Dahlink said she'd be interested in hearing about Restaurant Week from the server's point of view. I thought that was a good idea, and it deserved a separate entry to post under, so here it is.
And by the way, when I created the link to the site, I noticed that places extending the specials for at least another week are now noted there.
I'm curious about what people did about tipping during Restaurant Week. The issue is whether you should tip on the actual check, or on what it would have been if it weren't Restaurant Week.
Here are some of my thoughts:...
Dinner at the new Mosaic in Pass-A-Grille turned out to be quite an experience, and not a good one. But it raised an interesting and more general question.
There weren't that many tables occupied, and although we got sangria, bread, and soup pretty quickly, we then waited and waited and waited for our main courses. Clearly the kitchen was in the weeds, but instead of saying something, the waitress carefully avoided our eyes. She never even stopped by to ask if we wanted more sangria, water, or bread. ...
A few years ago when I was writing a story on tipping, I interviewed Michael Lynn, an associate professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration who has studied the subject for years. My daughter was working as a waitress in Washington at the time, and when I told her about Lynn she thought she'd give some of his techniques to increase tips a try. Yes, they worked.
Now he's offering a free pamphlet for servers about his research. (If it helps, you can send him a "tip.") It's also interesting reading for the rest of us. Here's the link.
Some of his "tip enhancing actions" seem pretty off the wall, but he says he's got the data to back them up. For instance, waitresses who wore a flower in their hair saw a 17 percent increase in tips. (He adds that many of these wouldn't be appropriate for very formal restaurants.)
I won't list them all, but here are some of the more surprising ones: ...
(Nanine Hartzenbusch/Sun Photographer)
A reader e-mailed me asking if he had to tip more for a very expensive bottle of wine when the waiter was basically doing the same work as he would be if he were opening a bottle of two-buck Chuck. (He didn't phrase it exactly that way.)
The short answer is yes. If you're going to be extravagant about your wine choice, you might as well be extravagant with your tipping. And I hate to tell you this, but if the sommelier has spent some time with you and been helpful, you should tip him or her separately. I've heard both 15 to 20 percent of the wine bill and $10 as suggested tips; but in any case, give it to him or her in cash (the better choice) or as a separate credit card charge.
(Monica Lopossay/Sun Photographer)
These days we not only have to contend with entree creep when we eat out, we also have tipping creep. (Entree prices creep, that is -- the fact that they have crept up in the past couple of years so anything under $20 now seems moderate, even inexpensive.)
Anyway, I was struck by tipping creep once again when I ate at a high-end restaurant last night and was figuring out the tip on a large check. ...
