Random Rants
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We’ve occasionally discussed the restaurant tipping situation in the US on this thread. Last night I went,for the first time, to a new local restaurant that had a B.Y.O.B. policy. On the back of the menu there was a space where they implored you to tip on the alcohol that you had brought. I had never seen that before and I was a bit taken aback by it. If we had a bottle that had to be opened and iced etc., I always take that into consideration when I’m making my final tip calculation. This was a pizza/salads/ wood fired kind of place. The food was really great but next time I’ll just get takeout.
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What's the difference between an Australian and a canoe?
A canoe is more likely to tip. (Told to me by a Canadian)
Just do your best Crocodile Dundee impersonation at the restaurant.
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@Tago-Mago That disappoints me…
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@Jett129 If they opened a bottle of wine, maybe a buck or two.
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Given how the tip system works in the US and Canada, I often tip as I know their wages are not proportionate to the service being provided. However, I have become jaded with systems that tips go to a general pot in which the person I am tipping only gets a percentage of the tip. It’s not a bad system if it was only the backend staff that recieve the tips, but when owner’s and manager’s get a cut then I can’t support the system. Even fast food restaurants have started requesting tips here in which the money goes to a pot and at the end of the week is divided up between the staff. I once asked how much of that pot goes to front end/back end staff and it wasn’t much. The owner took a large proportion of those tips…frankly, fuck that b.s.
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…I do have one caveat to the above: I have had fantastic meals ruined by staff and mediocre meals elevated by them. The level of input is proportional to the tip given. I know we all have bad days, but please consider that a tip is not guaranteed. It’s getting expensive to eat out and we try to choose wisely where we spend our money. A night on the town may be a luxury and the last thing you want is a bad experience. The same is also true, remember that the guy serving you is just trying to make it through the day…treat them with a little respect. As I just said, we all have bad days…
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@goosehd there is a lot of chicanery where they try to make it look like the back of the house is for once getting their due for the experience with these fees, then managers take a cut. So I’m really guarded about this stuff. If cooks and dishwashers and such are getting a living wage alongside the front of the house, great. If managers are skimming it we have a problem.
I do like the “buy the kitchen a beer” thing and hope that you’re actually just giving them tips in those instances. The back of the house has been shafted for a long time by the way tips are set up and I don’t like that.
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All really good points/responses. Going out to eat has gotten really expensive,and one of the ways to sometime mitigate some of the expense is to go to a BYOB establishment. Obviously they felt the need to put something on the menu. I could be wrong,but I can’t imagine anybody seeing that and going what a great idea,wish I had thought of that. Everyone in my group reacted negatively to seeing it. I think the reason being that we all consider ourselves to be generous tippers, and didn’t need/want to be cajoled into tipping on the beer that we brought. Has anyone else ever seen that on a menu?
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@SKT your damn she’d dude!! Maybe seeing it crushed like that helps put the whole thing in perspective too. The important stuff is safe.
In the easy chair with my boots on, melted whiskey in my hand. Could'na been asleep for more than three hours...time to go to work again...
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@Jett129 I have next to zero experience at a BYOB establishment. But if I brought in a six pack and just cracked them open myself, I’d have a hard time being expected to add the $12 bucks I paid for that beer to be expectedly added to the meal tab as well for tip purposes.
Like has been said…we have a policy in our house we call “Tipping from the Heart.” I’ll happily tip 40-50% sometimes if the service was lights out. But the increasing expectation to tip in every fast food joint, tip before the pizza ever hits the door, or just to take my order on a take out meal as a baseline when the service sucks…fuck off!
