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August 29, 2005
American Tipping
The New Yorker has this article about the history and dynamics of tipping waitstaff in American restaurants.
Thomas Keller is one of the world’s most respected chefs, a best-selling cookbook author, and the owner of four successful high-end restaurants. Until a few weeks ago, he seemed a model of entrepreneurial rigor. Then news broke that Keller had decided to abolish tipping at his New York restaurant Per Se, starting this month, and replace it with the kind of fixed service charge that’s common in Europe. Now some people are calling him un-American for scrapping a system in which waiters are rewarded on the basis of their individual performance.
And separately, here is a discussion of tipping at Starbucks. I probably have tipped at Starbucks, but at my usual store in Cathedral City, they are going to have to get a bit better than the mumbling, disinterested guy who takes orders and the woman who's job is NOT to refill the vanilla shaker.
| permalink | August 29, 2005 at 05:16 PM
