Tipping the Server

I feel that the custom of tipping your waiter or waitress (or server, whatever you call us that bring you refills of soda and plates of pancakes) is a well known one in our society.  In fact, most people know that a common tip is between 10% and 20% depending on how well the waiter did his job.  

And by his job, I mean HIS job.  His job is not to cook the food,  So if you ordered no tomatoes, don't expect him to dig around in your breakfast skillet to search for tomatoes.  Trust me, you don't want him to stick his hands in your food.  It is his job, however, to bring it back to the kitchen, have it fixed, and notify a manager of the mix-up.  Please don't decide to not tip him because of a kitchen mistake.  You want to save a buck?  Ask the manager about a discount although there are many who won't give it to you.

And if the kitchen is taking FOREVER to get your food (this sucks for all of us), don't blame the server.  Perhaps there was an accident in the kitchen, or maybe the host sat too many tables, or any number of other reasons that your well-done steak is taking more than 3.4 minutes (ok, that's a little snarky).  The point is, did your waitress refill your drinks?  Stop by the table to apologize and give you an update?  If she did, she did her job.  

If you get served crappy food, that is also not the servers fault.  If they fixed the situation for you, they did their job.  Tip them.

I also expected that people who tip knew what a tip was.  It is monetary.  Cash money.  Or credit card tips that turn into cash money.  Thanks for the pen with your business logo on it, but that doesn't pay the mortgage.  Thank you for your awesome note about how fabulous I am.  That doesn't put food in my kid's mouth.  The stickers promoting marijuana are cute, but they don't put gas in my car.  

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the pen.  And I appreciate the note, but...

CASH MONEY!!  It pays the bills.

This is not a tip:

However, this is. 

This adorable little elephant was given to me as a tip on top of a few more dollars.  And it MADE MY DAY.  Cash money and a cute little elephant that danced on the counters and my co- workers shoulders all day.  Awesome sauce.

The tip that was left for me was a nice tip.  The cash money equaled about 18% and the elephant was something to make me smile.  

I plan on passing this along to a server, bartender, or other tipped employee that I want to make smile.