could get away with tipping like three dollars. A dollar or two per round after that.

cheers.

was it always 15% minimum in restaurants?

it's mostly been 15% in my lifetime -- most servers take that to mean they were only ok though.

10% for lunch, which my parents have adhered to rigorously

i think the only times I've ever left 10% is where I've been left to nurse one beverage the entire meal (when it wasn't busy) or a server acted like a complete dick. which tbf was pretty rare.

I do hate though how at Golden Corral how you can't add the tip to your credit card. Twice I wound up there and forgot I needed cash to tip and wound up either having to stiff the waiter or leave a ridiculous assortment of coins.

At the danger of reactivating the great ILX Tipping debate, why do you leave any tip if the server acted like a complete dick?

Because tips are often pooled, with dishwashers and other staff getting tipouts from the tips collected by the waitstaff (and these tipouts often explicitly make up part of their wages, which otherwise would be below minimum wage)

i.e. by stiffing the waitron you stiff other innocent parties

About tipping calculators...all of you seem to detest them. I use them so that I don't put down too small of a tip.

10%, double it, adjust down if required = easy

wish the government would reform restaurant laws already

It's 18% here, and I have dyscalcula. (I do add a random quarter or two.) Maybe I could start doing 20%, at least so I won't be seen with a tip calculator.

I am slightly disappointed that Tracer Hand has offered a perfectly reasonable explanation for why we should still tip bad waiters.

I dunno if it's perfectly reasonable, it's a terrible system that sucks mightily, but you have to do it.

christine!! the difference between 18% and 20% on a bill of $50 is one dollar! no need for calculator, just round down to the nearest even amount.

I'm married to a man who complains about $12 chinese buffet bills, so I'll probably never have a $50 restaurant bill in my entire life. But I will try out your method.

My sister in England claims that not only are you not encouraged to tip there, but that some servers will take it as an insult. True/false?

Reportedly one reason Grant Achatz's new restaurant Next introduced a novel method of reservation by ticket is that it allows a more equitable (and legal) distribution of (mandatory) service charge among all the staff, front and back of the house, which tax law currently prohibits (I think).

haha false afaik, i tip at pretty much every meal

(altho i've only been in england for abt 4 years so maybe i've been doing it wrong + offending ppl)

My sister in England claims that not only are you not encouraged to tip there, but that some servers will take it as an insult. True/false?

Maybe it makes them feel like servants?

What do you guys think is customary for buffets? I usually do just like, a buck (if it's $7.95 or whatever), since all the server really does is give you your drink and take plates away. Or do you tip the same?

tip a few dollars, also depends on the ethnicity of the buffet

Buffet tip should be at least two bucks a person, more if the server was somehow distinctly great, and if it's some sort of upscale, pricey buffet thing then adjust those numbers because it's insulting to tip $2 on a $30 check no matter what. Although I have no idea what kind of buffet that would be! (Up front: I wait tables for a living. And it's in a hotel, so to be fair, there are opportunities to be good that go beyond keeping on top of drink refills and handling the check(s) quickly etc - - people ask for directions and recommendations in town and so on.)

My opinion here is also shaped by working in a place that only does buffet for breakfast on the weekends, which are hectic, long, break-free shifts in comparison to table service periods, just because the volume of customers goes way up without there necessarily being more servers on the floor. So the server may actually be doing way more work in general to keep the general dining experience afloat. Yeah, less interaction with you individually, and none of the above is your idea, but the fact that you were able to get a clean table quickly, your drinks regularly refilled without you having to ask, the dirty plates out from under your elbows fast, your checks split up and cashed out promptly.... all of that is down to the staff generally staying on top of everything.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that, if it's just a buck a head, they are doing a lot more sweating and running around in order to keep you fed, and getting tipped less on it.

This is also where that "you're tipping the support team as well" thing comes into play. We don't do that at my place but lord, I wish we had at least one busser/food-runner on buffet shifts. We had that at a place I used to work at and things went a lot smoother, I didn't mind tipping those guys out in the slightest.

I tip the same.

for the record I don't think I've ever gotten a waitress who was able to refill the drinks "on time"...usually you have to wait 5-10 minutes. but I'm just talking about one place in particular; i guess maybe it shouldn't be any different? I dunno...I've had this debate before, in the end the whole culture of tipping is kinda ridiculous

10%, double it, adjust down if required = easy

― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 28 April 2011 12:05 (4 hours ago) Bookmark

^^^ been doin this for years

for the record I don't think I've ever gotten a waitress who was able to refill the drinks "on time"...usually you have to wait 5-10 minutes.

