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The internet has been ablaze with opinions about tipping. When should people do it? How much should people leave? Everyone seems to have thoughts.
One thing people typically agree on is tipping at a sitdown meal is standard and expected. That’s because servers in the U.S. still rely on tips to make up for their relatively low minimum wages. The federal tipped minimum is just $2.13 per hour. And some servers have stories of high net worth or celebrity patrons leaving massive tips that pay a month’s worth of bills … or next to nothing.
Stephen Zagor, a New York-based professor who worked in the service industry for decades, has seen it all. Zagor worked as the general manager of a popular Italian restaurant in Manhattan in the mid 1990s.
“Every night we would get half a dozen or so major celebrities in there,” he says, adding that, “some were notoriously cheap and some would always tip 75% or 100%.”
Here are a few of his standout stories.
One ‘very well-known’ film producer ‘would tip 100%’
One weekly regular was “a very well-known” film and Broadway producer who “was mostly known for comedies,” says Zagor.
“He always would bring in various celebrities along with him and he would always pick up the check,” says Zagor. “He always had a certain table that he frequented, which was in the high traffic area near the front. And he would tip 100%” every time.
He was “quite famous in his day,” says Zagor, but has since passed away.
One ‘world famous’ comedian left ‘large tips’ for coat room employees
A “world famous” comedian — standup, TV, movies, “all of the above” — would come in frequently as well. He split his time between New York, Los Angeles and on location during filming, but when he was in town, “we were pretty much a normal watering hole for him,” says Zagor.
He’d come in with his wife and “would always tip 100%, or even more,” he says.
Once, the restaurant’s white napkins left lint on his wife’s dress and she “got very angry at all of us,” says Zagor. But that didn’t deter the comedian from tipping generously. And that didn’t extend to just the wait staff.
“He would actually go downstairs to tip the reservationist,” says Zagor. He would call and make his own reservations, and after his meals, “he would go downstairs where the reservationists were sitting in an office, which was not even in the public site, and ask if he could tip her.”
He would also leave “very large tips to the coat room employees.”
A ‘high box office’ movie star left ‘15% at the most’
On the other side of the spectrum were the not-so-great tippers.
“You had a pretty well-known movie actor who was totally the opposite” of the big tippers, says Zagor. This was a younger actor who’d make “high box office,” adventure-oriented films. He wasn’t based in New York, so “was just an occasional guest.” He’d usually come in with a couple of other people.
“And he would always leave very little tip,” Zagor says. “It was always 15% at the most.” With many patrons leaving 20% to 25%, even 15% was comparatively low.
A ‘very, very, very well-known singer’ left a $1 tip
Finally, you have the down-right offensive tippers.
“There was one very, very, very well-known singer,” says Zagor. “And she’s been around a while.” This singer came in once, ordered a couple hundred dollars worth of food, then “left a $1 tip,” he says. When she came in a second time, she left a $1 tip again.
Remember that restaurant workers “make a lot of their income from tips,” says Zagor. “I would like all of the guests to realize that they need the money.”
You don’t have to tip 100%, of course, but etiquette experts recommend that if you’re sitting down at a restaurant, tip in the 15% to 20% range.
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