My oldest daughter was a high end waitress, (in her undergraduate days,) and was always one of, if not the highest earner. Her secret?, tip out the kitchen staff and busboys. Her orders and tables always came first, thus much higher tips. Her competition was always to selfish and cheap.
Thanks!
That’s a great idea.
She still got as much as she normally would have so she didn’t come up short and they benefited as well.
Tipping works. I work in a smaller restaurant so no busboy, but I always tip out the bartender and on crazy nights when the kitchen kills it I tip them out as well. On the nights I close I cover the chef’s after work cocktails.
They work hard to keep customers happy and usually happy customers tip well. Even happy customers can be cheap sometimes. I recently had a reservation for 13 people. 17 people showed up. We quickly hauled another table from the back room (it was a busy night) and set it up for them. They ordered lots of appetizers and the drinks were flowing. The kitchen killed it and got their appetizers and entrees out quite quickly. Hostess helped me run the food and all went extremely smoothly. A 15% tip would have been $70. I was thinking about how I was going to tip out everyone because they all worked so hard on a tough night. I separated all the tabs and when I delivered them I heard the sticker shock the customers experienced. They were swearing when they saw their tabs. Prices were on the menu and no one forced them to drink so much. Needless to say that despite a fantastic experience the tips were awful-probably around 5%. It was a large reservation at the end of the evening so most of my section had been blocked off for them through the dinner rush. They were pretty much my only opportunity to make money that night. Hard to tip out the kitchen when that happens.