Well, that's lousy! But I take pride in being a big refill-anticipator. You find satisfaction in the small things in this line of work I guess.

tip a few dollars, also depends on the ethnicity of the buffet

????

re. the ethnicity thing.

I have recently been chided by my girlfriend, an ex-barista, for not routinely tipping at coffee shops. I mean, sometimes I throw a buck in the tip jar, but I haven't -- until now -- been routinely doing a dollar-a-drink like I do at bars. GF notes that making a cappuccino or espresso is more work than pulling a pint, and barista wages are no more than bartender wages, so tips should be commensurate. This makes sense to me and now I feel guilty.

(and I just read the barista tipping guide up above, which I'm sure my girlfriend would endorse)

I don't feel guilty! They're not waitstaff, and I don't tip the guy who makes my sandwich at the deli.

Yeah, I mean ... where the line exactly is between "server" and "service employee" is hard to say. But I get the analogy to bartenders. Especially if you're actually drinking the coffee at the coffeeshop. Getting it to go might be more like getting food to go (when I usually don't tip, except maybe a buck or so).

But anyway. More to the point for me is my girlfriend will think I'm a Bad Person if I don't tip in coffee shops, so that's worth avoiding.

A buck! A buck is what I would tip for a cocktail, you say it like that's the LEAST you would put in. This is a fucked up world in which coffee servers need to be tipped. Not to say that frothing milk and making lattes and stuff isn't work, but...how is the CUSTOMER supposed to know that their employer isn't paying them minimum wage??

I meant I tip a buck or so for pick-up food, not coffee. (Though there's probably a whole etiquette discussion there, too.)

And I think baristas really are supposed to make minimum wage. Whether they do or not might vary, I don't know. Otoh, minimum wage isn't much.

i tip baristas, the cute ones at least

whenever I tip a barista, they always say "why are you pushing me"

No, but wait a second: the mandate to tip servers/waitstaff is because there's a pre-existing labor model in place in which they are paid WELL under min wage under the assumption that tips will make up the difference (and potentially more). We don't tip them JUST BECAUSE they don't make "a lot" of money. There's a specific tacit agreement.

Making min wage is, god knows, not a comfortable place to be in any way, but it's not up to the customers to make it up to the servers?

it's not. that's why you don't have to tip baristas.

...Which is what I'm saying. Tipsy has personal reasons to keep his gf sweet and happy by being not-an-asshole in her eyes, so he tips. I'm kind of reacting to the suggestion that we should all be doing it. Because I'm reactionary like that, at least on days ending in -y and on which I'm really really bored.

I tip for a complicated coffee drink and/or food that requires prep but not for drip coffee and a muffin on a plate.

I wouldn't argue that's the right way to do it, mind you. It's just the way I roll. There's a sandwich shop in my building and I sometimes stop for a drip coffee ($1.77) and I never put he change in the change jar, because it's like the arbitrary line I've drawn, and the cashier hates me.

yeah i mean i usually do it if it's convenient (i.e. i pay with a card and there's a signable receipt with a tip space) but i don't really feel bad if i don't do it.

the beginning of this thread was funny

A buck! A buck is what I would tip for a cocktail, you say it like that's the LEAST you would put in. This is a fucked up world in which coffee servers need to be tipped.

you do see how there's more work in a latte than a beer though, right?

whenever I tip a barista, they always say "why are you pushing me"

― Dreaded Burrito Gang (DJP), Thursday, April 28, 2011 5:00 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i hope this post doesn't get lost

I SAID A COCKTAIL. THERE'S MORE WORK IN THAT TOO.

I'M GLAD WE AGREE.

BUT EVEN SO, IF IT WERE A WELL MADE COCKTAIL WITH GOOD SPIRITS I WOULD PROB DROP A COUPLE BUCKS, AND SO I AM COMING INTO ALIGNMENT WITH THE ARGUMENT THAT I SHOULD DROP A COUPLE BUCKS FOR A GOOD COMPLICATED COFFEE DRINK AND MAYBE DROP A GEORGE FOR A BLACK COFFEE.