Love this story! There’s a surprise celebrity-sighting ending. I’ve always loved him … he always seemed like a nice normal guy.
About tipping: If you’re a celebrity and you’re a bad tipper (John Cusack!!) word gets out – people talk, man, and nobody talks more than bartenders and waiters and waitresses – and that rumor will stick to you for YEARS and you will NEVER be forgiven. It will be like: “Yay for you you won 10 Oscars in a row. But you’re a terrible tipper. Jagoff.” Etc. That’s how it will go. If you’re a celebrity and you’re a good tipper (Chris Rock!!) you are a hero, and you are spoken of in hushed awed tones for years to come as well. (Chris Rock is famous among waitstaff across the country for tipping 100% on any of his checks.)
But the whole point here is: go read this post!
Re: bad tipping. Not only will it stick, but some people are cataloging it…
Genius – I’ve seen that site before. I mean – GENIUS!
The Bitter Waitress! HAHAHAHA! I missed my calling. Cool that Jon Stewart was a good guy, though.
Sheila,
Really? I’m warning you, you can get lost in that site for *hours*. I know a lot of people kind of object to it on the grounds that it’s an invasion of privacy to take people’s names off of their credit cards and post them the internet, but the retired food service worker in me can’t help but feel they deserve it. Though, in fairness, some of those people might have tipped bad because the service they received was bad. But still, it’s a hoot to see filthy rich celebrity names appear on there and find out they don’t tip well. Read some of the stories from the Bitter main site, too. They’re a gas.
And of course – sometimes people tip badly because the service sucked – I’ve done it myself. But if you get a reputation for being a bad tipper? That shit just never goes away!! I heard the damn John Cusack story when I lived in Chicago from a bartender friend of mine and I STILL repeat it (obviously). hahaha
Oh yeah, definitely – and read some of the horror stories on the site about celebs that are just complete creeps. I especially love the ones about people who are famous for being big-hearted and nice who turn out to be total jerks. Some of them consistently come up as difficult and rude, like Susan Sarrandon and Barbra Streisand.
Holy Shit. I gasped when I saw the photo of Jon Stewart.
We had Andie MacDowell come in to the restaurant I worked at in SC once and she was quite nice. And tipped well.
Jen – I love that she told him about her blog. hahahaha Hysterical!
She just got a pretty big book deal as well, lucky cabbie!
Also – just the fact that those guys held their pose for her photo – hahaha New York is so nuts.
Bad tipping really does follow people around. Some of the celebrity stories on this site are just amazing.
There’s a good Bobby Brown/Whitney Houston story in there.
i love malcolm gladwell but he tipped me one dollar and got three beers from me. a buck a drink, people! bare minimum! if you ask for a glass of water, that counts!! i was like, sorry dude, i just made a “blink”-esque deliberationa bout you! i also served adrian brody and he was the opposite end of the spectrum–gave like ten bucks for one beer. another good celebrity tipper was topher grace. he left a totally unnecesssarily large tip.
btw, my friend started bitter waitress! he was a bitter waitress and now makes enough money off that site to just do that alone. yeah!
siobhan – hahahahahahaha I love it!! Dishin’ the dirt!
Kathy – the one or 2 times I watched that Bobby Brown show – there were HORRIFIC scenes in restaurants where they literally behaved like poo-flinging chimps. Unbelievable. I couldn’t stop watching, but it was so mortifying. I felt so bad for the waiters who just had to endure their savagery and rudeness.
Oh and I love John Cusack – so I was really bummed to hear that he routinely stiffed bartenders in the Chicago area. Maybe cause he’s a Chicago hero? A local boy?
Obnoxious!!
I love how you used Gladwell’s own book-theory to analyze him, siobhan. hahaha
it’s also like–do you think you’re unrecognizable b/c you’re an author? the hair is a dead giveaway! i was about to be like –i love your books and then i looked down and saw my tip and was like…never mind.
Yeah, really. Uhm – skinny dude with enormous afro? Gladwell.
dave lachappelle used to come into a place where myf riend worked and did the chris rock, thing, too. would leave like 50 bucks for one beer or soemthing ridiculous like that. makes me totally love him!
I love him even more now!!
