tipping scenario

[Gil Bang 26027]

GF and I are celebrating her birthday today.  We lunch at a nice beachfront restaurant.  

It's a beautiful day, and the patio is a 45-60 minute wait.  I ask to be put in line for a table, and we head to the bar for a drink.

We each have a glass of wine.  I encourage her to order a bottle, but she orders a glass.  2nd round, I have a beer, and she orders a bottle of wine, because "birthday".

What do you tip in that scenario.  Bartender poured 2 glasses of wine, one draft beer, and opened another bottle.  

I went 20%, and after thinking about it, decided I overtipped and 10 bucks would have been fine.   

BTW, my first was Prosecco, GF stayed with Chardonnay for the duration. 

[dcbc 14510]

1 hour ago, Gil Bang said:

GF and I are celebrating her birthday today.  We lunch at a nice beachfront restaurant.  

It's a beautiful day, and the patio is a 45-60 minute wait.  I ask to be put in line for a table, and we head to the bar for a drink.

We each have a glass of wine.  I encourage her to order a bottle, but she orders a glass.  2nd round, I have a beer, and she orders a bottle of wine, because "birthday".

What do you tip in that scenario.  Bartender poured 2 glasses of wine, one draft beer, and opened another bottle.  

I went 20%, and after thinking about it, decided I overtipped and 10 bucks would have been fine.   

BTW, my first was Prosecco, GF stayed with Chardonnay for the duration. 

On the bottle of wine, was it a cork or a screw top?

 

For the effort and since you said it was a nice place, I'd say $15.  But by the end of a glass of wine, a beer, and, then, half a bottle of wine, I'd have probably tipped more too.  If it's a place I go often, I'd err on the high side.

Edited November 11, 2023 by dcbc

[Gil Bang 26027]

Yeah, that's about the way it worked.  And yes, a $60 bottle with a cork.

[LCHorn 2632]

I always wonder about that, too.  Tipping a bartender 15% for opening a bottle of wine seems excessive if that’s the same expected tip for waitstaff hustling back and forth from your table repeatedly.  

[Macanudo 13014]

To me, it depends on whether it's a place I frequent enough for the bartender to remember me.    If I go there often enough, I'll tip on the high end.   

[Neonmoon 38130]

10 dollars is fine. I always thought it was 1 dollar per drink at a bar. 

[Hermanator 7175]

7 hours ago, LCHorn said:

I always wonder about that, too.  Tipping a bartender 15% for opening a bottle of wine seems excessive if that’s the same expected tip for waitstaff hustling back and forth from your table repeatedly.  

Yeah that's where I'm at. I'll tip more than a dollar a drink if it's a craft cocktail bar where they're having to muddle stuff and create the cocktail from scratch but I'm not tipping that much if all they're doing is pouring me a beer or a glass of wine. Just doesn't make sense it takes 15 seconds. 

[Guest]

Tipping ain’t always about the drink you currently have…

[LCHorn 2632]

24 minutes ago, slorch said:

Tipping ain’t always about the drink you currently have…

I think it was @Brisketexan who touted his method of tipping $20 or more on the first drink.  I guess that’s prudent if you’re the only one there but most of the time I’m getting a single cocktail before a dinner seating or it’s a bar where it’s so busy that keeping up with patrons would seem a low priority for a bartender.  

[dcbc 14510]

33 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

I think it was @Brisketexan who touted his method of tipping $20 or more on the first drink.  I guess that’s prudent if you’re the only one there but most of the time I’m getting a single cocktail before a dinner seating or it’s a bar where it’s so busy that keeping up with patrons would seem a low priority for a bartender.  

I hear if you give everyone you see $20, you're well taken-care-of at the Copa.

[futureman 22548]

starting a thread to tell people you’re cheap.  I wouldn’t expect it from many but OP doesn’t surprise me. 

