Next time you’re in a bar and lookin’ for somethin’ to toast, Don’t forget our friend who deserves it the most. The bartender listens to our problems and deals with our weird trips. And tries to make a living depending on our [...]]]>

from CnewsPubs.com – Opinion
Date August 24 2008 | Topic: Randall Grantham

Next time you’re in a bar and lookin’ for somethin’ to toast,
Don’t forget our friend who deserves it the most.
The bartender listens to our problems and deals with our weird trips.
And tries to make a living depending on our tips.
So hard to be a bartender.
Blues for Bartenders–Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin

By Randall Grantham, Community Columnist

People have been asking me to write this article for years. Even before the current economic downturn, this was a subject near and dear to the hearts of many employees who we come into contact with on a daily basis. These workers are suffering from the stumbling economy to a greater extent than everyone else (except those who have no jobs at all). And they’ve frequently asked me to address this issue.

Who are these people? They are the waiters and servers at your favorite restaurant. They are the people who bring you your food and drink. They have the power in their hands to make sure it’s served at the proper time and temperature. Or to have it served with that little something extra, that you may or may not have requested.

Most every other worker in the US and in the state of Florida has the right to receive a mandated minimum wage of $6.55 or $6.79 per hour, respectively. The workers who are on the front lines and also receive tips from customers need only be paid $3.77 in Florida or $2.13 by federal law.

This economic not-a-recession has cut through all of the workplace. Construction is down. Retail shopping has taken a hit. Real estate sales are low but recovering a bit. If you work in those sectors and can get work, your pay is pretty consistent.

What is happening in the food service industry is that people are still going out, yet they are cutting back when it comes to tips. This is especially true when you factor in the higher prices that are being charged on the menu as a result of the higher expenses that the restaurant business has to pay. What this means is that people are saving money on the backs of those who can afford it least!

I wasn’t always a good tipper. I used to be a terrible tipper, a cheapskate, a tight-wad. Who knows how many times somebody may have spit in my food. But then, I had an epiphany. It happened in Old Homosassa at a drive-thru liquor store.

We had run out of vodka and took the short drive to the bar/restaurant/liquor store by the old Sugar Mill ruins. (I won’t name the place, but if you can’t find it with those hints, stay home.) After we ordered the bottle and handed the attendant the money through the drive-up window, we were waiting for our change. I remember my wife telling me to tip the guy and I questioned her. “Why should I tip the drive-thru liquor store worker?” She insisted I tip the guy and I reluctantly gave him one dollar.

The next night we were out at one of the other local hangouts and happened to see the same guy who had waited on us at the liquor store. He waved at us and, the next thing I know, the waitress was bringing us two more drinks — compliments of our friend from the night before.

A $1 tip earned us two cocktails. That’s what I call a good return on an investment.

I’m not saying that this will happen to you. These servers are often single mothers, working students or people working a second job to support their families. They need and deserve these tips. The employers aren’t paying them squat and tips are assumed to make up the difference. Plus, as my experience shows, it’s good Karma.

This doesn’t necessarily apply to bartenders at your favorite drinking establishment. There, according to some in management (Bonnie), the people behind the bar make more than the managers directly above them. In that instance the heftiness of the tip is in your interest — if you want to be served promptly and would like some alcohol in your drink.

Overall, the rule is, “If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to go out.”

Forget Obama vs. McCain or the fact that the Olympics are two days out.

The hot topic in Harrisburg this week revolves around a waiter, a bartender and the owner of a restaurant on a prime piece of property on Second Street.

If you’ve [...]]]>

Wednesday, August 06, 2008
BY NANCY ESHELMAN
Of The Patriot-News

Forget Obama vs. McCain or the fact that the Olympics are two days out.

The hot topic in Harrisburg this week revolves around a waiter, a bartender and the owner of a restaurant on a prime piece of property on Second Street.

If you’ve been sleeping, here’s the capsulated version: Patriot-News reporter Daniel Victor went to Spice, on the corner of Locust Street, at lunchtime last week to ask if the economy was hurting servers’ tips. Bartender Molly Turner, 38, and waiter John Burkholder, 26, said yes indeed.

The story ran Sunday, and both were fired Monday.

Victor wasn’t around the newsroom Monday so the fallout landed in my lap. Turner, a daytime manager as well as a bartender, was not only fired — she was fired up. Burkholder was more puzzled than anything since the executive chef had asked him to speak to Victor.

