Houston Restaurant Weeks

[descovy]

Originally Posted by Clothahump

If you eat at a restaurant that participates in this, please tip your servers 40% instead of 20%. They take a horrible beating for this month. Frankly, it's something that we really need to do away with. You want to help the food bank, make a donation to them. Don't screw over the waitstaff.

This coming weekend is Tax Free weekend. I work retail so that means I’ll have to work double hard for my paycheck. Please tip me 40% since I’ll work 2x as hard. Oh. Wait. That’s right. Not everyone gets a raise every time they have a hard working day.

[Clothahump]

Originally Posted by Liljo22

Don't understand this statement at all. This time of the year is historically a low reservation time for restaurants not just in Houston but all over the country. Houston Restaurant Weeks as well as similar promotions in other major cities was started to get more people to the restaurants. Without these promotions, restaurants and waitstaff take a bigger beating.

Your statement is incorrect. My stepson works in a Houston restaurant. They have never had a downturn in reservations during the summer. They do, however, have a massive change in diner mix. The restaurant is now loaded with people that would normally not eat there, but they want to try it out because "it's cheap". As a result, the regulars who will order from the menu can't get reservations.

So a four-top that might (very conservatively) run $100-150 a head now runs about $35-40 a head. Net for the table $140-160 instead of $400-600. Figuring 20%, the tips drop from $120 to $30. And he has to split the tips with his team members.

The waitstaff takes a horrible beating during this time because they don't get paid doodly-squat. They live off the tips and when tips crash and burn like this, it's not good.

[madrone2k]

I'm a bit of two minds about this. I typically allocate 20% to tips, since I know that waitstaff have a ridiculously small base salary. I think that is wrong and I am strongly annoyed that restaurants put the burden on customers to make up for that. While I don't mind the concept of "pay for performance", I do think that our current system carries it too far.

Going on to a related topic, that of tips based on the amount of work done by a server: I don't see any difference in the amount of work serving 2 burgers costing $30 versus 2 steaks costing $96. In that case, why should the server get a larger tip in the latter case? That said, aren't tips these days spread out among some number of the staff overall? I like to tip well to people who provide good service, but I think that the tip-sharing practice really dilutes the goodwill intentions of customers.

I think that the current system -- that of staff having to rely on tips to receive decent compensation -- basically puts the burden on people who are willing to put out extra cash to make up for the inequity of the system. This means that those well-meaning people are carrying the burden for a lot of cheapskates who don't tip much at all. I don't appreciate that and it makes me feel less likely to eat out.

[verneguy]

Just ate at Churasscos in Westchase area. Their Lunch Menu is good.

[hendersj31]

I agree. I am happy to leave a giant tip. But the reality is that as customers we basically pay the waitstaff often times. Waitstaff work very hard and deserve a descent wage. Personally I don't feel I should have to pay for my meal plus pay the wages of the individual serving it to me. This is what it is I guess.

Originally Posted by madrone2k

I'm a bit of two minds about this. I typically allocate 20% to tips, since I know that waitstaff have a ridiculously small base salary. I think that is wrong and I am strongly annoyed that restaurants put the burden on customers to make up for that. While I don't mind the concept of "pay for performance", I do think that our current system carries it too far.

Going on to a related topic, that of tips based on the amount of work done by a server: I don't see any difference in the amount of work serving 2 burgers costing $30 versus 2 steaks costing $96. In that case, why should the server get a larger tip in the latter case? That said, aren't tips these days spread out among some number of the staff overall? I like to tip well to people who provide good service, but I think that the tip-sharing practice really dilutes the goodwill intentions of customers.

I think that the current system -- that of staff having to rely on tips to receive decent compensation -- basically puts the burden on people who are willing to put out extra cash to make up for the inequity of the system. This means that those well-meaning people are carrying the burden for a lot of cheapskates who don't tip much at all. I don't appreciate that and it makes me feel less likely to eat out.