I once met a woman who was a flight attendant in first class. Can’t recall the airline, but she said the rudest customers she’d ever had was mikael barishnikov and Lucille Ball! I was crushed!
I refuse to believe ANYthing bad about John Cusack, since I lurve him so much. I just stick my fingers in my ears whenever I hear something icky about him. Lalalalalalalaalaa!
I would feel the same way about Ewan McGregor. Like – if he gave a bad tip I would immedaitely think: “I bet he got horrible service!!” and would refuse to believe any other explanation!
EXACTLY!
And I would’ve expected Topher Grace to be an asshole, the way he distanced himself from That 70s Show after it TOTALLY MADE HIM FAMOUS (that pisses me off when actors do that); I’m glad to see he gave Siobhan a big tip.
I tip well, on the assumption that my server either got undeservedly stiffed recently, or will do soon. Not extravagantly, mind you, but 20 percent or so as a rule.
I’m with Ken: 20% is pretty much standard for me, unless the service is crummy, and even then I’ll leave something decent unless the server was a complete ass.
And a buck a drink is what I leave at most of the watering holes I go to. (Or went to before my beautiful children made me realize that yes, going out for dinner and drinks is indeed a privelege.)
I’ve called out friends and relatives for not tipping enough if it’s a group thing. Number one, it’s wrong. Number two, I don’t want to pay the price for their stinginess the next time I’m there. I always assume that the cheap tipper and his/her friends are faces that will be remembered.
I remember going off on my dad once when he left like 12% on a huge japanese restaurant tab he picked up (it was a birthday r something).
Me: “Are you f**king crazy? What the hell is THAT?”
Him: “I doubled the tax!” (He works in NYC, so he was thinking of the *% doubled. Even that is not enough, imo…)
Me: Sales tax here is only 6%, genius.”
Him: “Oh well, so she gets 12%”
Me: ” You have to leave more. Leave more.”
We went back and forth a few more times. I eventually won, I think.
The best part about leaving a good tip is when the server appreciates it and says so. Makes me happy, and overall the evening ends on a good vibe.
I normally tip 20%, but there have been times like at the EL CHICO RESTAURANT in HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS — damn you to hell, chatty dumbass waitress who found it PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE leave your friends at the next table to refill our drinks and our chip basket, so I found it PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to leave you more than $1 — where I didn’t tip, or tipped obnoxiously low.
I will tip out the wazoo if the service is good, but I don’t care to reward bad service. I can tell the difference between harried and just-plain-rude, too.
Yup. Former waiter myself, and I’ve seen a lot of strangeness. I can tell when it’s not your fault and when you’re just slacking. I still try to tip well, but I’ll never forget the experience we had at a chain outfit (whose initials are TGIF). My teammates and I were regulars after our games, and we usually got one of three solid servers. We went out of rotation one week, though, and she remembered us – “HEY! You only left me 11% last time.”
Um – excuse you? (This had to be months ago.)
“Well, just remember to get to 15% this time, OK?”
Mind you, we’re there all the time. We’re great tippers and pretty easy to take care of. And she STILL screwed up our orders shortly thereafter. We gave her 10% and two separate calls to the 800 number, and learned later that she was fired the next night. (NOT our ultimate intent, but I find it hard to be sorry. She’s better off in a different line of work.)
We have a steakhouse here in town where we eat occasionally. One night our waitress was a girl I recognized from court (one of the benefits of working for a judge: you can play spot-the-felon around town!) so I was a little leery, but let me tell you, she was the BEST waitress I’ve ever had anywhere. Quick with the refills, conscientious but not all in our faces, very nice. I think we tipped her, like, 40%.
Too bad she didn’t take, and went back to shooting up meth and kiting checks. She could have had a great waitressing career.
I worked as a host at Louise’s Trattoria in the summer of 1999, but aside from general hosting duties, I also had to prepare all of the To Go orders and all of the coffees and cappucinos and desserts and etc., and it was actually non-stop work, and I always got really annoyed when people wouldn’t tip for To Go orders because it wasn’t like it was a fast food joint–I was running all over the kitched to get your To Go order together (sorry I’m venting! I have a point! wow, memories, though!) and people should tip to To Go order person at restaurants!
