Wednesday, July 28, 2010
What Would You Do?
A Canada Day a few years ago, a bunch of my friends went to a pub in Little Italy to take in the festivities. We must have been at the pub for 4 hours or so, enjoying some beers, good conversation, and plenty of laughs. I would guess our crowd swelled to about 20 people at our peak. But not all were impressed.
The bar we went to likes to keep things a little more quiet for the patrons. We didn't know that at the time. But as our group was large, they had us in the basement so we weren't around too many people to disturb regardless.
But they didn't think so.
I felt bad for our waitress when she asked us to "keep it down", as almost everyone looked at her in disbelief. It didn't matter that she threw in the fact her manager had asked us to keep quiet, I knew her four hours worth of tips from this table was gone. Everyone was irate. Our volume was in line with your typical bar, but if they like a quiet bar, well, we certainly didn't follow their protocol.
So I still left a tip. A couple of people asked me why, but my thought was it's not her fault her manager sent her over to keep us quiet. The service was good, very little waiting, and the drinks were tasty. Not much more to ask.
But some think you have to stick it to the establishment, and what better way than leaving a penny beside the paid bill, just to make sure the waitress knows there wasn't an oversight. They're acting as a representative of the business, right?
So was I being too soft still leaving 15%?
# posted by SBP : 10:19 PM
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I think you did the right thing, I would have left a proper tip cause that's the waitresses income and she did her job, but I would also tell the Manager that you wouldn't be returning because he can't decide if it's a pub or a quiet family restaurant.
Agreed. The server did her job -- she followed the directives of her supervisor AND managed to provide good service to the patrons.
(It's possible that other people at the pub that night had complained to the manager, and that he or she made the decision to demand quiet from your party -- action that might not have been taken had another party not complained.)
It's odd to expect low volume from a large group IN A PUB ON CANADA DAY (for goodness sake!), but if that was how the manager wanted it, displeasure could be expressed by settling up immediately and taking your considerable business elsewhere. Stiffing the waitress doesn't send as strong a message as stopping the flow of cash from your pockets to the till of the establishment.
(And, as Scooter suggested, a word with the manager directly would also be in order. At the very least, the manager might explain pub policy or reveal that someone outside of your group had complained about the noise.)
I'm guessing you never went back to that place (?)!
(It's possible that other people at the pub that night had complained to the manager, and that he or she made the decision to demand quiet from your party -- action that might not have been taken had another party not complained.)
It's odd to expect low volume from a large group IN A PUB ON CANADA DAY (for goodness sake!), but if that was how the manager wanted it, displeasure could be expressed by settling up immediately and taking your considerable business elsewhere. Stiffing the waitress doesn't send as strong a message as stopping the flow of cash from your pockets to the till of the establishment.
(And, as Scooter suggested, a word with the manager directly would also be in order. At the very least, the manager might explain pub policy or reveal that someone outside of your group had complained about the noise.)
I'm guessing you never went back to that place (?)!
Sure enough, I've never been back since! Not that I wouldn't go back...scooter reminded me the place is called Pub Italia. Sometimes a quiet drink is not a bad thing. I guess since their policy is unwritten, maybe a polite word when we first sat down about how they run their pub would have avoided the problem.
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