in article , Vincent at
wrote on 8/18/04 10:15 AM:

Vincent,

I think I see your logic here, but it raises the question of who gets the
corkage fee. If it goes to the the wait person I'm fine with your thought
process, though not at all sure I'd do it that way. If it goes to the
house
then the wait staff is penalized when you subtract the excess from their
tip.

I see what you're saying, but say - in theory - that there are two
restaurants, "A" and "B" that serve the same exact food, same service, same
prices, etc. Resaurant "A" gives the wait person the corkage fee, while
Restaurant "B" keeps the fee. The money I pay for the exact same dining
experience should not differ (the service fee I'm paying is based solely on
my experience, not for charity or any atempt to combat unfairness).

With that said however, in reality Restaurant "A" would be more likely to
have "better" wait people working for them (good waiters know which
restaurants are good to work for), thus Restaurant "B" would not be able to
match the service (and for the same food, same price, *lesser* service would
probably not be a place I frequent often). Sounds kinda Darwinian.

I'd bet there are people in this group who know, for sure, whether the
corkage fee becomes part of the tip. That would be educational to know.

That would be curious to know.


I tend to see this more from the view of the server and staff, who depend
largely on tips for a reasonable income. That's probably due, in part, to
having a sister-in-law and a daughter who have have pursued that line of
work often in their lives. Anyway, if in doubt as to who keeps the
excessive corkage fee, I would ask the server and tip accordingly.

Still hoping someone here sheds some light on the 'standard' practice in
restaurants regarding the fee. Second question added now would be whether
or not the practice is standard or can vary.