[Our managers did teach us the finer points of "upselling." It wasn't to be sleazy or to worm more money out of our customers. We were simply doing our job. All of you sound like great tippers, but the reality is that most people (I said most) only tip about 10%.
I don't know about you, Lark, but now that I have a "real" job again, I ALWAYS make it a point to make my server's day by overtipping. On there are occasion someone did that for me, I didn't think, "Oooh, yeah... sucker!" I thought, "Oh, thank you so much! Now I'm that much closer to making my car payment."
Just something to think about.[/B]
I too have waited tables -- and for much less than $2.65 an hour! (Although I did get free dinner most nights if I had time to eat it!) I have had to do upselling myself, and hated it probably more than the diners. I'm a heavy tipper. For example, if I have stayed twice as long at a bar table as I think is reasonable in the California Grill, I have no problem with a 35-40 percent tip, and I usually tell the waiter early on that's what I'm doing so they don't stress out about it. Same if I call room service just for a $6.00 bowl of soup. By the same token, if the meal has been very extravaggent and I've given in to the upselling, I usually feel like 18 percent is just fine.
The point of my post was not to be critical of waiters; indeed, it was the opposite. My point was that they way we tip at restaurants benefits the restaurant, creates unpleasant upselling, and puts too much of a premium on the price of our particular food and not enough emphasis on what the waiter does. I want the waiter in my corner, whether I order the salmon or the salad, and it seems a tip should reflect that the salad is just as much work (or the converse).
Not saying there's a better solution than percentage based tipping. Just was sort of raising the issue for discussion.
