Foreigners Don’t Tip. January 17, 2007
Posted by tkcollier in Business, Food, Humor, News.trackback
I WAS SERVED A FRENCH DI$$ IN N.Y. CAFE By JENNIFER FERMINO – New York Post Online Edition: Seven
A French-born Manhattan resident claims a trendy SoHo restaurant tacked a gratuity on his bill without telling him – then said it was to “protect” the waiters because foreigners don’t tip.
Everyone ordered their meals in accented English, then sat back and gabbed in their native tongue. They enjoyed a leisurely, two-hour meal, complete with a bottle of white wine, some raw-bar shellfish, four fish entrees and three side orders. The bill was $247.32 – including an 18 percent tip.
Audesson, a hair colorist at Pierre Michel, said when they asked the manager why the gratuitous gratuity was tacked on, he was told, “We do that because you’re foreign, and foreigners don’t tip.”
Hello Ms. Jennifer Fermino my name is Benjamin Raetz and I work at the Trattoria Del Arte’ right across from Carnegie Hall. I believe we have the best seafood pasta in New York City! Anyway, we do roughly 4-6 hundred dinners a night and a large percentage of our clientel are tourists. A good portion of these tourists are used to tipping 10% when dining out. Now I don’t mind getting a 10% tip and I think it’s kind of cool that they gave me what they feel is good. I do have a problem that I get into with my taxes. You see, the IRS taxes me on 17% of my gross. We call it our “hash” and it is the total sales before tax. The IRS says that we got roughly 17% from our costumers, give or take a few here and there. We declare everything!!!! So we get taxed on what is 17%, so what happenes when I get taxed 17% on the earnings of only 10%?
This is why we should have an allowance of this fact and be able to have a “Service Fee” applied. Say, 17% Don’t cha’ think?
Benjamin Raetz