September 17, 2008
The Tipping Point
Our friends at Eater SF alerted us to a provocative Yum Sugar post detailing their contributor's somewhat funky experience at an unnamed San Francisco "small (but popular) restaurant that sells burgers and sausages to go."
Told that her order would take 15 minutes to complete, she was surprised to hear the counterperson announce:
Hey, listen up everybody! The tip jar is right here, and if you could make a generous contribution that would be great . . . dollars only, please!
The intention of the Yum Sugar post is to sweetly invite comment on what their readers would do, were they to find themselves in a similar situation.
We'd like to think we know all of you well enough to know what your response would be (that is, by those of you with the quad strength to squat over a jar) -- what we want to know is, what restaurant do y'all think was home to this act of gratuitous aggression?
Guesses, conjecture, and fake or real first person accounts in the comments, pretty please.
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Rosamunde on Haight?
unclear is whether or not the speaker was being glib. You know, service industry joke about shitty tipping?
Your graphic nails it.
Gratuitous gratuity appeals are acceptable if, and only if, the appellant is naked, or in various states of undress.
Rosamunde (& Toronado for that matter) has been too popular for its own capacity for a while now.
it's totally rosamunde.
everytime i go in there it's like a madhouse.
people are completely wasted and don't give a damn about the guys that work there.
my guess is that he was very fed up and just wanted to let everyone know that he is working hard and would like some sort of compensation for doing so.
i think it's completely fair.
Depending on how big the mouth of the jar is, I'd poop in it.
I've always been torn on tip jars for to-go orders.
Tip jars for carry out? hehehe funny.
I only tip on carry-out if it's a restaurant where I'm a regular or if they did something particularly spectacular - I rarely tip at places where it's just a counter. I'd be inclined to cancel my order and go elsewhere if I saw this.
[I know, I know, you weren't asking that but I don't care :P]
I always tip on carry-out if it comes from a sitdown restaurant--having waited tables for years through HS and college and slightly beyond I know that it's usually a waiter or bartender putting all that stuff together. I mean, I take into account that it's not full-service, but I always give something.
If I get friendly, prompt service at a counter place (like, say, Rosamunde), I'll throw some change or a buck or two in there. Eh.
Regardless, the worst people on Earth are those that brag about being bad tippers. Second worst are those that brag about being big ones.
Know what I'd do? Twitter the shit out of it. Nay, actually I'd probably just laugh at the counter person, wait for my food and then be on my merry way.
"If I get friendly, prompt service at a counter place (like, say, Rosamunde), I'll throw some change or a buck or two in there. Eh."
Remember: "dollars only, please!"
Doesn't Rosamunde only sell hamburgers on Tuesday afternoons? Those burgers are off the hook!
Remember: "dollars only, please!"
Yeah, I guess to get back on topic since I rambled about my personal tipping habits, I agree that this counterperson was being a fucking tool and wouldn't have gotten the linty pennies out of the bottom of my pocket if I'd been there.
They can obviously afford to raise their prices and wages. In fact, it would be great advertising for them to make a fact that prices have risen so that they can get rid of the tip jar (AND GET RID OF THE TIP JAR). So many countless other places have sadsack xeroxes taped to the cash register: La Cumbre I'm looking at you.
It was pretty classless for the person to admonish the crowd. Tipping for counter service is commonly not observed.
I would ask for a discount for rude and obnoxious service. :) Not nice to pressure. Times are tough all over, but Hey we see the "tip jar" with all the $20's you planted in it, we are not blind, just go above and beyond what is expected and maybe, just maybe you won't have to BEG and embarrass yourself and others for tips.
Pretty sure that place is Zeitgeist...although not sure if you can call that place a restaurant.
@ periqueblend
"service industry joke about shitty tipping"
That's exactly how I see it. some places are just like that and aren't out to cuddle their patrons. More people need to learn to verbally respond (possibly even with a sense of humor!) to these things when they happen instead of just quietly crafting a yelp review/blog post in their head
Amazing as it sounds, it seems as if the staff at Rosamunde could take some lessons in tact -- and speed -- from the grillmen of Top Dog.
I waitressed for six years and find the ubiquitous tip jars annoying as hell. I don't tip anyone who doesn't actually wait on me. What's next? a tip jar at the book store because they rang up your purchase?