[Ghost of LL 15541]

Ok--so in this scenario there's a big question that I think we could use some insight from current/former waiters and bartenders.

GF ordered a bottle of chardonnay.  I assume she then took the bottle to the table and drank that for the rest of the mean, right?  So your waiter would've sold you the bottle of chardonnay at the table had you just ordered two glasses at the bar.  But instead, he missed out on that sale (and the resulting tip) because you got your drinks at the bar.

So the question is this: do the bartenders share their tips with the waiter?

I know in most places, the waiters are expected to tip out the bartenders.  I don't know that I've ever heard of it going the other way.  So my suspicion is the answer is "no."

If that's the case, then I short-tip the bartender a little bit and I tip the waiter on what he would've gotten had I ordered the bottle from him.

So in practice, let's say the bottle was $100 (just trying to make the math easy).  Ordinarily, I would tip the bartender $20.  But in this scenario, I might tip the bartender $5 or $10 on the bottle and tip the waiter at my table $10-15, depending entirely on how much time I spent at the bar with that bottle and whether GF ordered another glass at the table after finishing that bottle.

[Al_4_ISU 12487]

On 11/11/2023 at 1:37 PM, Neonmoon said:

10 dollars is fine. I always thought it was 1 dollar per drink at a bar. 

This is where I'm at.  Tipping alcohol based on cost is silly.  The amount of effort to pour Johnnie Walker Blue is the same effort required to pour Black Velvet.  

I tend to center my tip around effort and the circumstances more than dollar amount, although dollar amount factors into it.

[HouTex 1894]

7 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

This is where I'm at.  Tipping alcohol based on cost is silly.  The amount of effort to pour Johnnie Walker Blue is the same effort required to pour Black Velvet.  

I tend to center my tip around effort and the circumstances more than dollar amount, although dollar amount factors into it.

This.  It also gets interesting with wine.  Some wine geeks will order $1000 bottles at Pappas.  Does that deserve a $200 tip per bottle?  The opinions are all over the place but I think most wine people would either tip a lower percentage on wine, or tip 20 (or higher) percent with a cap of say $200 per bottle.  

[ChickenNuggets 1633]

what do y'all do at samwich shops where you swipe your own card and you have the choice of entering a tip? Shit's gotten out of hand but I still feel compelled to tip extra.

14 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

This is where I'm at.  Tipping alcohol based on cost is silly.  The amount of effort to pour Johnnie Walker Blue is the same effort required to pour Black Velvet.  

I tend to center my tip around effort and the circumstances more than dollar amount, although dollar amount factors into it.

I tip on effort extended. Pouring a beer, tip them a buck, helping select and uncork a bottle of aged wine, tip them according to price.

[DDD Dad 14351]

6 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

Ok--so in this scenario there's a big question that I think we could use some insight from current/former waiters and bartenders.

GF ordered a bottle of chardonnay.  I assume she then took the bottle to the table and drank that for the rest of the mean, right?  So your waiter would've sold you the bottle of chardonnay at the table had you just ordered two glasses at the bar.  But instead, he missed out on that sale (and the resulting tip) because you got your drinks at the bar.

So the question is this: do the bartenders share their tips with the waiter?

I know in most places, the waiters are expected to tip out the bartenders.  I don't know that I've ever heard of it going the other way.  So my suspicion is the answer is "no."

If that's the case, then I short-tip the bartender a little bit and I tip the waiter on what he would've gotten had I ordered the bottle from him.

So in practice, let's say the bottle was $100 (just trying to make the math easy).  Ordinarily, I would tip the bartender $20.  But in this scenario, I might tip the bartender $5 or $10 on the bottle and tip the waiter at my table $10-15, depending entirely on how much time I spent at the bar with that bottle and whether GF put out after dinner.ordered another glass at the table after finishing that bottle.

 

[Deej 76933]

Any tip I give to any non-tip wage person is solely based on her attractiveness. Sorry, dudes, you get nothing.