I wanted takeout from Father’s Office. They don’t do phone orders - That’s fine, no problemo. I shlepped in there, plunked myself down on a barstool, and ordered the food to go. Total of the food came out to like $65. I also bought myself a fancy glass of Belgian beer ($10) to enjoy at the bar while waiting for my order.
All of the above was handled in a friendly, professional manner by the staff. Takeout food was ready in 15 minutes.
So if the total was $75, I prolly would have rounded up to $80. It is a conundrum. Sometimes just rounding up takes the ethical interior debate out of the equation, or at least suppresses it.
Questions still remain as to the destination of that tip. Is it to the bartender? Split between the bartender and kitchen? Depends on the place, I s’pose. Sucks that there’s no consistency. That’s why these situations are the pits.
I would tip $ 3.00 for the ten dollar beer to the bartender . Handing the bag over the counter barely counts as service . On a to go order a dollar or two if there was a tip jar . Sitting down and ordering with service 20 % or more .
We have a small, casual place very close to us. The servers are the ones handling the to-go orders and they do a lot of to-go orders. So whoever is handling them is being taken away from table service.
Remember that ad from a while back? “How do you think I got… sooo rich?”
Post-script:
By the way, everyone: I found out they bollocks’d up my order (forgot the dessert), even though I asked them twice when I picked up my to-go bag: “Is my order complete?”
That would piss me off. Especially at Father’s Office, who already irritates me with all their rules. Like they’re doing you a favor. One day I’m going to take a bottle of Heinz ketchup in there and plop some on my burger!
The young lady/barkeep who took my food order served me my beer, while another person altogether (a “runner” whose sole duty it was to run btw bar & kitchen, it seems) came out of the kitchen and handed me my (incomplete) bag of food.
IThe debate on takeout tipping rages on. I tip 5-10% for takeout if it’s an essentially dine-in place and the order is more than just a small thing. In this case I think it’d be pretty lame not to have tipped at least for the beer.
That’d said, I’ve posted (back in a former life) that I worked in a retail wine shop that was also a wine bar/specialty food place that did a few small plate items too. It was not uncommon to serve people a couple of glasses of wine at one of our tables or the tasting bar and have them leave without tipping. I just think people sometimes can be confused by the business model of the place they’re in, or are just jerks. Bottom line… stiffing servers happens. Life’s too short to get crazy about it.