Tipping on food bill with expensive wine.

Quick question here, and it may have been covered before. But my wife and I have been debating and trying to figure this out for a long time now.

What would you say would be a fair tip on a restaurant bill after you have purchased a high dollar bottle or two. We enjoy great meals, and love to get away from the kiddos every now and then. We often order a bottle of two that are sometimes in the $400-$500+ range when we get out alone or with friends. So say the food portion of our bill comes out at $200, and the vino portion comes out at $600. What would be your fair assessment on tipping? $60-80? or the full $160 for 20%. Your server is really not doing anymore work than if you had not drank anything. And majority of the time, they are not even providing the wine service. Thoughts?

We have asked numerous servers, Maitre d’s, and even asked a handful of our friends that own wineries in the Valley at a party last month. Seems that no one has a real answer. We have only had one or two servers that were pretty snotty and said it should be 20% no matter what. Well, that didn’t happen for them. But most have said as we have thought, that 20% on the food, and then something for the wine. And we have always really taken care of them.

We are almost to the point of printing business cards to leave explaining why we usually end up tipping around 40% on the food bill instead of 20% on the total bill.

Is that wrong? Thoughts?

The way I look at it is that if I can afford the cost of the bottle I can afford to tip 20% on it. Its the same ratio regardless of bottle price. I’ve never really understood why there is debate on this. If paying $800 for food and fermented grape juice for two humans doesn’t give someone pause, what is an additional $100 in the grand scheme of things?

This has recently been addressed extensively.

This again!?!?
Tip on total bill. If you don’t want to, don’t order the expensive wine.
50% of the responses will disagree with this, so just do what you want lol.

Justin,

1. Tip on the total bill
2. Love your avatar! Hard to read the tramp stamp though. Does it say “Petrus” or “Musigny”??

1. I do this: 20% on the food, then 20% on the wine. But, then, I just lump them together when I pay the check.

2. I believe it says “Boner Garage.”

I typically tip 20% on the entire bill, but I suspect that is more a function of not being able to perform more complex calculations after the 2nd or 3rd bottle I am of the “do what makes you feel comfortable” school of thought on tipping - which is generally 20% of the bill for me. Having said that, I don’t think I have had too many meals where the wine/food ratio was 3/1.

Justin, if that actually is your wife in your avatar, I think I’d just defer to her on this. However, the poll of Beserkers came out as follows - not quite as unanimous as the above comments:

How much do you tip on this $500 bottle of wine?

23%: My usual 20-25% ($100-125) on the wine.
12%: $75 - $99 on the wine.
32%: $50 - $74 on the wine.
25%: Less than $50 on the wine.
7%: Flawed poll. I am unable to accept the scenario as written but want my vote counted.
Total votes : 314

Sorry, but if spending 800 on a meal for you and the wife is a normal occurance to you, I have a difficult time seeing you penny pinching on the tips for the serving staff.

If your well heeled and acting the big spender…follow through for the staff.

I’ll be a dissenter: 20-25% + on food, 10% on wine. Just a general template really, during an epic meal @ GATG in Chicago back in May I tipped 30% on the whole bill, which included wine and a t-shirt!

If I had a dime every time this question was posted here, I’d have enough to tip 100% every time I go to a restaurant, DRC or not.

Thankfully this whole concept is peculiar to the US.

My exact policy.

Love GATG, haven’t been for a while. Is the place keeping up the standards ?

let’s get back to what really matters here, the Avatar. Who is that and what’s the wine?

Agree with 20% on food if good quality food and service and 10% on wine. If the wine is inexpensive, I might do 20% on the pre-tax total bill.

Yes - that’s true.

If you can afford the Lafite, you can afford to give the waiter the extra $1000 to carry it to your table.
No, wait. That’s stupid.

Thanks for the replies and I apologize for bringing up an old topic. I should have done a search first.

I never short change tip wise. But was just curious in thoughts, Considering that restaurants generally mark bottles up 70% or more. And considering the Maitre D does most of the work wine wise, I alsways wondered if the servers had to share with them. I generally slip them something on the side as well. Thanks again for your input.

The avatar btw is the wife. The dumb tat on the back was a mistake many years ago. One she regrets but it is what it is! Ha. Oh and the bottle she is holding is nothing special. I think the photographer brought it with, not knowing we had 1500+ bottles in the cellar.

Oh. She is holding a bottle. And a glass!