I have been living in Japan for over 10 years, where, as you may know, tipping is non-existant. Consequently, I have largely forgotten how to tip.

Tipping is just an embarrassment. The stated price should reflect the value of the product, and the person delivering the service should take pride in doing the job well for the salary agreed upon.

I detest tipping and service charges. Total cost should be stated in advance. That, and advertising, explain why restaurants post their menu outside the door.

Surcharges are justifiable if there is a temporary increase in costs such as now in the current fuel shortage. If the shortage persists (and in this case, I think it will), prices should be adjusted upward as soon as it is clear the situation is not temporary.

Best regards,
BNJ Tokyo

The New Yorker article essentially asks “why tip?” and looks at the historical origins, but it does little to address the merits of the Per Se scheme. It asks a good question, but I don’t think that most Americans are looking for a reason to tip. That question has long been decided. If anything, we need a history of the service charge in Europe, or rather a history of the “service compris” tradition. Why has tipping disappeared in so much of Europe? And to a lesser extent, how do Europeans like the service and the tipping policy in the US when they come here?

Secondarily, much of the press surrounding the Per Se policy focuses on the size of tips, and what variables affect tip percentage. Perhaps because it is less easily quantifiable than a %, less attention is being paid to the quality of the service.

What bothers me most about this whole business is the fact that so little press attention is directed to the restaurant’s top line revenue as it figures into the equation. The Trib article points to the disparity in pay between the workers at the front of the house and the workers at the back of the house, but it makes no effort to explain why the back of the house is paid so poorly to begin with. $30K a year in New York — or anywhere — is indeed crap, but why are they so poorly paid in a restaurant as good as Keller’s? And why does the service charge have to cover their salary? Why not price the meal to cover the expenses as they are?

This reminds me of airlines and their fuel surcharges, or hotels in California a few years ago with their “energy surcharges.” Basic costs of doing business were being passed on to consumers as a separate line item, without changing the base price. But these are industries that sell a (largely) commodified product, in which consumers are comparing Hilton vs Westin or American vs United on the basis of price. The surcharges, then, allow the companies to appear cheaper than they really are, for purposes of initial comparison in the search engines of the world. But restaurants are different: it’s not just about price. Is someone going to decide to go to Tru vs. Charlie Trotter’s because of a $5 difference in the prix fixe menu? Hardly. Keller should just raise the base price of the meal, or take a thinner profit for himself, if he wants to raise the wages of the kitchen staff.