<p>Do you pay for dinners with a credit card?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Regarding paying servers min wage.
This is why I consider that if I can afford to eat out, and have people waiting on me, I can afford to tip at least 20%.</p>
<p>Hold it there…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That is to the benefit of the servers. By having the taxes deducted from their paycheck, the IRS has said they will not audit their daily tips and therefore eliminates detailed record keeping requirements they would have been otherwise subjected to. I believe far more servers would prefer this than to have to keep boxes of records to provide if they get audited.</p>
<p>EmeraldKity4, how big are yout tips (20% of your average meal cost)?</p>
<p>well for example yesterday my H & I went to play pool for a couple hours and our bill was $50.25, we tipped $10.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What a silly argument. </p>
<p>I hope you realize that the payroll deductions are to be adjusted to the real income when reporting and paying taxes. Are we supposed to believe that waiting staff has to report phantom income? Considering that industry’s tradition of obfuscating cash income, that is simply laughable. </p>
<p>If one were to follow your arguments, he would believe being a waiter is akin to being an exploited slave. The reality is that for many, waiting table represents a VERY well-paid and flexible part-time occupation, especially when compared to alternatives. </p>
<p>While it might be true that the economic realities of the past years have brought leaner times, the same is true for the patrons as well. No matter how hard you try to paint people who pay a very reasonable 15 to 20 percent as cheapskates, it will remain a hollow and twisted argument.</p>
<p>xiggi you brought up the portion of the bill that equalled $200, & said that you felt 20% was too much in that instance, however you didn’t say what you would tip…?</p>
<p>I never said I thought 15%-20% was chincy, I think it is fair- but you implied it was too much.</p>
<p>EK4, you are quickly developing the habit of misquoting me. I already corrected you about the expectation of 20 to 30 percent. Since you used post 53 to question my ability to understand that **WINE **is part of the dining experience, I’ll assume that you deliberately enjoy twisting my words. </p>
<p>If you have to be reminded, please note that this started when you wrote "You don’t tip 20%! and something along the lines of not eating out in nice places if I cannot afford it, which I assume you meant not be able to afford tips of at LEAST 20 percent. </p>
<p>In case you missed it, at no time did I hint to pay anything else than between 15 and 20 percent. This also means that I do not “punish” a waiter for poor service by leaving a uncommon lower tip on the restaurant bill. As I wrote before, I believe that waiters should be protected from predatory practices, and I would be happy to see fixed service charges added to all food bills. On the other hand, I do not need to hear people preaching that a 12 dollars bill plus 8 percent tax should be rounded to … 20 dollars, and that anything smaller would be an offensive and obnoxious tip.</p>
<p>When I visit another country, I want to know what is the standard and expected tipping practice there, so I can treat service people fairly. It is my observation that there is some disagreement as to what the standard and expected tipping practice is in the United States. My view is that currently, between 15 and 20% of the pretax total is pretty much standard–tending more toward 20%, at least in big cities.</p>
<p>Wow! Glad to see someone knows what opentable is! I live half way between San Francisco and Napa, and use it a lot! But this week I’m staying in “Hells kitchen”, NYC, courtesy of AAA and trip advisor, and Opentable is just “N/A”.</p>
<p>BTW; I own a small business/ medical practice, and I don’t take credit cards.</p>
<p>I don’t use opentable when I am at home. Most of the places we go don’t take reservations or we just call. I did use opentable on my recent trip to North and South Carolina. Used the app on my new iphone.</p>
<p>You really could use the argument that you pay full price for a product because you want to support the company in all sorts of situations.</p>
<p>“I never buy anything on sale at Macy’s because I’m afraid they will go out of business and I like the lines of clothes they carry.”</p>
<p>“I allow frequent flyer miles to expire because I would hate to see Alaska Airlines go out of business. If everyone flies for free, they can’t possibly make any money.”</p>
<p>“I pay full sticker price on cars I buy because I support American auto makers. If they give me too big of discount, they will go out of business.”</p>
<p>“I refuse to shop at Costco because they negoiate significant price discounts from their vendors and they can’t make any money at the price Costco pays them.”</p>
<p>“I won’t use OpenTable because the restaurants will no longer make a profit, will all go out of business, and then we won’t be able to go out to eat anymore.”</p>
<p>I may be missing the boat here, but restaurants choose to be on Opentable; no one forces them to join. There are many restaurants locally that have their own online reservation system without being a part of Opentable. The members know up front what the deal is before joining; if they don’t like the terms, they don’t have to join.</p>
<p>That said, I look first to making my reservation on Opentable so that I can earn points for my dining. While traveling, I go to Opentable to see what restaurants are available in the area. Of course, I continue to frequent restaurants not on Opentable, but I do check them first.</p>
<p>I just looked at Opentable for my small city. There are not that many places that use it. I was a bit surprised since we are a tourist destination plus a place with a decent population with a lot of disposible income. Most of the places listed on Opentable are in hotels or places like Ruth Chris. Not sure what to make of this. Are places doing well enough that they don’t feel the need to use Opentable or does Opentable not have a good sales rep for our area.</p>
<p>*Are places doing well enough that they don’t feel the need to use Opentable or does Opentable not have a good sales rep for our area.
*
In our area the restaurants listed on opentable fall under the category of: Canlis & co- expensive restaurants which have been around forever( before there were other choices) & need to do whatever it takes to keep their seats filled.
Small chains that attract tourists ( Tom Douglas- Ruth Chris- Ivars)
Newer restaurants who are trying to get their foot in the door.</p>
<p>They really don’t have that many restaurants listed for my area- I was surprised.
I looked up * Asian* and no Indian/Thai/Vietnamese/Chinese etc restaurants were listed- a couple sushi restaurants and a few others that weren’t Asian, but served seafood.</p>
<p>Shrinkrap
Open Table is available all over the US. I always use it when I am visiting NYC. Check the home page for “other locations”.</p>
<p>^I know it’s available, but I am preferring the cheaper “urbanspoon” type options in this neighborhood.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.urbanspoon.com/n/3/236/New-York/Hells-Kitchen-restaurants[/url]”>http://www.urbanspoon.com/n/3/236/New-York/Hells-Kitchen-restaurants</a></p>
<p>I never wanted an i phone until I used urbanspoon. But it’s not really relevant where I live, only when I travel.</p>
<p>I have a couple review apps on my blackberry- but I like Yelp the best so far.</p>
<p>I guess we aren’t quite " cheap" tippers in Seattle- but we tip lower than the national average of 19.2% according to Zagat.
[Zagat:</a> Seattle diners tip less than the national average](<a href=“http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/226519.asp]Zagat:”>http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/226519.asp)</p>