I probably would have responded in Dick Cheney mode, told the beggar to go fuck him/herself and then canceled my order (before they could poop on it) and left.
I draw the line at tip jars in takeout places, and make an effort to not even frequent such places.
Just fucking tip the man. The 'dollars only' stipulation is just counterproductive, but give him a nickel at least, to show him you understand the fact that dealing with drunk people when you're sober sucks.
re: tipping for take-out. Don't tip if you don't want to, but don't expect great counter service if you don't usually tip.
Also, to-go tips are shared with the cook staff, and while it may not mean much at a place where cooking means heating up sausages, it might be nice to reward the folks who are making your food.
Just a reminder, TIPS is an acronym, it means To Insure Prompt Service (allegedly). Like COP, which means Constable On Patrol. Unfortunately these were both invented in the 50s and are now completely irrelevant.
http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/tip.asp
I'd just like the second the Rosamunde/madhouse notion. Those poor kids are swamped and it's sweltering hot back there. I wouldn't blame them for getting testy.
despite many years in F&B, including retail counter work, and tending to be generous in solidarity, counter tip jars I nearly completely ignore. Unless of course I know the person or they've done something above and beyond the call to make me a happy customer.
These days, the majority of folks behind a retail counter barely (if at all) qualify/deserve the job, let alone a tip. Besides, if they can't even enunciate any better, usually worse, than the drunken corner homeless person, why the flock should anybody be obligated to tip them? As far as I'm concerned, it's just one of a multitude of beggar's cups we encounter every day.
Man, this makes me angry. When it comes to fine dining, tipping is for waitstaff and delivery folks ONLY. Waiting tables is hard work and waitrons are paid crap. Tips are both to show appreciation for good service and to supplement their shitty wages. Same with delivery people. If the human is actually taking your food and moving it from point A to point B, I believe they deserve a tip.
That being said, I don't tip fast food handlers. I don't care if they have a some cruddy, made up Italian designation and spend their days pulling espresso. Their vocation is a stationary one, they aren't providing me with fine service, they can go straight to hell with their begging for tips. Particularly as they're usually some breed of emaciated urban hipster with an attitude problem and poor social skills brought about by their childhoods being raised in barns, believing they're destined for greater things because they're studying art at Academy of Kitchen University, thinking they're "hot stuff" when they ride around on their track bikes/mopeds, looking like death in a pair of stove pipes and a hoodie, etc. I find it galling that as the attitude level of your typical retail peon has gotten progressively more entitled and snotty, that their demand for increased compensation from their hapless victims has become so obnoxious. Fuck 'em.
As far as feeling sorry for these assholes because of the uncomfortable working conditions, squatting about a greasy grill, day in, day out - yeah, well boo hoo. If they don't like slinging hash, they should go land another job. See? easy as pie.
My policy for takeout tipping: If you are a regular patron, tip generously and you will be rewarded. If you will only be there once a year, fuck 'em.
You try making 25+ sausages every 10 minutes for drunken patrons and then remember who gets what. I'm there at least once I week and I always notice how fuckin hard that job seems. I am NOT being sarcastic mind u.
@jefftiki
Cry me a river. If they can't handle the job, they should do what I did - go indulge in a decade of higher education so they can become a professional and then they won't have to slave away roasting weenies. The discomfort they experience as a result of their decision to take a weenie roasting job is not my problem. My problem is to determine whether their product and service is worthy of my American dollars. Having some annoying hipster chick demand tips for weenie roasting indicates that in both regards they are not.
Doesn't every worker in San Francisco make the City's minimum wage (there's no reduced wage for waiters/waitresses with the notion that they'll make a buttload on tips?) - somewhere around $10 an hour? Some of the young folks working 60-80 hours a week in the Financial District might find they're making less than the guy/gal behind the counter at starbucks on an hourly basis ... not that it matters because we all choose whether or not we want to go to work or not, every day (rent and other financial commitments aside).
RinconHillSF is correct - SF's minimum wage law does NOT exempt waitstaff, unlike most minimum wage laws. SF minimum wage currently is $9.36 per hour. In addition, in SF, if an employer has 20 employees or more, they have to provide health insurance. SF also has a law mandating that employers provide paid sick leave if they have over 10 employees.
@ The Angry Young Man
You think waitstaff works harder and is more deserving of gratuity than the people making your food and cleaning up after you? Hmmm... that's an interesting slant on the world you have. Good luck with that.