How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

We with a group and had a disagreement about the tip - do you tip a certain amount on the bottle s and then a tip on the rest or do you just tip off the entire bill or something else

How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

I would tip based on the entire bill. Just curious - why would it be different if bottles of wine are ordered?

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Personally, I would tip based on total bill.

How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

we tip on the entire bill - friends argued you that you tip $3-5 per bottle of wine not on the price of wine - we were drinking red and about $100 a bottle so we were arguing over about a difference of about $60 in the total tip

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

I know a lot of people who tip different for drinks than for the meal portion of the check. We don't really order a lot of alcohol out, so we usually just tip the 20% on the total, but I think it makes sense to tip a lesser amount on a bottle of wine. Think about it this way - when you order a drink from a bar do you tip 20% of the drink(s)? Probably not, so I can see how this reasoning would apply to bottles of wine at dinner.

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

If you were drinking several bottle of expensive wine I could see doing a lesser tip than % of total bill.

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

I wouldn't even think to tip any differently, I would just do the basic 20% of the bill (or more if there's a special reason). I don't see why the wine would change anything.

eta- In college I was a waitress at an upscale restaurant and people always tipped on the bill total. Often there were expensive bottles of wine on the bill and I never noticed this affecting the tip.

Message edited 7/1/2013 11:05:46 AM.

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

I tip on the whole bill. The server gets taxed on total sales. Servers usually declare 8-10% of sales as the tip amount.

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

I always tip 20% based on the total bill, but then again, I don't order $100 bottles of wine.

I also don't see how your're supposed to give a bigger tip because something is more expensive. The waiter is performing the same service for you when you order a bottle of wine no matter the price of the bottle, so why should you tip more just because the bottle is more expensive?

BTW I have worked as a server before.

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

I would tip based on the bill amount.

I don't understand the rationale of drink versus food or expensive versus cheap.

If you go to a fancy restaurant where your entree costs say $50 versus a diner where your entree costs $10, is it any more effort for the waiter to carry the $50 over the $10?

It makes no sense to me.

If you can afford a $100 bottle of wine, you can afford to tip 15-20%.

what about a glass of club soda versus wine? I'm not sure what the distinguishing factor is.

Message edited 7/1/2013 11:28:12 AM.

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Message edited 7/1/2013 12:03:24 PM.

How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

We tip based on total amount but luckily where we are in Jersey there are a lot of BYOB's so alcohol doesn't factor in often at all. However, I will say I've seen people tip less then 20% of an expensive bottle of wine, and as a prior server I've had it done to me. I believe that if you're going to go to an expensive restaurant you should be able to tip servers accordingly (one would hopefully expect that you'd get much better service at a nice restaurant than say a Denny's), but at the same time, the server isn't doing anything more with $100 bottle of wine then they would be with a $30. However, I also remember having to tip out the barstaff based on a percentage of my alcohol total, so if you tip less because of the price of your bottle of wine, the server may have to tip the bartenders out of their own "profit"

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Posted by blustar214

Posted by chilltocam

Posted by blustar214

I know a lot of people who tip different for drinks than for the meal portion of the check. We don't really order a lot of alcohol out, so we usually just tip the 20% on the total, but I think it makes sense to tip a lesser amount on a bottle of wine. Think about it this way - when you order a drink from a bar do you tip 20% of the drink(s)? Probably not, so I can see how this reasoning would apply to bottles of wine at dinner.

When sitting at the bar its usually $1-$2 per drink, which can be at least close to 20% anyway but even if its not, my rationale would be that the bartenders do not provide the same amount of service as a waiter or waitress. At the bar, they make your drink, end of story. The waiter or waitress is providing much more service -bringing bread, extra napkins, answering questions about the menu, dealing with special requests - all kinds of things.

Yes, but you are already tipping them the 20% of the meal portion, just not adding 20% to them opening the wine bottle for you

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Posted by chilltocam

Posted by blustar214

Posted by chilltocam

Posted by blustar214

I know a lot of people who tip different for drinks than for the meal portion of the check. We don't really order a lot of alcohol out, so we usually just tip the 20% on the total, but I think it makes sense to tip a lesser amount on a bottle of wine. Think about it this way - when you order a drink from a bar do you tip 20% of the drink(s)? Probably not, so I can see how this reasoning would apply to bottles of wine at dinner.

When sitting at the bar its usually $1-$2 per drink, which can be at least close to 20% anyway but even if its not, my rationale would be that the bartenders do not provide the same amount of service as a waiter or waitress. At the bar, they make your drink, end of story. The waiter or waitress is providing much more service -bringing bread, extra napkins, answering questions about the menu, dealing with special requests - all kinds of things.

