Don’t Skip the Tip

I’m a server at a local restaurant. I’ve been a career professional in the service industry here in Santa Barbara for 25 years now, and I work at a popular eatery downtown.

Last night I waited on three people who wanted separate checks. They wanted their food on one separate check each and the alcohol bill on a fourth. First off, separate checks are a pain in the butt for servers. Why can’t people realize this? We loathe it, trust me, but not as much as what happened next.

When I came out with four separate checks for these three people, they paid and they did not tip on the alcohol portion! What on Earth makes anyone think that this is acceptable behavior? It was directly stiffing me. If the entire bill were on one check that means they would just not have been tipping on $30 of that check. This is not okay regardless of how you divide the checks.