Restaurant ethics

No, but she had a beard

 

One way you can tell your friends is ...

Look, I'm not mad, but ... think of how your business is going to suffer if you're doing this to folks that aren't your friends and NOT required to come here.

 

Actually, I'd be doubly mad, because they passed off something else as their house wine without saying so. They did that before the bill ever got to you.

Screw 'em.

 

That's exactly the instance where a smaller tip is warranted. Instead of $5, she gets $3. Message delivered.

 

I would have taken it up with the waitress first. If and when I didn't get anywhere with her, I would have informed your friends of what had transpired. I would be nice as possible but get the point across to them that you don't appreciate this.

 

Your problem is with the waitress, not the owners — unless you have reason to believe this is a common practice that's encouraged by management.

Tip the waitress 5 percent and she'll get the message pronto.

 

'Fess up. You were texting while penis pumping, weren't you?

 

go in the can and upper deck them.

 

I'd be Sierra Pissed.

 

How did the waitress explain it? Was she all snotty and rude or did she seem apologetic? Either way, she CANNOT charge you more without telling you ahead of time.
The only other thing I wonder is if the bar is its own entity in the place. If it is, there is a chance she told the bartender she needed a pinot assuming he would know she meant the house because that is the norm, and he just gave her the expensive one and keyed in the order (computerized is it?) and she found out after you alerted her, which puts her in the middle.

 

Thanks for the thoughts, y'all. Our response was to leave a bit smaller tip than normal (about 15% compared with our normal 20%+). I'll also mention the incident to one of the owners, next time I see them.

The waitress, herself, was neither snotty nor apologetic when she "explained" the upcharge. She was, basically, aloof. That annoyed us.

For the record, our daughter has been a restaurant manager for several years and was appalled at the incident. She felt -- as did most of you -- that the waitress should have either warned us ahead of time (if she knew they were out of the house pinot) or just charged us for the house wine even if she served us something better.

 

I would have asked the waitress to revise the bill and explain why.