11.45am on a weekday (lunchtime) - big city downtown. Very good and popular restaurant & bar. We just want drinks. Walk into the busy bar and find there are two empty tables, both set for meal service. We sit at the table and the waitress comes over with menus; we tell her that actually we just want to order drinks. She says fine, and is very pleasant, refilling the free potato chips twice while our table drinks two beers, a white wine and a Coke. We are just killing time til we need to leave for the airport, so we're not in any rush.

My companions want to pay the bill (as they should really as we've been splitting dinner bills all weekend and since I'm pregnant I've not been drinking anything while they've been ordering bottles of wine). The bill is $25 total. It is now 1.00pm.

They carefully count out $4.00 as the tip, $1 per drink. I pull out a $10 and add it to the pile - in my mind, we've taken a table that probably would have been occupied by four lunch-eating folks at around $15 each, and she could have made a lot more money if we hadn't been taking that table up for our time-killing session. My companions are truly shocked by this idea and don't get it. We spent a long time in the club at the airport debating tipping amounts afterwards. Notable points: I used to work for tips, none of them have ever had a service industry job, and they are all British.

I'd watched them give excellent waitstaff abysmal tips (~10%) all weekend (on their Amex Platinum cards, no less). They argued that they are very nice to their servers all the time (which they are), and therefore did not feel the need to tip "excessively," as they felt that the waitstaff would appreciate being treated well more than they would appreciate a few extra dollars. I argued that it was best to treat your waitstaff very well and still give them a decent tip (for me usually around 17-22%, unless they were bad) because all the niceties and smiles in the world don't pay the rent.

So, here's my question: what would you do in this situation? What is normal, correct, whatever you want to call it? Is $4 acceptable?

I'm with you...I think the minimum given that you are taking up a (what could be) a busy lunch table and the fact that despite you did not order lunch your chips were replenished (no obligation there on her part) was $10. To count out $1 per drink...thats laughable.

Even more laughable is the assumption that to be "nice" to her was more desirable that the extra bucks...EL CHEAPOS!!!!!

Obviously, the last poster doesn't know tipping tradition in the UK :-P

You were right with the 10$ tip. I'm not sure if I would have done the same, but I probably would have been considerate enough to not hog a table for 1+ hour at lunch/rush hour, and would prob. have sit at the bar if it was available.

JP

There wasn't any space at the bar, and even if there way everyone on the bar was eating too, so the problem still would have been the same.

I don't think we were particularly inconsiderate to take the table in light of the fact that we did (eventually) tip the waitress quite well - she was very busy and we were very low maintenance. If it was a mom-and-pop place where every food sale really counted towards the bottom line, I wouldn't have stayed at the table, but this place wasn't going to go out of business because we didn't order sandwiches

If the bar is busy, I wouldn't feel bad about tipping $1-$2 per drink. I would probably have tipped $5, but $10 total isn't totally out of line. If there was really a problem with you using the table, I think the server would have mentioned it when you notified them about drinks only.

I absolutely agree with you... I would have done the same thing in NYC. But as a European living in NYC, I know it is kind of tough to adjust my tipping behavior when I cross the Atlantic. Such a large tip would not be understood in most Paris or London bars. But then again, in Paris or London you probably have been told you could not sit at the table because that was the rule...

I disagree. While leaving a $4 tip is a little chintzy, leaving a $14 tip on a $25 bill is excessive. The whole "I took a table that could have been used by someone dining" argument makes no sense. The fact of the matter is....you sat where it was appropriate after asking. If there was a specific requirement to order lunch then you shouldn't be seated in that area.
I realize that waiters/waitresses survive on tips...but using your reasoning, the next time that you order a $4 cup of coffee at Starbucks, you should throw a $3 tip in the jar at the counter, because you didn't order a muffin as well to drive up the cost.
I would have left at least $5, and as much as $7. A 28% tip should cover the cost of bringing over drinks.

Which country were you in?

SmilingBoy.

USA - Chicago to be exact.

Then you were fine... And you've worked in that field so you understand the situation. Like I said, I personally prob. wouldn't have given as much but that's just me.

I seldom ever sit at a table as I travel by myself about 95% of the time.

I also walk out of a restaurant if they don't have a bar where they also serve food [Happened to me one time in Houston at Macaroni Grill - no bar... I left]

JP

You did the correct thing.

In the US I just leave $1 per $5 of the bill. If I do take up the table for an excessive amount of time, I factor time into the tip too.

I never understood people who use the tip line to get an even dollar amount for their total. What kind of a tip is $2.13? Adding whole dollars is much easier math.

I'm no bleeding heart.

$4.

If their was a disclaimer on the bottom of the menu ie, minimum charge to be seated is $$$...

But since there was no notation, the $4. tip was appropriate.


By the way, I would never go out to eat with your cheapie biz associates.

I half agree and half disagree with my esteemed colleague
Dan - I'd have done largely as you did, and then I'd get rid of
those associates if I could.

Not to devolve into a Starbucks tipping thread, but I rarely tip at Starbucks. The fact that I'm paying $5 for my coffee is giving even a part time employee good benefits, especially medical. Waitresses don't get the same benefits.

I wouldn't have left quite as much as you ElkeNorEast, but I would have left probably twice what your associates did. Between $7-$10 as a courtesy for taking a four-top away from that waitress who would have otherwise had a check that was at least twice (and probably more) what yours was otherwise.