Yes, but you are already tipping them the 20% of the meal portion, just not adding 20% to them opening the wine bottle for you

But they usually provide the service of coming back to pour the wine each time a glass is empty, so I see no difference in the amount of the tip. I wouldn't tip less because I could have ordered a $20 entree instead of a $30 entree, so I don't see why I would tip less on a more expensive bottle of wine.

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

We tip as a percentage of the total bill period. If we order expensive wine that gets factored in the same way. It makes no sense to me to tip any less on the wine then the food. If you order a teak versus a burger you don't tip less on the steak because its the same effort as bringing out a burger.

Also, what if you don't order a bottle but instead everyone at the table orders several glasses of wine ( which could daily amount to several bottles). Would one the bifurcate the cost of all those glasses of wine and then tip separately on the wine??

Honestly, we go out to eat often and have never seen it done that way - it seems cheap to me.

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

I tip 20% on the food portion before alcohol and tax....and my only rationale is that this is what my mother always told me to do...

Message edited 7/1/2013 1:00:07 PM.

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Posted by blustar214

Posted by chilltocam

Posted by blustar214

Posted by chilltocam

Posted by blustar214

I know a lot of people who tip different for drinks than for the meal portion of the check. We don't really order a lot of alcohol out, so we usually just tip the 20% on the total, but I think it makes sense to tip a lesser amount on a bottle of wine. Think about it this way - when you order a drink from a bar do you tip 20% of the drink(s)? Probably not, so I can see how this reasoning would apply to bottles of wine at dinner.

When sitting at the bar its usually $1-$2 per drink, which can be at least close to 20% anyway but even if its not, my rationale would be that the bartenders do not provide the same amount of service as a waiter or waitress. At the bar, they make your drink, end of story. The waiter or waitress is providing much more service -bringing bread, extra napkins, answering questions about the menu, dealing with special requests - all kinds of things.

Yes, but you are already tipping them the 20% of the meal portion, just not adding 20% to them opening the wine bottle for you

But they usually provide the service of coming back to pour the wine each time a glass is empty, so I see no difference in the amount of the tip. I wouldn't tip less because I could have ordered a $20 entree instead of a $30 entree, so I don't see why I would tip less on a more expensive bottle of wine.

Someone also comes back to refill your water glass, but you don't tip on how many glasses of water you order. Idk, like I said, we don't really order a lot of alcohol at dinners out, so it's not an issue for us, but I wouldn't think that someone is wrong, or cheap, to not tip 20% on bottles of wine at dinner.

Re: How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

Posted by chilltocam

Posted by blustar214

Posted by chilltocam

Posted by blustar214

Posted by chilltocam

Posted by blustar214

I know a lot of people who tip different for drinks than for the meal portion of the check. We don't really order a lot of alcohol out, so we usually just tip the 20% on the total, but I think it makes sense to tip a lesser amount on a bottle of wine. Think about it this way - when you order a drink from a bar do you tip 20% of the drink(s)? Probably not, so I can see how this reasoning would apply to bottles of wine at dinner.

When sitting at the bar its usually $1-$2 per drink, which can be at least close to 20% anyway but even if its not, my rationale would be that the bartenders do not provide the same amount of service as a waiter or waitress. At the bar, they make your drink, end of story. The waiter or waitress is providing much more service -bringing bread, extra napkins, answering questions about the menu, dealing with special requests - all kinds of things.

Yes, but you are already tipping them the 20% of the meal portion, just not adding 20% to them opening the wine bottle for you

But they usually provide the service of coming back to pour the wine each time a glass is empty, so I see no difference in the amount of the tip. I wouldn't tip less because I could have ordered a $20 entree instead of a $30 entree, so I don't see why I would tip less on a more expensive bottle of wine.

Someone also comes back to refill your water glass, but you don't tip on how many glasses of water you order. Idk, like I said, we don't really order a lot of alcohol at dinners out, so it's not an issue for us, but I wouldn't think that someone is wrong, or cheap, to not tip 20% on bottles of wine at dinner.

But whether they pay attention to re-filling water glasses is part of the service that the tip reflects. Good service = bigger tip. And for me, the percentage is based on the total bill, not less because I ordered a more expensive item. (And actually, if I only drank water with a meal and they had to come back numerous times to re-fill my water glass, I might think to throw in a little extra)

How do you tip when bottles of wine are ordered

I wouldn't even think to tip anything other than 20%. But this makes me glad I don't really drink when I go to restaurants.