Tipping

I like to go out to eat. It is mostly a matter of convenience for me. I am not particularly interested in food or cooking, but I do enjoy a well prepared meal occasionally. Like the old song says: "after you've been eating steak for a long time, beans, beans taste fine". I go out to eat with friends twice a week, and we will get take-out at home about once a week, and go out for dinner maybe once a month.

When I do got out to eat, I enjoy being able to sit there for the entire meal without having to get up for anything. Everything is brought to me. For this I have the waiters to thank. (Is "waiters" a gender neutral term now? Like actor? Me, I still refer to female wait people as waitresses, but when writing, it is certainly easier to use a gender neutral term instead having to specify male and/or female subjects, that is unless you get diverted into a discussion like this one.) So I try to leave an adequate tip. If I leave cash, I think 15% is adequate. If I use a credit card, I try to leave 20%. Why the discrepancy? Because of the evil IRS. If I pay the tip in cash, I expect the waiter/waitress to put the money directly into their pocket and not to inform anyone about it. If I put the tip on a credit card, well, that goes through the bookkeeping system, and the feds will surely find out about it and tax it accordingly. Which means if you want the tip to have the same impact on the wait person, you need to leave enough to cover the taxes.

Wait people have a hard job and I appreciate it. Even if the service is not that great, I try to leave an adequate tip. If there is money to be made people will be drawn to it, and when you have more people to choose from, you can pick and choose which ones you want, and hopefully they will be the better ones.

The only problem I have with waiters is they don't bring my check soon enough. Oftentimes I am done with my meal and ready to go, but there is no check and no sign of the waiter. You would think I would learn to ask for the check when they deliver the food, but I have been going to restaurants for a long time and I hardly ever remember. But this does not happen very often. It happens most often in busy bars. I suppose that is understandable because people tend to linger in bars, so what's the big hurry on delivering the check?