Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Splitting a meal


Just because you are splitting a meal, it does not make a 10% tip any more palatable. In fact, it's worse. I've now done the work for two people, and then got shafted extra on the tip. I don't mind that you can't eat much, or you are trying to save money, or you're trying to be romantic. I'm cool with that. But don't screw me at the end.

I have a rule of thumb, I won't leave less than $2 tip for each person at the table if I get solid service. I don't care what the ticket total is. If I go and have desert with 3 friends, and they each only have coffee, my ticket is likely only $12. I'm leaving that server $8 or more. Really. I used their table for the better part of an hour. The server brought us 3 cups of coffee each, made the desert and was pleasant about it. She brought us extra creamers. He tracked down some more Splenda. She cleaned up the 15 empty creamers and 12 empty sugar packets. He had to clean up where Bill spilled his first cup. She had to wait 2o minutes after close for us.

5 comments:

OldSchoolD15 said...

I do the same thing. My friends don't understand why I wait for them to chip in their 75 cent tips, then throw down $6 out of my wallet to make up for their cheap asses.

OldSchoolD15 said...

^that's only an example of relative tipping percentages between my friends and I, not actual tip amounts for a real bill:P

Unknown said...

Yeah, I totally get it. I'm one of those people who, when my friends get up to leave, I tell them I have to go to the bathroom, but really go back to the table and check the tip. Or if I know that a wonderful, but very cheap friend paid the bill I just go hand the server some extra dough.

I wrote a post on my blog about what a tip means to me, if anyone is interested... And yes, I went out of my way to take pictures.

http://halfoceanhalfskyy.blogspot.com/2008/04/to-my-customers.html

Clean ClutterFree Simple said...

Amen! I never waited tables, but I've worked for tips. I had to argue with a friend just last week about the tip. I ended up slipping the waitress a five as I left to avoid further discussion!

Love your blog! Have you read "Last Night at the Lobster"?

CambionXL said...

my god so so so true.. i hate bad tipping friends.