Random Rants
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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!
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BYO here there is always a corkage fee per bottle normally $10-$20 which is added even if the establishment doesn’t even touch the bottle they do provide the glasses and venue where it’s consumed
As for tipping not a chance when most of the time workers will be on late night or Sunday penalty rates and will be earning over $60 an hour -
Tips will drive you crazy))) Guys, it's easier for me to drink vodka at home with scrambled eggs. Restaurants are a show-off
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I am in France at moment, tipping is not a thing. If I do round the bill up a few bucks, it’s met with a certain amount of surprise, if I don’t, it really is no big deal. As a visitor to the US, tipping is super stressful. FFS just be a civilised country and pay your staff a fair wage.
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@Giles said in Random Rants:
I am in France at moment, tipping is not a thing. If I do round the bill up a few bucks, it’s met with a certain amount of surprise, if I don’t, it really is no big deal. As a visitor to the US, tipping is super stressful. FFS just be a civilised country and pay your staff a fair wage.
I can't upvote this enough. Tipping is meant to be a bit extra for great service, not an excuse for underpaying staff.
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The stress of knowing who and how much to tip in the US genuinely removes all enjoyment from any eating and drinking experience. I have loved all my trips over there but the tipping culture and expectation is ridiculous.
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I like tipping to express that I appreciate someone's service and hospitality. But then it's up to me if and how much I tip. I very much dislike it if there is any kind of obligation. And I find it hard to bear when it's there to bring the salary of someone who works hard up to a decent level because the exploitative employer doesn't do it himself. There are efforts recognizable over here in Europe that tipping is becoming an obligation, at least in gastronomy. I hope it's not going to work and remains a sign of appreciation.
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Tipping is such a long-lived institution here in the US that it’s not a matter of businesses “underpaying”. There is a tipped minimum wage that is orders of magnitude lower than the minimum in other industries. It’s $2.13 per hour. Generations of restaurants have built this labor cost into their operations budgets. They don’t really decide to do it—most places couldn’t operate without it without lots of other changes throughout the industry. In places where they’ve raised that minimum, it’s had to be done slowly, and with tax breaks to defray the cost until they could build it in.
There are very few places that have decided to pay more just because it’s the right thing to do.
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