Lemaire

The beef swellington 100%

OpenTable and Resy showed a good number of reservations still available

I don’t disagree with you, my original comment was just to point out that in the food service industry in the US sometimes the person who meets you with the swivel of the iPad and tip option isn’t just handing you the food and has had a hand in putting the order together in another way. Some front of house staff are paid hourly, some are paid based on tips, and some are paid based on a combo. How you tip is up to you. Not your job as the customer to figure it out, but it is important to know it’s not all the same setup everywhere.

Because that’s the industry standard? Servers make around $2 an hour so the expectation is that patrons tip. I wish that wasn’t the case and that business owners pay a reasonable wage, but that’s not what’s going on. People handling to go orders could be on that end of the spectrum or they could be earning upwards of $15 an hour. As a customer, there’s no way to know without asking — my only point was to bring to light the concept that someone isn’t necessarily just handing you your food and expecting a tip. Tipping culture has gotten way out of hand for sure, but it’s not always black and white.

Sometimes the individual handing you your food was also involved in preparing the meal in some way. Both the restaurants I’ve worked at had front of house employees do some of their shift in the kitchen adding garnishes and things of that nature. I agree that it’s far less common to tip for takeout, but sometimes the person giving you your food is more involved than you might expect.