Restaurants - Tip #2 Tipping

Here's a story for you. I was working in this mid town restaurant in NYC. For those of you who don't know, when you work in mid town you will be dealing primarily with tourists. So this post.....for you. Anyway, I had this very lovely table with some business associates from London out to dinner. They sat for a few hours, relaxed, enjoyed their meal and drank quite a bit. At the end of the meal, I handed them the tab. When I came to pick everything up, (btw, I created an amazing atmosphere for this table) I look and saw that they had rounded up to the nearest dollar. That was my tip. That was how they thought I was going to pay my bills. By giving me that $.20 that made it easier for them to balance their checkbook. That's what I got for spending over 2 hours of my time making sure they were happy.

Tip #2 - In the United States, you need to tip.

A minimum of 20% is now the norm. 15% is considered an insult. Do not round up because here in the U.S. waiters live on tips. They get paid way below minimum wage (I got about $2.15 per hour). The reason for that was to cover any taxes, however it doesn't cover nearly enough so even though I always got a paycheck with $0, I still needed to pay TONS of money during tax time.

So please, all of you coming from another country where your waiters actually get minimum wage or a bit higher, we don't do that here. Please note - WE LIVE ON TIPS!

For those of you coming from another part of the country, 20% is the minimum. 15% is an insult, and when your waiter sees you bringing out your cell phone or handy little 'tip card' like the one seen above, just know that they wish they would have spit in your food.

Here's a tip on how to tip. Round up and Double it, for example, lets say your tab is $16.75. I'd take the 1, round it up to 2 and double it, leaving a $4 tip. Here's another one, your tab is $54.32. I would leave a $10 tip (take the 5, no need to round up, and double it). Here's a tricky one, your tab is $6.50. Well you aren't going to leave a $12 tip, instead, I would always leave a minimum of $2. Okay, let's go to a 5 star restaurant. Your tab is $250. Any guesses? You got it, leave $50. And for those of you who don't tip on bottles of wine....shame on you.

Happy tipping!!