The Jazz Kitchen Bill Cluster Fornication

[Not Afraid]

OK, I've talked to Alan, the manager of the restaurant.

Esmeralda was VERY organized (as much as she could be with the sudden onslaught of separate checks). A couple of things to note:

• Jazz Kitchen does NOT add a mandatory gratuity for large parties unless asked in advance. It is their policy to NOT do that.
• There were a few people that asked for separate checks in ADVANCE and were accommodated without issue.
• Esmeralda returned each jacket with all of the change (with no tip taken out) and any credit card slips that were a part of that bill. According to Alan, the "change" was removed from the jacket as "change" and not kept in the jacket as a tip.
• The actual bill for food and drink was covered in full but the remainder left over in cash or tips on credit cards amounted to about 2% of the total.
• Deciding on separate check AFTER the meal was completed was the primary factor that resulted in this disaster.

Alan made the following suggestions for the future:

• We stick to ONLY one check whenever possible
• We have ONE person in charge of the party so that if any questions arise (such as splitting out the check) the server knows who to talk to and our party members know who too talk to if someone need to leave early.
• We stay somewhat organized until everyone is done eating. (Our running about apparently didn't help the situation either.)
• We give the server our AP for discount purposes BEFORE we get the bill.

We also can add on a set gratuity amount too the total bill if we choose and request. We can add a minimum percentage and, if an individual feels it is necessary, they can add more. But, at least the server will not be stiffed in any way. This is something we should ask for before we get the bill.

I promised him that, if I was there, I would try and keep things organized so our group would minimize the impact we had on the restaurant and their staff.

[NirvanaMan]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

Deciding on separate check AFTER the meal was completed was the primary factor that resulted in this disaster.

• We give the server our AP for discount purposes BEFORE we get the bill.

A couple points of contention, the server did offer us separate checks at the beginning and we agreed. She said that each person would basically be assigned a separate number and we could tell her what the groupings were at the end (which is why she asked whose bill your garlic bread should go on). That never happened.

On the second, we told her before the bills were presented that we would have a premium AP discount for each bill.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

• We give the server our AP for discount purposes BEFORE we get the bill.

That may have added to the confusion. When she brought the "joke" check, I recall someone bringing up the AP discount. Her response was a bit of hand-waving and something about "it'll come later" or something like that, I didn't really catch what she said. But when she came back, none of the split checks had the AP discount applied. I wonder if there was a loss of communication there, with her thinking about the check splitting she was about to do, and therefor not actually listening to the question about AP discount, assuming the check-split was what the question was about.

ETA: Yeah, what NM said. She did mention check splitting when taking our orders, but never came back to ask HOW we wanted the check split before handing us the split checks.

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

OK, I've talked to Alan, the manager of the restaurant.

Out of curiosity how was his attitude about the whole thing? I mean, were they pissed at us in general? Or was he understanding? Did you tell him you'll be back on Friday?

[Not Afraid]

Originally Posted by Chernabog

Out of curiosity how was his attitude about the whole thing? I mean, were they pissed at us in general? Or was he understanding? Did you tell him you'll be back on Friday?

He was a bit hesitant with me at first - understandable so. But, as I went into the discussion I made it clear that (a) I was trying to figure out what went wrong,(b) I was trying to come up with solutions to prevent the same thing happening in the future and (c) I was letting him know that we would be back on Friday. By the end of the conversation, he was happy that I had called and was sorry he was going to have the day off on Friday so he couldn't personally slap each and every one of us. No, he was sincerely sorry he was going to miss us.

I may not do a lot of things well, but I do know how to schmooze and make nice.