Posted on 08/26/2005 9:02:02 AM PDT by EveningStar
Waiter, there's a service charge on my soup.
Customers at a high-end Manhattan restaurant soon will notice an extra expense when they get their bill, and not only for their soup course.
Beginning Thursday, chef Thomas Keller will charge customers a 20 percent service fee at Per Se, his year-old outpost in the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle, where the views of Central Park are nearly as breathtaking as the prices.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
That's a great idea! Thank you.
Maybe it's time to get a little more assertive.
Exactly.
"20%? Highway robbery, if you ask me."
20% is not robbery in Manhattan, particularly for an upscale eatery. I waited tables many years ago and was only paid in tips. There are certain cultures and ethnicities that don't understand the concept of tipping. I never liked giving good service and getting nothing in return. I agree with an earlier poster, however, who said that then you can't reflect your feelings about bad service. I prefer controlling my own tipping so that, if I don't like the service, I may leave a dime or a quarter. This way the waiter will know that I am dissatisfied. If he complains, I'll just simply explain. If the 20% is mentioned in the menu, then you can simply choose not to eat at the restaurant or pay. Nothing wrong with that.
I have been a waiter, a cook, busboy and have even done table-side service (Flambes, carved Duck etc.) absolutely the worse tippers are teachers, regardless of their nationality.
And just wait while they divy up the bill. Oh my!
Then you have never had service at this level.
Been there, seen that, got the t-shirt.
The truth of the matter is, many, many people do not know how to behave in a restaurant.
What's not been mentioned is that Per Se is one of those restaurants where people are paying with Monopoly Money (expense accounts). The extra charge eliminates any questions that Bernie from accounting may have about a dinner bill (and yes, the guy's name in accounting is always Bernie).
How did you know the career of every customer? Just wondering?
The French Laundry has been open for years and still has better service than any other restaurant or club in the western world.
Boy howdy, I'd drop an extra 20% to taste all of that good stuff
/irony
The French Laundry has been open for years and still has better service than any other restaurant or club in the western world.
FOODIE ALERT!
How in the world do you know what every customer's job is? I don't think I have told three waiters in my entire life what I did for a living!
About 15 years ago the most popular restaurant and toughest reservation to get decided it could get away with an automatic tip. It then went on a steep decline and soon closed.
What about a tip jar for the dry cleaners? Or the the Starbuck's drive thru? Or a tip jar for TCBY? That is tipping out of control!!!!
The service staff will hate this. All of their tips will now be reported to the IRS. Making there jobs much lower paying.
TIP: To Insure Promptness, not to insure payment.
The reasonm is the prices. Diner for 2 at the French Laaundry, with good but not exotic wines will run $750.00/couple, and too many people were taking the choke at adding a $100 to $200 tip to that.
They have a staff of one employee per every three diners served, and you aren't talking about college kids but professional chefs and waitstaff. You can't get that kind of people or service for chump change.
This will pretty much assure that tips over 20% diminish.
The Coldstone Ice Cream servers around here will sing a ditty for you when you tip. A buck gets you a 30 second song. It's amusing.
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