I found this explanation:
"Wine Press: How much do you tip for a bottle of wine at a restaurant?
Bottles of wine on display in a Northampton, Massachusetts restaurant.
"Most people agree over how much you should tip for dinner at a restaurant.
If you ask most Americans, most of us would say 15 to 20 percent - although even here I think there can be some debate, since some people tip based on the bill including the tax and others exclude the tax from their tip calculations.
And don't even get me started on Europeans, especially Brits, speaking as someone who used to work in a restaurant (I won't say where) that often had a lot of British visitors. I understand waiters make more in Europe. American guidebooks are always going on and on about how you should never, ever tip more than 10 percent in England. But the message going the other way seems to have gotten lost somewhere across the Atlantic. No matter how hard we worked, no matter how great the service or the food, we never received more than 10 percent from the nicest, friendliest English people.
But if you really want to start a debate, ask people how much they think they should tip for a bottle of
wine served with lunch or dinner.
Suddenly, 15 percent or 20 percent doesn't apply for some people. Instead, I've read or heard people say it's appropriate to tip 10 percent on the wine, or even simply leave a flat fee (say $10 or $20) for a bottle.
The reason? Wine is marked up by two or often three times the price most of us pay for a bottle in a store. So why should I leave a $15 or $20 tip on a $100 bottle of wine, which would cost me $33 to $50 in a store, according to some people?
And what about a $200 bottle of wine, the same people might ask? Should you tip $30 to $40 for a wine that costs $66 to $100 at your local liquor store?
I agree that seems like a large tip for a bottle of wine you normally pay a lot less for when you're eating at home. But here's the thing - you're not at home. You're dining out in a restaurant that has to pay rent, insurance, taxes, health care and wages for these highly-skilled people who make your meal and your evening magical.
But perhaps most important, if you can afford to buy a bottle of wine for $200 when you go out to eat, I think you can afford to fork out $30 to $40 extra to tip the people serving your meal.
But I know not everyone agrees with me. I just wish I knew why. That's why I want to hear your thoughts on the matter in the
comments at the bottom of this story. I genuinely want to know why some people think it's perfectly fine to separate out the alcohol on a restaurant bill, but nothing else.
Why should I leave a $15 or $20 tip on a $100 bottle of wine, which would cost me $33 to $50 in a store?
Why not tip less for other overpriced items, like nachos or steak? You can probably buy a great cut of meat for much less at many supermarkets. The same goes for many items on many menus. Why not tip less for eggs? Or olives? Or bottled water? They're all marked way up.
Then again, there are worse things than tipping slightly less for a bottle wine. You could take a cue from Steve Buscemi's character, Mr. Pink, in Quentin Tarantino's debut film "Reservoir Dogs." As he explains near the beginning the movie to the shock of his fellow bank robbers, he doesn't tip waitresses. The reason? I'll let Mr. Pink explain....
"I don't tip because society says I have to. All right, if someone deserves a tip, if they really put forth an effort, I'll give them something a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, it's for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're just doing their job."
So what got me thinking about how much we tip for wine at restaurants? I was in a cab recently in New York City and, at the end of the ride, the electronic machine hanging from the barrier behind the driver asked me how much I wanted to tip. The machine gave three pre-selected options: 20 percent, 25 percent or 30 percent.
Where was the 15 percent option, I wondered? Or even 10 percent? And since when did 30 percent become an acceptable amount to tip?
I guess everything is relative. A 10 percent tip for wine might seem stingy to me. But a 30 percent tip for a 10 min cab ride seems downright outrageous.
As for the 1 percent of you who tip less every time you buy a $100 or $200 bottle of wine, consider setting aside the extra money you saved on tipping at a restaurant and give it to the maids cleaning your hotel room the next time you're on vacation. Or the kid delivering your newspaper. Or the person who shovels your driveway or mows your lawn. Or any of the other people that make many of our lives easier and don't get paid nearly enough.
You know who they are. And you know they could really use the extra money, no matter what Mr. Pink thinks.
Cheers!"
By Ken Ross
You aren't tipping the chef, but rather the people who delivered your meal/wine to your table. Does it take more effort to bring a bowl of soup rather than a bottle of wine? And does it take more effort to bring an expensive entree rather than just the soup? Yet you would pay more, and tip more, for the entree. We don't usually base our tips on difficulty of service, but on cost of the items. Even if the items are overpriced versus what we could purchase elsewhere. The Mom
Seriously, I think my husband and I paid more than that for drinks( Mimosa & Bloody Mary, and then a bottle of wine) when we had breakfast at Brennan's in New Orleans 20 years ago. But we went back to our hotel and took a little lie down.
