(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

JULIUS MEINL, YOU ARE SO FIRED.

Okay, quick disclaimer: I don't drink coffee. More accurately, I can't drink coffee, because it gives me headaches. I haven't had any since I was seventeen and realized the link between a coffee at seven and blindness at eight-fifteen. I am a morning person by nature so this rarely bothers me.

But this means that in my personal sphere, cafes are kind of pointless. I don't socialise well and I can't appreciate good coffee or even whine about bad coffee, and honestly it's ridiculous to pay like four dollars for a cup of stupid tea. So I don't go to cafes much.

But I've been meaning to try Julius Meinl because I heard it had really good pastries, and I can personally vouch for the fact that their crepes are awesome. Except, you know, they don't bring you anything with which to eat the crepes.

Okay I'm telling this story backwards.

I WENT TO JULIUS MEINL. I walked in and it was approximately the temperature of the sun inside, and also the host was, I don't know, having a smoke or something, so despite there being five people in Julius Meinl uniforms in the room, none of them would seat me until she got back. By then there was a line, and she briefly attempted to seat me with the three strangers behind me.

Once we sorted that out I asked for an outdoor table, because it was Very Warm indoors. I was seated, and the waiter showed up and took my order, which was a lemonade and a nutella crepe. Not rocket science, at least I assume not, I'm not good at making crepes but I don't ask people to pay seven dollars for my crepes.

Radio silence for twenty minutes. And I'm looking around myself thinking, you know, other people have waters. Other people have beverages they paid for, even.

And then a guy appears, a different guy from my waiter, and gives me a confused look.

"Are you the crepe?" he asks.

Yes. Yes I am the crepe.

He puts it down in front of me. "Did you want anything else?"

"Well," I said, "I'd like a glass of water, and the lemonade I ordered. And some silverware to eat my crepe with would be awesome."

I'm not proud of being a dick. My one consolation is that when I said this, the women at the table next to me started laughing like crazy.

So he disappeared and about five minutes later came back with silverware and a very warm lemonade. I assume because it had been sitting in a cafe the temperature of an active volcano, waiting to be brought to me, for twenty minutes.

FIRED.

Mind you, it was a very good crepe.

Comments

[serpentpixie.livejournal.com]

... I hope you didn't then tip them. I heard you people do that a lot in America ^^

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I always tip. We do it a lot here because our restaurants don't pay our waiters a living wage, so tips are sometimes all they get. Mind you, I didn't tip as much as I would have for decent service, but I can spare two bucks for someone whose job sucks a lot more than mine does, even if they're not very good at it.

[serpentpixie.livejournal.com]

Don't you have, like, a minimum wage? (Excuse my naivety - my only contact with America is from watching Friends and one stopover in Houston, once)
Surely the point of tipping is to reward good/acceptable service, not to continue to pay for poor service? To encourage good waiters to work harder to earn more money? Is that very cruel of me or something? - maybe I'm just a terrible person!

[butterbuns.livejournal.com]

A lot (most) places, the expected tips are factored into that, so waiters are only making like, 30% of what minimum wage actually is.

[serpentpixie.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's... harsh :/ My sister's a waitress and her hourly wage is less than mine (she's younger than me, so the minimum is lower) but she earns quite a lot more through tips because she's good at her job - it's one of the perks!

[butterbuns.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's not cool. There's states where it's like $2.13 or something for tipped workers.

Makes me glad I live elsewhere, heh.

[stephani673.livejournal.com]

My first waitressing job was $2.08/hr. After a year, they sat me down to go over a performance review, gave me glowing feedback, and informed me that they were bumping me up to $2.13. They clearly expected me to be thrilled about it -- I just started laughing.

[stephani673.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I was waiting tables at a buffet so many people thought they didn't have to tip. They had no problem with leaving me an enormous mess, though. One couple let their kid pee in a booth and didn't tell me about it so I only discovered when I kneeled in it.

That was a good day.

[blushingflower.livejournal.com]

There is a minimum wage in the US, yes (it's not necessarily a living wage though). However, restaurants have a different minimum wage, which is lower than the standard, with the assumption that tips will make up the difference. I've heard many stories of people getting paychecks from work that are for $0.00 because their actual wage got taken up in taxes. Technically, if you don't make enough in tips to bring you up to the minimum wage, your employer should make up the difference, but that frequently isn't the case. Partly b/c employees don't press the issue, since the assumption is that if you didn't make enough in tips, you're not doing your job well. You can make very good money in tips, depending on your shifts- I've hard many stories of people

And yes, the point of tipping is to reward good service, and there are many industries where the base rate is enough without those tips (we also tend to tip: hotel staff - maids and bellhops, valets, hairdressers, manicurists, massage therapists, tour guides, taxi drivers, and others, but that tends to be at a lower rate). Some people will leave a tip for waitstaff that is calculated to be exactly 20% (or 15, or whatever), down to the penny, as a way of sending the message that they felt the waiter did a shitty job. Leaving no tip sometimes sends a message, but waitstaff can also just think you're a jerk who doesn't tip.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

The ostensible point of tipping is to reward good service, yes, but the reality is more complicated. As someone else said, minimum wage rarely applies to waitstaff, and restaurants also employ a lot of under-the-table workers who won't be reporting their wages. Minimum wage in many parts of the US is also not a living wage -- you literally cannot live in Chicago on the minimum wage that Illinois has set.

And people won't eat, or can't afford to eat, at a restaurant that pays its waitstaff a living wage and still makes a profit. So the idea is that you pay a little less, but tipping is more or less obligatory, because it supplements the wage. The size of the tip has some impact, but as an indicator of service it's not really the best barometer.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I tip unless we get really catastrophic insane service.

Which we once got at the one place in town that was open 24-7. The waiter was scary.

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

If you want to read a darn good yarn AND unravel the mess that is the wage/tipping system for service people in the USA, I highly recommend Waiting (http://www.betterworldbooks.com/waiting-id-0060194790.aspx) by Debra Ginsberg.

[margi-lynn.livejournal.com]

I cannot second that rec enough.