I feel that this style of blog succeeds when, naturally, it is read and enjoyed. Site statistics indicate the number of readers but not their enjoyment and, thus, reader comments, positive or otherwise, being a form of communication, should be an indication of enjoyment. In order to induce temptation to comment, it seems that, occasionally, one needs to be controversial ... hence the subject of this post.
It goes without saying that whenever my cook has the night off (I’m kidding) it is my greatest pleasure to visit one of my favorite restaurants — hopefully, to enjoy the food and write about it afterwards.
There will be other times to include a restaurant review within this blog but, today, I wish to discuss tipping ... a controversial subject, if ever there was one.
Personally, something has to be extremely bad for me to complain to a manager, in fact I cannot remember when I last did. Generally, small problems may be overcome by talking to the server, otherwise, my response is to vary the tip amount. Let me mention four aspects about tipping:
- I have a sense that over the years (or decades) the recommended amount has increased from an average 10% to 20%. This would take into account food, service, and atmospheric quality. Is this acceptable?
- From my experience, it is normal for tips to be collected together and shared with servers and cooks at the end of the day, but I have heard that the maitre d’ and the executive chef should be excluded, as well as the owner/manager. After all, they should be receiving a reasonable salary/income.
- My favorite comment about tipping is the calculation of the tip. I believe that the calculation should be made on the total before tax. I have heard some people say that it hardly makes a difference, but a fine dining dinner for two people could easily total $100.00 (before tax) thus, with tax and a 20% tip this should total $133.00. Then, the calculation after tax would be $113.00, plus a 20% tip should bring the total to $135.60 ... thus, the difference could pay for my bus fare home. Call me Scrooge ... but a controversial Scrooge!
What are your views on this subject?
In order to provide additional emphasis on the last sentence, I should point out that although the $2 difference seems small, with 50 customers it equals $100, a worthy sum ... that could be regarded as Revenue Canada property.
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