Shady. Tipping. Badly.

You serve a lot of pro athletes or celebrities? I'd say there's a lot of them who feel a bit more entitled than the waiter. Didn't waiter, but had buddies who tended bar and heard stories of some generous athletes and some cheap dirtbags.

 

20% is the new standard but the tipping system is ridiculous

I first worked many years ago in the Grill Room in the Hotel Baur au Lac in Zurich 15% service was added to each bill and you only tipped if the service and/or food was stupendous.

The 15% service was pooled and portioned out according to your job.

Was and is a perfectly reasonable arrangement.

 

Charlie Sheen, that paragon of civic virtue, has stepped up with a $1,000 tip for the server.

What a guy.

 

Sheen has many vices but at least acts like these show he's not all bad.

 

I had a co-anchor who, just before Facebook/social media blew up, went out to eat and tipped 10%.

Some waitress then launched into her on message boards. To this day, if you look the former co-anchor's name, that episode from 2005 still shows up on her first Google page.

While I am no pro athlete, as a TV news anchor, I know the eyes are always, always on me when we eat out. That's fine. The downside is that I HAVE to tip a minimum of 20%, regardless of how crummy the service or the food is. I won't talk to a manager if the experience is terrible. How do I know if the manager isn't some bitter person with an art history degree all resentful that he or she didn't find a job related to what they wanted to do?

This is for the exact reason that I don't want someone to say I was a pompous ass in public.

Also why I ALWAYS sign the tip on the slip (I used to always tip in cash - as a former pizza driver, I always liked cash tips) to keep a record that I did tip.

Now when I receive lousy food or service, I simply don't go back. Too risky in the social media era of being called out for being cheap or entitled even if you're "in the right".

McCoy should have tipped the damn 15% and been done with it. The restaurant should have NEVER outed him. Amateur move.

 

If it's a high school or college kid and it's substandard service, I'll show leniency.
I think a really good bartender should always be tipped above and beyond.
And I'll be watching to see if he or she knows how properly to pour a beer.

 

I have a few issues with tipping procedures.

First, if you get bad service, don't tip at all. It's encouraging bad behavior. It better be bad, though. One thing I will never tolerate is rudeness by the wait staff.

Another thing I've never understood is why tips are based on percentage. If I get excellent service with a $10 sandwich, why should that person get less of a tip than a person that serves me a $30 steak with a shitty attitude?

 

Obviously, Sheen is a lunatic, but to his credit, he is also known for being a very generous lunatic.

 

McCoy has always been an ass clown, going back to his days at Bishop McDevitt. He didn't have the best of reputations at Pitt either. This comes as a shock to no one.

 

That's the downside of being a celebrity; access. That's the bargain, you want to live anonymously? Get a job where you are anonymous. IMHO you don't get to enjoy the fruits of your celebrity (substantial pay) then complain about not being able to lead a "normal" life.

 

Early in my career a NFL quarterback came into a steakhouse with several friends. He wasn't from the local team, but had played college in the area. While the meal wasn't comped, they asked for more of several expensive appetizers and sides and were not charged for them. The restaurant was super busy and the demands of the table were enough that the waiter had to have someone else help cover a couple of his tables. The party was there for three hours.

I was at the bar with another writer. The waiter came to the bar looking completely frazzled and he handed the bill to the bartender. There was a line drawn through the tip portion. The bartender started freaking out and said, "Did you say something about it?" and the waiter just threw his hands in the air.

The bartender ran out of the restaurant and confronted the player. Apparently, he said, "I didn't know if you were aware, but the tip wasn't included in the bill and the player just kind of pushed past him.

The bartender and the manager were talking about what had happened and the bartender said, "Do you think something bad happened?" and the manager said at one point he went over to the table to see how everything was going and the guys in the party were just heaping praise on the waiter.

A few minutes later, a guy walked up to the manager and said, "Can you give this to the waiter who got stiffed?" I didn't recognize the guy but he was on the local hockey team and a few of the players who were there threw in $200 for the waiter.

The funniest part of the night (to me at least) was that this got written up in the paper a few days later, in a cityside man-about-town column that would talk about what celebs were in town, etc., but not in our paper. The other writer, idiot that he is told our SE, "Oh yeah, we were there, we saw the whole thing go down."

SE was not happy with either one of us. I remember him yelling, "We got scooped and two of my dipshit writers watched it happen."

 

I agree, but to be fair, I read the story and didn't see McCoy complaining about not being able to live a normal life. He just tweeted back that the service was terrible.