On Tuesday, the story about the two of them being fired ran on the front page. The comment section of Pennlive.com lit up like the opening ceremonies in Beijing. The message light on my telephone blinked all day, despite my efforts to keep the line clear. The inbox on my e-mail was as jammed as the post office at Christmas.

Everybody, it seems, had something to say about (dare I call it this?) Spicegate.

Even Gene Stilp got into the act. He of the pink pig, Bonusgate, and “beauty” contests on the Capitol steps put on his straw hat, picked up a black-and-white sign and marched back and forth in front of Spice during the lunch hour.

His intention, he said, was not to discourage people from eating at the restaurant, but to encourage them to let management know that Turner and Burkholder should get their jobs back.

Of course, not everyone agrees with him.

In Victor’s original article, Burkholder said, “You have to pretty much be the best server ever and make them feel like crap for leaving you anything less than you deserve.”

What he meant was that waiters have to work really hard so customers will feel badly if they don’t leave a generous tip.

Some people, including Spice owner Eric Desrosiers, didn’t like that attitude.

“We do not teach or permit our servers to use guilt or other tactics to earn more gratuity,” he said in a prepared statement.

One of my many, many, many callers — a woman — said that statement alone should have gotten Burkholder fired. But she didn’t think Turner should have gotten the boot.

Others disagreed, strongly, saying Turner needed to go but Burkholder didn’t.

In Sunday’s paper, Turner was quoted as saying, “If you can’t afford to come out, then don’t come out.”

That didn’t sit well with a woman who wrote: “The only thing I remember about Sunday’s paper — the only thing — were the sentiments of Molly Turner. If you can’t afford to tip the way she expects, rather than deserves, me thinks, then stay at home. Ouch!”

That touched a nerve with Desrosiers as well, whose statement said, “We welcome all customers regardless of what they can afford to tip.”

Stilp and some readers thought the owner overreacted and should have rebuked his employees, not fired them. A few people threatened never to eat at Spice. Still others thought Desrosiers did the right thing.

“The CEO was showing his customers that people with bad attitudes won’t be serving them on their visit to his establishment. That’s good business,” one person wrote.

“Spice is going to reap benefits from this. I have heard several people say they will go there purposely now and support the restaurant that supports its customers,” the writer said.

Desrosiers, who’s been out of town, said he’s kept up with the debate and stands by his decision. The employees weren’t fired for talking to the press, he said in a faxed statement Tuesday, “but rather the message that was conveyed to its patrons by their comments.”

Of course, at least one or two readers, as they examined the thing from every side, decided to put the blame for this whole episode on The Patriot-News.

“Knowing how the press operates,” one of them wrote, “the reporter probably asked them questions to provoke them to say something about getting lousy tips, so their statements would support his story.”

Yeah, blame it on the press. It’s been a slow summer. We needed this to spice it up.

NANCY ESHELMAN: 255-8163 or neshelman@patriot-news.com

TIPS ON TIPPING

• You do not need to tip on tax.
• Tipping is always based upon the normal price of the good or service. Don’t include discounts from coupons when figuring the tip.
• If you’re dissatisfied, talk to the manager. Skipping the tip will not correct poor service.
• Don’t ask for change. It can create an awkward situation to ask for change from the person you’re tipping.
• If on vacation in another country, check with a travel agent. Tipping etiquette varies by country. A tip of 10 percent to 15 percent is acceptable in some European and Asian countries.
• HOW MUCH SHOULD I TIP? Waiters/waitresses: 15 percent to 20 percent for average-to-good service. More for exceptional service.
• Bartenders: $1 to $2 per round or 15 percent to 20 percent of the tab with a minimum of 50 cents per nonalcoholic drink and $1 per alcoholic drink.
• Cocktail waitresses: $1 to $2 per drink.
• Food delivery person: 10 percent of the bill or $2, whichever is greater.
• Self-service buffet: Nothing, unless there is some service.
• Headwaiter/captain: Might get a cut of a table server’s tips, so tip your server extra or tip the captain separately.
SOURCE: tip20!.com

©2008 The Patriot-News
© 2008 PennLive.com All Rights Reserved.

French service- (The last propagator of this style was the Lausanne [...]]]>

American service, particularly suited to banquet service means that all the glass and silver, plus napkin and perhaps a service plate are on the table when guest arrives.  Plate service (means waiters serve only plates, which are plated (prepared) in the kitchen.

