I usually figure 17-23% for the food, and 10% for the wine. However I do
have a minimum and maximum of $5 and $20 per bottle. If I bring my own wine,
then I only pay the corkage fee (no tip) for the wine. And should the
corkage fee exceed $25 (that has only happened once, it was $35), I subtract
the difference (the $10 in that case) from the food portion of the tip. Did
not feel too bad, since they still got 15% (base food price was $280; I was
tipping at 19%, based on slightly better than average service, so the tip
was $43.20 instead of the $53.20 they would have gotten).


Tricky wrote in message
This has been bothering me for a while now. In the US, when ordering
an expensive bottle of wine, do you include that in your usual 15-20 %
tip? I've had people tell me they do and they don't.
I can understand if you order a $50.00 bottle, it's not a big deal,
but if you spend more than, say, $ 150.00 or so, should you really
have to give the waiter that extra 30 bucks? What about a 400 dollar
bottle? Does the waiter really expect an 80 dollar cut? Or is it
acceptable just to tip on the food? Anyone?


Tricky