Two things killed tipping: the pandemic and the handheld payment device (show in the picture above).
For decades before the pandemic, the standard tip was 15%. It was something you figured out yourself, and you either added it to the amount on your credit card or you might even pay in cash.
During the pandemic, patrons were asked to contribute more the usual 15% because everyone was struggling during the pandemic and this was especially true of restaurant workers. So people would tip sometimes 20% or more.
Also around this time the handheld payment devices became ubiquitous with default payment amounts. Unlike the one shown above, 18% became the lowest amount in many places, although I’ve seen some places have 20% and some with the audacity to make the lowest 22%. The pandemic ended, but rarely do I see 15% any more.
It’s true, for some places the device provides you an option to put in another amount. But you have to press several buttons and do your own calculation of the tip. And I am sure people do that and it’s fine. Most people I dine with, though, just go with one of the preselected picks of 18% or more.
This got me to conclude that the tip is no longer a tip. It’s just a service fee. Indeed I’ve seen some restaurants recently come out and say that on their bills. We are becoming more like Europe, where service is included but you throw in a bit more if the service is really good. I am not a fan of this.
This forced tipping is part of what I don’t like about restaurants and fine dining any more. I dislike the rushed service where they bring out all your food within 20 or 30 minutes of sitting down (if I want fast food I’ll go to a fast food restaurant). Or bringing out the first food while I am enjoying a pre-dinner cocktail (I’ve pretty much given up on ordering them because of that). Or the smaller menus. Or surly and inflexible front of house who insist you sit in the table they’ve assigned you because that’s what’s on the iPad at their station. Or the waiters telling you that you have to be done by a certain time as soon as you sit down. And finally the payment device with a hardcoded 20% coded in handed to you by a hovering waiter. Bah humbug to all of that. I feel like I am renting a table, as opposed to being a guest.
I’m not the only one who is unhappy about it. Before he retired from the New York Times, Pete Wells wrote about how restaurants have changed and not for the better. I have to agree with him.
Maybe there are too many places chasing the fine dining experience but unable to provide it. I understand that: it’s hard to do. I mean, even the the French Laundry hasn’t aged well, according to Melissa Clark (also of the Times).
Perhaps we need to go back in time to when chefs (according to Jacques Pepin) were more like labourers and less like the rock stars you see in the bear season 3 with it’s chef cameos. I’m not sure that’s even possible any more. Everyone in the kitchen want to be Thomas Keller or Gordon Ramsey or Matty Matheson. No one wants to be Anthony Bourdain before he was famous.
I still love going out to restaurants, and there are a few places that offer great service, delicious food and fine ambience. It’s never a given you will get all three though, no matter what the prices on the menu say.
P.S. For more on how tipping has gotten out of control, check out these pieces: Tip-flation has some restaurants asking for up to 30% in tips and More and more places are asking for tips. Hidden cameras reveal who is and isn’t getting them and finally Tipping Isn’t about Service – It’s a Psychological Con Job and Waymo may let you tip — but there’s a catch in The Verge.
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