While I wish a different system was prevalent in US, one must deal with what
is. Having known a lot of waiters/waitresses over the years, only the most
professional in the top restuarants make what I would consider a nice living.
So I generally do not consider the tip a place to look to economize.

In a normal restaurant situation, I generally tip between 17 & 20% with the
range extending a few points in either direction for especially bad or good
service. I normally include the wine in my calculation, but seldom do I order a
wine over maybe $60. If I ordered a $200 bottle, I could see the justification
of adjusting my tip to 15% of total (food & wine) even with very good service.

I seldom pay high corkage charges, on the occasions I have I've tended to
substitute my retail price for the wine for the corkage in calculation(why
should waitstaff suffer because I brought a $100 bottle that would have been
$200 on list?).

If I bring my own wine and pay no corkage (at say a place where I know the wine
director), I will tip 25% as a matter of course.

In an offline situation, where my group monopolizes a table or a room for
hours, we include a tip of 20-25% including the corkage fee as the base when
splitting costs, with everyone invited to throw in a bit extra if they wish.

I do not offer these thoughts as guidance to anyone, just as what is
comfortable to me.

Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply