The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - October 6, 2000

236 AND COUNTING
The National Coffee Survey is off and running. As of this writing, we have 236 responses -- nearly 25% of the way to our goal. If you have not shared your opinions, please take a minute to do it now at <http://www.restaurantdoctor.com/survey/> It will take less than two minutes. When we hit 1000 responses, we will have a random drawing for $2000 in cash prizes. Lest you be concerned, your privacy is assured -- the only person who will contact you is me . . . to tell you who won the money. It might be you!

If you are part of a multi-unit organization, please pass this information along to the other managers in the group. If you have colleagues in the industry, please tell them about it. The sponsor doesn't care who gets the money, they just want a representative sample of information!

A MINOR RANT
Bob Swaney of Newport News, VA asks:
"When will waiters and waitresses be taught to take the money and just bring back the change? The growing practice of asking 'Do you want change back?' is annoying and with me is an automatic 5% decrease in the tip. It says to me 'I expect a tip and I don't want to have to come back to your table to get it. Once you pay me, we're finished!'"

A note from the Doc:
What are your servers doing? How do you know? When was the last time you talked about something like this in a staff meeting? One of the stealth problems we create with turnover, a scramble for staff and the tight labor market is the possibility that our service crew may cop an attitude like this because they think they can get away with it. Unless you set a standard and enforce it, you are abdicating your leadership role. At that point, it is no longer your restaurant.

ANOTHER SLICE OF LIFE
The question from Steven Lycett:
I have been a daily patron at a 24 hour diner for about 5 years. In the past year few months, I have increased my tips to $5 per meal. Typically, (being that it is a diner), my meals only cost $8 to $12 so $5 a meal gratuity is a very generous tip considering that I eat there twice a day.

Since I also go there to meet friends, I sometimes spend 2-3 hours after a meal drinking coffee and chatting, which although it is low maintenance for the waiter (who occasionally refills coffee maybe once every 40 minutes) I feel further justifies my $5 tip (not to mention that others at the table also leave a tip).

One waiter in particular who works the late night shift, has started to use the length of time we stay as extortion, exclaiming loudly after and hour or so "anyone who's been here more than an hour, pay rent or leave". Stupidly, when the place was actually busy a friend of mine and I tipped $15 or more for the privilege of staying and finishing our conversation. Bad mistake ! Since then this particular waiter now starts asking our group to leave after an hour or so even when the restaurant is empty. This is also something directed at us since we are long time customers. I have never seen the waiter say anything to other customers that are not regulars or ones that he does not know (probably because he can't).

I have stopped tipping the waiter since, or tipping $1-3, however it makes for a pretty miserable time when I go to eat and talk to friends. What are my legal rights in this matter as a patron? If a waiter can kick out patrons after a certain time limit, what is that time limit and should it not be applied across the board to all patrons? If it is not applied across the board is it a case of discrimination ?

I am searching for laws governing such situations if there are any. I am sure there at least an SOP that restaurant owners follow. Please advise. My intention is to speak to the manager and owner about this but it would be nice to know what the word of the law is on this.

My humble response:
In my opinion, this waiter should be supported into a career in auto parts! Despite what he may think, he does not run the restaurant and does not have the right to eject a guest. If it were my place, any waiter who made the remarks you mention would have been sent packing that night! The issue is not the amount of the tip that you leave the waiter but the amount of business you bring to the restaurant. You need to be talking with the management about this loose cannon. If management has abdicated the leadership role to this guy, find a new place to hang out.

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