Waiter decanting out of sight

:100:

One of the reasons we get the corkage waived is that one of my buddies owns a wine store about 20 meters from the restaurant and he does most of his events there. And, just like you, we tip appropriately. I’m still having a hard time switching from Canadian tipper ($$$) to French tipper ($) :grin:.

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It should be, but it won’t be. Once States get their claws in something they don’t tend to let go. Can you say over regulation boys and girls? I think you can

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Love this story, thanks Glenn.

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The needle air pressure openers work perfectly to avoid mangling the cork to decant at home and push it back in. Not sure I would try it on a real old bottle though. May explode everything everywhere

Tipping culture is so dumb. Needs to be banned.

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I remove the foil and use an Ah-So opener to remove the cork so there is no puncture in the cork. I’ve never been asked if the bottle has been previously opened and the cork doesnt appear to be previously removed

you ever wait tables ?

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I have done jobs that received tips. I still think its a dumb system. Have the employers pay the employees properly.

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You got it, and then increase the food bill 25%, which is what some places are doing. Then tipping can be banned. But what about inflation and the already increase in food costs, insurance, rent increase. I could go on…

Fine with me. Thats how things should be done. Majority of the world does perfectly fine without tipping.

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This!

To an outsider, the American tipping system doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

And we don’t even have tipping banned anywhere. If you get good service and you want to, you can add 20% tip and make the waiter happy. But if you get great service and don’t leave any tip, nobody bats an eye.

Except maybe in Japan where the waiter runs after you because you forgot your money.

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Though many of the ones that do this, they do it via some smug statement about supporting living wages, health care costs, and sustainable whatever, but leave it ambiguous to the customer whether that automatic charge actually was the tip or if a tip, and how much of one, ought to still be added.

I don’t know if the ambiguity is deliberate or not. But they’ve managed to create a worse system than the normal one.

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One restaurant in Pittsburgh, Bar Marco, has a no tipping policy. The pricing is all-in, no surcharge. Some customers get confused about the lack of a tip line.

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Do any of you know how razor thin the margins are on running a restaurant?? And how stressful it is?? Tipping is just part of the equation whether it is included or not. We are all so fortunate to be able to drink the wines we drink and dine out regularly. Sorry I really hate these restaurant bashing threads. One of my favorite restaurants in LA just closed because the Chef could not take the stress. Mind you he has a stellar resume, was voted one of the best restaurants in LA and is still struggling.

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I believe that 3-5% is the profit margin…very slim in the business world

That is on a good day. Then you have to make up for all of the slow days.

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Are you responding to the practice of tipping? Since restaurants all over the world give prices with service and tax included, I don’t think dropping tipping will make restaurants more or less profitable. At least it shouldn’t. I have read that restaurants who have tried to convert to the European system find the customers react badly to the higher prices on the menu. This is a different issue though.

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I have no desire to get into the tipping.no tipping argument. I will only say that servers will absolutely be the losers in that scenario.

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The trend in the USA is definitely towards more tipping, more places, higher percentages.

We all know all the pro and con arguments, there are plenty of both. But it’s pretty clearly where we are at and where we are staying for at least the medium term.

DC, despite the opposition of the mayor, after twice passing a referendum guaranteeing the DC standard minimum wage to waitstaff, has passed that into law. It will go into effect, phased in, over the next four years. Obviously, one consequence of this will be to reduce the amount of the tip needed to give a living wage. It also shows that most people don’t like the practice (at least in DC, but I would guess, not only there). I have seen increased writing about the growth of the practice of tipping and the general popular dislike of it. With only that as evidence, I think the momentum is against, not for it. But we’ll see.