Thread: Tip or no?

Originally Posted by azjoe

Good point. I suspect the tipping percent custom is a throwback to earlier times when dining often was a lengthy experience involving many courses served over several hours... so, the more courses the higher the price of the meal and the more work for the waiter.

I think you're on the right track here Joe. I spent most of a year doing room service at a five diamond hotel. We had to know how to properly set a formal table and keep it set throughout a meal. We had to know how to serve wine and champagne in the classic manner. We had to know what to do with guest’s napkins, etc. There's a whole "formal" side of things that we really don't see anymore. Dining has become much more casual in recent years, even at high end places.

Jordan

Originally Posted by azjoe

As an aside, I've always wondered where the custom of keeping one's beverage glass "topped off" came from and why that constitutes good service? Topping off is NOT what I want a good waitperson to do. My usual beverage with the meal is several glasses of iced tea w/lemon and artificial sweetener. I'd much prefer they bring me a new glass of tea with fresh lemon whenever mine is nearly empty. Constantly topping it off doesn't add additional lemon and makes regulating the sweetener a PITA. I leave the empty sweetener packet in plain sight so the server knows, but it zooms over most of their heads and I eventually have to tell them. I always pass on desert, but if others at my table partake I'll have a couple cups of coffee while we talk and they eat. I use sweetener in my coffee too... again, they insist on topping it off, even if we had a discussion about the iced tea... arrrgh! I find that a good waitperson accommodates this automatically, but most don't seem to "get it"... and it matters not whether I'm dining at Denny's or the Ritz.

thats the kind of little thing that really earns the tip from me. I remember one place that didn't have sweet-n-low on the table, my mom's sweetener of choice so she, as was her custom, pulled some out of her purse. The waiter served her next cup, not refilling the glass with two proper sweetener packets on the saucer with it. He earned a good tip, because he didn't have to ask he just knew what would make us happy. A lesser tip in the same situation would be a waiter who took our sugar packet bowl to refill it in the kitchen. Lower than that on the tip scale would be a waiter who brought packets and filled it at the table. the lowest would be one who didn't notice at all. A good tip could also be earned if the waiter apologized on behalf of the restaurant for not having the correct packets in stock though it is only worth a tip if we didn't have to ask about it..