No more tipping!?!

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

And this extends to the wine service quite logically. What am I paying for? If it's glasses, decanting, and pouring, well, I suppose the $40 spent on the hypothetical $200 bottle got me just as much stuff/service as the $10 that I paid on the $50 bottle. That's just throwing money away, right?
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I have been in restaurants where they don't get out the best glasses/decanters etc. for people who order basic/lower priced wine.
 
Since I eat at restaurants in France as frequently as I do here, I at least have a basis of comparison, and I prefer (mostly) no tipping. I say mostly because it has become a custom (though not an expectation) to leave a small amount (no more than 5%) if you have enjoyed the evening. And that really is at your discretion.

I find the service at least as good. The wait people take themselves more as wait people than as your pals for the evening, which I prefer. This probably has nothing to do with tipping, but when you reserve a table, it is yours for the evening, regardless of whether you arrive at 7:30 or 10 and they don't try to rush you out. Wine service tends also to be attentive without being chi-chi. They fill the glasses so that if two people order a bottle, it will go through the cheese course, without trying to rush you to order another. Now I'm going out in the sticks, not Paris, where I'm sure things are different. But I really don't see the added value to tipping.

I doubt it's removal will make dining out or ordering wine any less expensive. It will just make the evening more pleasant.
 
Two scenarios with tipping...

1) Busy night -- Front of house high fives and back of house sweats.

2) Slow night -- Front of house takes a hit.

Two scenarios with no tipping:

1) Busy night -- Restaurant celebrates, everyone gets paid.

2) Slow night -- Restaurant takes the loss, everyone gets paid.
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No tipping just makes good sense.

. . . . . Pete
 
jonathan--i've always thought of the 'service comprise, 12.5%' as tipping, but maybe that's because i'm american, where tipping is the norm. and yes, i'll leave a little more when dining experience has been particularly enjoyable.

like you, i've found service in france (outside paris for me as well) to be generally more proficient and professional than on this side of the big ditch. it just comes across as more of a vocation and less of 'a way to make a living until i find the job i'm trained for'.
 
originally posted by robert ames:
jonathan--i've always thought of the 'service comprise, 12.5%' as tipping, but maybe that's because i'm american, where tipping is the norm. and yes, i'll leave a little more when dining experience has been particularly enjoyable.

like you, i've found service in france (outside paris for me as well) to be generally more proficient and professional than on this side of the big ditch. it just comes across as more of a vocation and less of 'a way to make a living until i find the job i'm trained for'.
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I guess the distinction between "service compris" and not tipping maybe semantic. If the money is included within the bill and I can't take it out, I don't think that is tipping. It's just a way of describing how the price is arrived at. For the record, French prices also build the taxes in, so the price you see is the price you pay and that is also a large part of what I prefer. As just a minor sidelight, there is virtually never a dispute about a bill since if one orders one's prix fixe meal and wine, there isn't much to mistake and calculation is pretty dead easy.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I will also regret not having the opportunity to reward outstanding service -- for example, if a restaurant is willing to permit a jeebus they deserve something extra for the unusual demands we make on them.
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No. You will always still have that opportunity. Just as one does in Europe.
 
originally posted by kirk wallace:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I will also regret not having the opportunity to reward outstanding service -- for example, if a restaurant is willing to permit a jeebus they deserve something extra for the unusual demands we make on them.
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No. You will always still have that opportunity. Just as one does in Europe.
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I'll need to make a bigger fuss about it.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Chris Coad:
Giant black-hole sized dick whose dickitude attempts to exert its dickish bigshot gravitational pull on every poor server within its event horizon writes astonishingly dickish op-ed about being a tipping dick-swinging dick: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...faf561dc_story.html?postshare=741445367009808
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At first sight I thought this would be about Michael G. Hanchard.
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At first sight I thought this was Albanian!
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Chris Coad:
Giant black-hole sized dick whose dickitude attempts to exert its dickish bigshot gravitational pull on every poor server within its event horizon writes astonishingly dickish op-ed about being a tipping dick-swinging dick: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...faf561dc_story.html?postshare=741445367009808
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At first sight I thought this would be about Michael G. Hanchard.
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At first sight I thought this was Albanian!
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Has anyone ever seen both Michael G. Hanchard and an Albanian in the same place at the same time?
 
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