Sometimes I wonder if we’re doing this tipping thing all wrong.

Leaving a Tip: A Custom in Need of Changing?

Try one of these techniques if you want better service in restaurants:

1. Become very famous;

2. Spend $1,000 or more on wine every time you go out;

3. Keep going to the same restaurant until you get V.I.P. treatment; if that doesn’t work, pick another place.

Now, here is a technique that is guaranteed to have no effect on your service: leave a generous tip.

I’ve tipped slightly above the average for years, generally leaving 20 percent of the total, no matter what. According to one study, lots of people are just like me, sticking with a reasonable percentage through good nights and bad. And it doesn’t do us any good, because servers have no way of telling that we aren’t the hated type that leaves 10 percent of the pretax total, beverages excluded.

Some servers do try to sniff out stingy tippers, engaging in customer profiling based on national origin, age, race, gender and other traits. (The profiling appears to run both ways: another study showed that customers tended to leave smaller tips for black servers.)

I could go on against tipping, but let’s leave it at this: it is irrational, outdated, ineffective, confusing, prone to abuse and sometimes discriminatory. The people who take care of us in restaurants deserve a better system, and so do we.  

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This is a smidge old but oh-so-cool!

Mystery Tipper Gives Servers Enormous Tips in Utah

Although big tips pop up from time to time, it is very rare to find a serial big tipper. But that’s exactly what the town of Ogden, Utah has on its hands: someone is going around town, racking up bar tabs, and tipping thousands on them. First, the mysterious tipper left a $5,000 tip on a $214.75 bar tab at Brewski’s. Notes the Standard-Examiner, “Proprietors of Brewski’s have declined comment on the tipping incident there; word on the street is that the windfall may have caused hard feelings among some members of the bar’s staff.”

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Some of these look like so much fun to stop and eat while shopping!!

Best In-Store Restaurants

Many of the world’s greatest shops now have the perfect accessory: a fantastic restaurant that rivals the cutting-edge fashions and terrific home design items found within.—Chadner Navarro

This response to last week’s infamous reduction in star for DANIEL is a smidge long but well worth getting to the bottom and reading what Amanda Cohen from Dirt Candy has to say.  I like her.  She’s funny.

Chefs, Restaurateurs and Writers on VIP Treatment

Last week, New York Times critic Pete Wells knocked Daniel down from four stars to three. In the piece, Wells explained that during the review process he had arranged for a colleague to dine at the restaurant at the same time. That plan, according to the critic, ended up revealing a discrepancy between the level of service given to Wells and the unidentified colleague — one that merited a demotion. “I knew my servers were trying to make my night one I’d recall with a smile,” Wells wrote. “And I wished everyone could be so lucky.”  READ MORE

Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill

I’ve written a number of good to great reviews so far and you may be saying to yourself that I seem to like every restaurant I go to.  Well, I played rope a dope with you a bit.  I wrote great reviews of a few of my favorite restaurants so I stacked the deck a bit.  That is now over.

Gordon Ramsay’s Pub & Grill has been written up a good bit and all of the reviews were quite good so I had high expectations.  My Mom and I stopped in right after lunch time to grab a quick bite and check it out.

First off, the waiters and waitresses have these slightly bondage style uniforms that at first seem really fun but slowly just appear trashy.  The space is large and although there were some fun looking low tables and large chair areas, they sat us right on the railing looking out to the casino.  Our waiter started out fun and brash but quickly veered off into weird and annoying.

We ordered the Little Piggy Deviled Eggs and I have to tell you I’m a deviled egg fan so I liked it.  It had this fascinating vinegar taste to it that very much reminded me of London.  My mother did not like it at all.

The sliders were next and they were fabulous.  Cooked just right.  Not much more to say there.  Then the inevitable happened.  Rubbish.

I love corned beef so I had high hopes for the Dublin Corned Beef Brisket Sandwich.  It came out in a sourdough bread bowl covered with cheese.  Inside were corned beef chunks in sauerkraut but I’m loathe to call it beef because it was so fatty, it was almost inedible.  My mother was not impressed.

I hate to end on a low note so I will give Gordon props for picking his bartender.  I had a Mother’s Ruin (gin) that was downright lovely.  Unfortunately though, this is what I call a “no reason to go back”.  Thank goodness Ramsay’s Steak the next night was much better.

Heather’s Rating: No Need to Return

BOA

Although our Christmas holiday involved more food than anyone could ever consume, we found ourselves watching the Food Network non-stop this past Saturday.  If you recall, the morning started out cold but dry and quickly devolved into a rainy, soggy mess.  I was out on my bike and got caught in the rain - fun.  So once I got home, all I wanted to do was sink into our bed and watch tv.  And watch tv we did.  In the early afternoon we were starting to get very hungry as we watched a series of restaurant shows on The Travel Channel.  One in particular, Food Paradise, was all about steakhouses.  We learned about dry-aging beef, wet-aging beef and how to get the best cuts of meat from a cow.

We were all dying for a steak and started calling around town to secure an early reservation with the kids.  Mastro’s was booked, Lawry’s was going to be too touristy but BOA was reasonably close and could seat us at 5:30p.  Perfect!  

We threw on slightly nicer clothes, slicked down the kids’ hair and took off for Santa Monica.  As we walked in, our son asked where the pictures were on the walls - unfortunately, he thought we were going to The Palm which he saw on that show.  Now I’m forced to take him there one day soon.  Only WE would have kids that think going to The Palm is normal.

I’ve eaten at BOA many times and this trip didn’t disappoint.  We started off with a special bruschetta appetizer with ricotta cheese, cherry tomatoes and truffle oil that was heavenly and a picture perfect chop salad.  The steaks were wonderful although my gigantic Porterhouse (to share with the kids - hello!) was much more rare than the “medium to medium well” I asked for.  I also really loved the wine menu with a number of unique, hard to find wines but mostly the half-bottles that allowed the two of us to try two different wines without spending a small fortune.

The coup de grace of the evening though was the perfectly square mound of blue cotton candy they made for the kids.  They went nuts.  Everyone around us was in awe of it and it was awe worthy.  For a last minute trip out for “cow” as my daughter said, it was a pretty great night.

Heather’s Rating: Worth Going Back Again 

BOA

101 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica 90401

(310)899-4466

Reservations