While it's been quite some time since I worked for tips, I still perfer the merit method. Building a flat rate into the bill kills all incentive to better service. I always made more than my contemporaries becuase I gave a damn (or at least gave that impression) and it showed.

As a customer I like being able to increase or withold tip amounts based on service.

Yes, absolutely. One of the reasons I generally tip better for good service at the Jazz Kitchen is they don't put an automatic gratuity on large parties.


I'm still in for the Kevy Bailout ... but more and more I find it hard to believe this isn't a Jazz Kitchen error. $120 short is simply not believeable.

I don't think we will ever figure out what went wrong here. We don't have a copy of the combined bill and, by the time Kevy got to counting stuff up, the money was combined all tabs and not separated into groups of 4.

The bill should NEVER have been split the way it was. There is nothing wrong with doing a combined bill as long as one person does the accounting. Splitting the bill up after it was agreed that that wouldn't be done was the start of the mess.

We need to do things differently in the future.

We can work on that this upcoming Friday, hope it goes better!

We definitely have to do it differently in future with lesson learned.

But it was never "agreed" the bill wouldn't be split up. Who made that agreement?



Since I was listening, I can tell you that Keith asked Esmeralda for a separate check for our end of the table, and instructed her to inquire of the diners what other separate checks might be requested.


We did not make any "agreement" for the rest of the table, but it appears the waitress made arbitrary separate checks for every whatever # of people.


I'm really sorry if that caused a problem. It worked beautifully for us.


I have to point out that if the remaining 5 checks were combined in a pile with a single pile of money, that was the doing of our group and not the restaurant. It's inconceivable to me how we could have been that much short, and for that I suspect the restaurant made some serious errors - - but we'll never know.

But in any event, I'm going to give Kevy ten bucks either the next time I see him or forwarded to him via whatever method he requests. If most people will do the same, the bailout will be more successful than those of the federal government.

And Kevy is prohibited from staying to settle the bill for at least 6 months. ;)

I dunno - the Italian method is similar (coperto/servizio included in your total) and we've rarely had service in the US like we found in Italy, regardless of whether the establishment was a little bar or a fancy osteria. I think the key is for the employers to pay the servers well, and make it their absolute responsibility to be of good service, or find a new job.

(Or maybe just to be Italian.)

I agree that setting up something standard for bill-paying would be a great idea. This has happened too often. Maybe it's something as simple as always getting a single bill, electing the evening's "accountant" and not letting any party members leave without the accountant's sign-off.

I was talking to KS last night and we were thinking that a good way to make sure the bill is always covered is as the bill goes around people should initial their food/drinks and then write down (on the back) what they are putting in.

Since it shouldn't be discussed in this thread (IMO), I have created a separate thread to discuss the dinner bill fiasco.

I did. The manager and waitress came to me and requested that we do one single bill except for those who requested it upon ordering. I agreed. By requesting after the fact that your bill be split out - which is what was done - it caused a LOT of rukus which I think was the largest issue resulting in our shortage. Everything was fine when she presented us with one bill - which was sent down to Chris to pay (cute, not).

Maybe I misread your earlier comment when I thought you were implying an agreement among those at the table. If you made an agreement to the restaurant's request, that's a different thing ... and, ya know, completely fine.

So, was that agreement kept by the restaurant or not? I still don't know, nor do I care, how many checks there were. Yes, it was up to each diner to determine whether they wanted a separate check or not. Sounds to me just as it should be.

We wanted one. It allowed us to leave the restaurant before the Park closed with the secure knowledge that our tab was paid in full with a generous tip.

Despite that, I'm still willing to participate in the Kevy Financial Bailout Plan of 2009.