But I love that Siobhan said that Topher Grace is a good tipper because I remember this one time when Kurtwood Smith came into Louise’s–he played the dad on That 70’s Show–this was just after the show had started, it was still a new show–and he just wanted a slice of pizza, which was something like 4 bucks, and he gave me ten bucks and told me to keep the change, and it was the biggest tip (percentage wise) that I received all summer and I will never forget Kurtwood Smith. He is an awesome tipper, and obviously a good human being. And he apparently taught his TV son well.
Oh, and Lisa’s story about the great waitress/meth addict makes me really sad.
It is VERY sad, Erik. I’ve seen her in court a couple of times since then, and I always want to shake her and say, “You are BETTER THAN THIS!” I’ve even told her attorney to tell her she was the best waitress I’ve ever had.
I mean, some people would say, “Oh, it’s just waitressing,” but you can make some serious money doing it. There are several NICE restaurants in Little Rock where she could do quite well.
Lisa, I love that you told her attorney that. And yes, you can make LOTS of money waiting tables! There’s no shame in waiting tables! But meth is a fucking bitch of a drug.
It’s never “just waitressing.” The kids I’ve been most confident of are the kids who treat every job as an opportunity, and aren’t just making time. It says a lot about you if you can be great in a bad job.
There’s a BBQ restaurant in Memphis called The Rendezvous (Which is awesome by the way. I highly recommend it if you’re a carnivore.) where a couple of the waiters have been working there for over thirty years. Thirty years! That’s a hella lotta tips.
Every time I think of people who are bad at tipping, I remember a dinner my wife and I had in DC back in the early 60’s. We were at the Shoreham Hotel and Mark Russell was appearing there. At the next table there were 10 schoolteachers there for a convention. They had 3 waiters tied up serving them and they got really good service. All the plates were delivered so hot the waiters had to use pot holders to deliver them. Drinks right on time, they looked like they needed something and the waiter was right there. Their total bill in the early 1960’s came to well over $350. They left no tip at all. Not even a penny.
I heard the waiters chatting at the station which was near us and found that the waiters had to pay $10 to be waiters there and what they made in tips was what they earned for the evening. These people had tied them up for at least 2 hours and then shorted them totally. That made me look at waiters in a different light. We got good service so I tipped well.
If I get bad service I will leave a small tip but it has to be really bad service for that to happen. I will normally tip 25% if the service is good. I also find that when I go back there I get good service from all the waiters. I guess if you tip reasonably you get the service. I find that the waiters let you know when something is really good on the menu and when maybe you should reconsider what you are ordering (side benefit).
I used to laugh when I was a kid. My dad grew up in a very poor family so he always left 35 cents as a tip (back in the early 50’s). My mother always used to futz around while he went to pay the bill and she would leave the balance of the tip where he wouldn’t see it. I don’t know if he ever knew about it or not.
What a marvelous remembrance! That is so married couple, I absolutely love it. Thanks Dick!
Ok, I am calling on people of the service industry to settle an argument in my family:
When tipping, I say one should tip on THE ENTIRE BILL, including drinks and tax, whereas my maternal figurehead says the tip is based on the bill WITHOUT alchol and WITHOUT tax. Please tell me the truth so I can tell her she is sooooooooooooooo wrong!!!!!!!!!! PS I always tip on the whole bill, so don’t think I am a stingy bastard, cuz I’m not!! Thank you. the end.
Man, you could have a blog on the side full of just waitressing stories…these are awesome.
Beth, as far as I’ve always looked at it, yes, you tip on the whole bill (drinks and tax included). But I’m curious what other people do too.
J1B, I’m with you. I tip on the whole bill. Tax, drinks, everything.
Beth – I always tip on the whole bill myself (drinks, tax, etc).
And the tip-on-whole-bills have it!!!
Erik, I’ve seen people calculate out the tax. I think it’s pretty lame, personally.
I’m a with-tax guy myself – why punish the server just because the state wants a cut?
I am SOOOOO telling my mom she is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG according to the blog!!!
Just1Beth, your mom is so WAY wrong. Tell her she got served.
And since we served so well, we’d like 18%. =D
And that 18% is to INCLUDE drinks and tax- ha hahahahah!!
Whole bill BEFORE coupons or gift certificates or whatever.