“Dear PoPville,
On Valentine’s Day, after seeing a movie at Atlantic Plumbing, my wife and I went to Mita, right across the street, for a drink before going home for dinner. Sat at the bar, place seemed really nice. I ordered an Old Fashioned, my wife ordered a glass of wine off the menu.
When we finished our drinks, the bill came.
The bartender when he put it down inside a nice little hinged box explained that they’d added a 20% gratuity to the tab; we could add more of we chose.
I looked at the bill. It showed the drinks total, then the 20%, then the tax, then the full total. At the bottom it said they’d added “a 4% surcharge to all checks used to cover the increasing base wage for all tipped employees.” So, um, nothing about the 20%. And the 20% had been added AFTER the tax (but the bill didn’t show it that way – if you didn’t do the math, you’d think – just upon layout – that it was only based on the cost of the drinks. I called the bartender back over – to ask about the 4% (he said, “oh, that’s only for the tables.”). I asked if the menu had said anything about the 20% or the 4% – he said, no, not on the Valentine’s Day menu. I told him I thought the 20% was a bit excessive for two drinks at the bar AND applied after the tax. He seemed ashamed.
He took the bill away and came back a few minutes later, saying that they’d removed the 20%. We expressed our appreciation.
My wife and I like tipping well for good service; in fact, we ended up tipping 20% on the drinks total BEFORE taxes. But – really – the menu didn’t say anything, the tab said 4%, but they added 20%. And let’s not even talk about $25 for what seemed a 4 oz pour of wine.
A doozy!”