>Dave Smith writes:
>
>PENMART01 wrote:
>
>> I also gave up ordering wine with dinner long ago... the prices charged by
>> restaurants are ridiculously inflated. In my opinion no wine in the world
>is
>> worth more than $3-$4 a glass... so I'd much rather the 2ni. I do my wine
>> drinking at home, thank you... and still refuse to pay more than $15 a
>> bottle... and that's my high limit, I'm generally in the $6-$7 range. By
>the
>> 3rd glass no one can tell the difference anyway... I laugh when I hear
>folks
>> brag about only drinking top shelf, when they're guzzling like a Texan
>gulping
>> down six-packs at a Q. I can tell the difference with my first 2ni, by the
>> second one too, but by the 3rd my taste gets kind of fuzzy and after that
>they
>> may as well serve me house gin-rocks, save the vermouth... and that's
>exactly
>> what I do, If I'm going to go more than three I switch from Boodles to
>house
>> gin... why waste $2-$3 extra per.
>
>I agree with a lot of what you have to say here, and that brings me back to
>my pet
>peeve about tipping and corkage on the more expensive wines. I can go along
>with
>tipping to supplement substandard wages to wait staff, but damn it I hate to
>be
>expected to pay an extra high tip based on a percentage of something where I
>am
>being gouged on the price, gouged on corkage fees and gouged on taxes.
>Around
>here, that bottle of wine that costs a dollar to produce sells for $8 in the
>liquor store. The restaurant charges $18 or more, then there is provincial
>and
>federal tax, so the bill adds up to about $21. So now I am expected to pay at
>least a $3 tip.
>
>It gets worse with the expensive wines. Suppose menu price is $100. Now you
>are
>being whacked big time for corkage fees and miscellaneous markups. There is
>no
>more work for the waiter for this $100 wine than there was for the one that
>the
>menu lists for $20. He or she has to go and get the bottle, cut off the
>wrapper
>and uncork it. But now the expected tip is five times as much. Just because
>you
>ordered a wine that is more expensive, the percentage tipping protocol
>expects you
>to allow yourself to get soaked even more for "service"
By your logic the same applies to food too... after all, the server does no
more to bring you the $8 burger deluxe as the $26 porterhouse. And anyway, I
never mentioned tipping, I only refered to the price of the goods. But I don't
include my bar tab in computing the tip. I tip the bar separately from my
dinner. I know in advance that I will typically have a half dozen or so 2nis
with my dinner, so at the time the barmaid takes the order for my first I'll
slip a fin into her hand with my smile and Thank You. This ensures prompt
service right from the get-go... when I receive my 4th I'll slip her another
fin... and the barmaid will invaribly clue in the food server that the table
has a good tipper... pays in dividends. Sometime halfway through dinner I'll
make a head call, when I'll slip the bar a ten spot. At this point I'm ensured
at least one drink on the house, often two, and that my drinks will be full
measure... the bar is happy and so am I... I got more than my bar tips back in
trade and attitude.
I tip my food server in cash too, directly in their hand when they present the
tab, not included as part of the food tab, and never ever added on with a
credit card... the house doesn't need to know the amount of my tip. And I
don't know about yoose but I'm lucid enough to actually know in advance that
I'm going out to dinner, and so there is never any excuse not to have a stack
of small bills tucked into my billfold. Tipping is a bribe, they know it and I
know it... it's insulting to the server to imply it's pity.
And there is no reason to pity a server's wage... a good server at a quality
restaurant nets more than your typical college degreed professional... very
often substantially more than the head chef. The only people who think food
service workers aren't paid well are those cheap *******s who always whine
about their poor service, because they haven't a clue about how to tip and/or
behave like a mench... those feral beasts have no social skills on any level,
they're uncouth.
When tipping/schmearing is done correctly it costs nothing, one hand washes the
other, it all evens out.
Oxford
schmear (also schmeer, shmeer, or shmear) US informal
noun
a corrupt or underhand inducement; a bribe.
verb
flatter or ingratiate oneself with (someone): he was constantly buying us
drinks and schmearing us up.
€” PHRASES
the whole schmear everything possible or available; every aspect of the
situation: I'm going for the whole schmear.
€”ORIGIN 1960s: from Yiddish shmirn 'flatter, grease'.
---
http://www.pass.to/glossary/gloz3.htm#lets
Shmeer - The business; the whole works; to bribe, to coat like butter
---
---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =---
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"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
Sheldon
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