French service- (The last propagator of this style was the Lausanne Hotel School) Large pesentation dishes by cooks, service was simply to present tray etc. to guest at the table, while the guest served themselves, as often as guest wanted.  (The signal was how the guest placed silver on plate, knife and fork together at top of plate usually signaled guest was done.)  The service kept on coming until guest indicated he was done.  Essentially this was appropriate for banquets in private homes of the aristocracy and rich.  Restaurants did not find this service apprpriate due to money, time and employee constraints.  Russian service became the norm for fancier service until the 1970′s use of large dinner plates that were elaborately prepared for presentation by the kitchen.

Russian service is essentially a derivative of French service.  Main feature is the preparation of the large platter in the kitchen and served by the waiter to the guest, using usually a fork and a spoon in the right hand while holding the platter in left hand.  Presentation of the platter is part of visual presentation by cooks.  Also “handy” to help control food costs- an innovative idea when it appeared.

This is an article about tipping in restaurants. It occurred to me that this subject needed to be addressed among vegetarians because I had noticed so many times that waiters (both men and women) serving vegetarians were being shortchanged.

I have seen it happen both [...]]]>

by Carole Hamlin – The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG)

This is an article about tipping in restaurants. It occurred to me that this subject needed to be addressed among vegetarians because I had noticed so many times that waiters (both men and women) serving vegetarians were being shortchanged.

I have seen it happen both in vegetarian restaurants, and in non-vegetarian restaurants when people ordered vegetarian food. What spurred me to write something was a recent experience on a New York trip when I had dinner in a vegetarian restaurant with two middle-aged couples (with comfortable lifestyles), who got up from the table and left a total of $2.00 as their tip. We had had a pleasant and inexpensive meal, and we had occupied the table for over an hour.

It costs waiters in vegetarian restaurants just as much for living expenses as people serving food in any other restaurant. I have thought for a long time now that it did not seem fair that these waiters, who are willing to work in a place that promotes good health (and, intentionally or not, compassion for animals, and a healthier environment), should end up with less compensation for their labors than people working in places which do not promote such values.

If we want to encourage the proliferation of vegetarian restaurants, we should not expect the service people to become economic martyrs. If the average dinner in a traditional restaurant costs $20 – $25 or more, and a waiter can earn a tip of $4 – $5 (and up) for serving such a meal, we can understand why many waiters would want to (or have to) work there, rather than in a vegetarian restaurant, where a meal might cost $8 – $10 (or even less). If people use the traditional 15 – 20% rate for tipping, then many of these waiters end up leaving because they can not support themselves.

There’s a Greek restaurant I sometimes patronize. When I do, I order a plate full of vegetables and grains (such as green beans, eggplant, potatoes, carrots, rice, etc.). Since they charge only $3.00-$3.50 for the platter (pricing each vegetable as if it were a side dish), I end up with a whole dinner’s worth of food for less than what many people spend when they go out for lunch. If I were to tip 15 or 20%, the poor waiter would end up with a 50 to 70 cents tip for serving my meal. I cannot believe that person would look forward to my return, or that she or he would encourage the restaurant owner to put a lot of inexpensive vegetarian options on the menu. (I also think these platters should be priced higher since restaurants count on selling more expensive entrees.) The problem is compounded by the fact that many, if not most, vegetarians do not drink much liquor, traditionally a big profit item in restaurants.

Even if we dine in non-vegetarian restaurants, but order healthy (and inevitably less expensive) food, I feel we should tip as if we had ordered an average priced meal in that restaurant. Otherwise, we will not be welcome as customers by the waiters, since they know they will have to serve us for the same amount of time as those ordering the more expensive food, but will receive a lot less money in tips. I want to encourage restaurants to offer vegetarians options without having to fight the waiters.

In my opinion, at today’s prices, someone should leave a minimum tip of $3.00 – $3.50 (per person) for dinner, no matter how inexpensive the tab. It is tough enough for vegetarian restaurants to afford rent and utility costs when they are competing with traditional places –let’s not have those willing to work there make half or a third of what someone makes at restaurants serving expensive, but unhealthy food.

Another thought — related but slightly off the topic — is the matter of tipping at banquets and conferences. When vegetarians do not tip the service providers, or tip them with minimal amounts, then the owners of the facilities have less incentive to have future vegetarian events. The irony is that often the service people working at vegetarian events must work harder to prepare food that they are not familiar with and need to spend more time learning about new dishes. They really deserve more in tips, not less!!! If we can afford to eat out, we can afford decent tips.