Peter Aitken wrote:

> I would never tip extra in this situation. By imposing a fixed "tip" the
> restaurant is in effect telling me that they think I am a cheap ******* who
> won't tip decently. If they think 18% (or whatever) is fine who am I to
> dispute that?

I think you'd be taking it too personally. We're talking about large
groups. The dynamics of getting a proper tip (and! the tax!) out of
a bunch of people who maybe work together but maybe don't have the
same sensibilities about how to tip/whatever, I've seen it all!

There's always the person who wants to pay to the penny for what they
ordered. Then who had a drink and who just had water. A nightmare.
Our secretary used to handle that well, she'd take care of everything.

Now, if it's just you and your wife, or some friends, and they
included the tip, that would seriously annoy me. But when you call
ahead, it's just better for everyone involved that there's no question
about the tip.

Funny, reminded my of my fil's 80th. We surprised him with a bd
dinner. They didn't specify the tip even though we had maybe 12
people.

Well, this was the first and only time I met one of my sil's husband.
What an ass. Everything was free, the flight in, the hotel, and I
was paying for dinner (not that anyone knew that), but he sure
wouldn't, being broke. He starts snapping his fingers, ordering
around the staff, then he ordered appetizers for his side of the
table. Hello, I would happen to like an appetizer. So the waitress
had to make two trips.

I was fuming, but you get the general idea how things went. Anyway,
we brought our own cake and the staff served it up for us. All was
well. Might be the only 100% tip I ever gave.

My point is, it's a mixed bag with a large group. Management is
right to protect their staff in these situations, I really think so.

nancy