<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Doppy:
What are your thoughts on the tip when you have one or more expensive wines on the tab?
Let's say your food bill comes to $100 or so for four people, but you ordered a $300 bottle of wine. Are you still supposed to be tipping that 15-20% tip on a bottle of wine that was the same amount of work as the $10 bottle?
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Ahh wine...well now here is a topic of tipping i can really discuss at length.
Aside from my duties as the Maitre d' , I am also the Sommelier.
For wine there are two schools of thought. The first are those who never tip on wine. Which personally I find to be a bit silly and ignorant. The thinking goes, that wine, being preprared and expensive is somehow exempt from the gratuity.
If I buy a kobe steak, at a $130 do i then get to forgo the customary tip, because the beef is more expensive, and the prep time no more involved than a choice porterhouse steak? Following this logic, a person also tips less on White truffles.
The second school of thought is: I will tip the full amount, for the full amount of my meal, including wine, because it is as much a part of my dining experience as everything else. But on bottles which cost more than $200 each I will only tip on half their cost.
Despite what people may think about wine service and gratuity, most people I have encountered in my years of service fall into the later catagory.
Thank God!
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Just My 2¢