Some Words on Restaurant Culture

I have been a server since I was 18. My dad is a bartender.  I have aunts and cousins that are servers. My sister is a server. My other sister was a server. My life has kind of been surrounded by life in the service industry, which compounds based on my own 7 years in the business, making friends with my fellow servers, bartenders and kitchen staff. So of course, I have some pretty strong opinions about the subject, especially where tipping is involved.

Last night, Brandon and I went wandering around looking for a place to get a beer, preferably with a happy hour price. At our first stop, El Hipopotamo, we waited for about 10 minutes at a table, and no one came to take our order. It wasn’t particularly busy, so maybe we should have been thinking what the eff? but that is typically what a person can expect at restaurants in Buenos Aires. We know. We weren’t too pissed about it, but nothing on the menu looked cheap enough to wait any longer, so we just decided to leave. We went to a nice, green, vegetarian restaurant that we’d been too before (and received great service, for Argentina, anyway).  I thought I remembered them having a 2x1 special on certain drinks, so it seemed like a good plan. When I asked the waiter about the 2x1s, he seemed to have no clue what I was talking about. We sat down anyway, to think, or give up and just stay, not really wanting to wander around anymore. But after another 10 minutes of no one coming to the table (this is a SMALL restaurant, almost no other customers), we left. By this point, we were frustrated (I wanted a damn drink!) but didn’t want to go to the store and buy beers and drink them at home like we always do, thinking that would make us feel defeated.

We wandered a little longer until we found a cute little Middle Eastern restaurant with an appetizer plate of falafel and hummus advertised on a chalkboard for only 30 pesos, plus the beer prices were reasonable. Stopped in front of the restaurant for only a couple seconds, and a young guy came out to coax us into the empty restaurant (it was too early for dinner, that’s why all these places were empty, no reflection of the quality). He seemed nice, we’d probably get prompt service, so what the hell, we went in. We got out beer right away, but we were quickly informed that the appetizer plate advertised on the chalkboard was a lunch special. Really? Then why don’t you put the chalkboard inside??? Now I was starting to get angry. All we wanted was a simple, good time without having to spend too much money. Whatever, Brandon ordered some hummus and we sat there and had a nice conversation until the miniscule portion of hummus and bread was gone, our beers drained. We sat there watching the waiter talk on the phone and laugh with some woman up at the counter for 10-15 minutes before another employee, the cook I think, came over with our bill. A bill that charged us an extra fee, a cubierto (common in nicer restaurants), supposedly for seating and the bread they bring at the beginning of the meal. I’m not a fan of the cubierto, mostly because the bread they bring over isn’t worth it, and more than that, don’t charge me something without asking if I want it! You know what ended up happening? We didn’t leave a tip. Why should we? The service was horrendous, the portions were small, they didn’t even have the kind of beer we ended up receiving listed on the menu, and the cubierto sure didn't help.

FYI, it’s customary to leave a 10% tip for servers in Argentina, or at least in Buenos Aires. Normally, we do. I’m not sure exactly how much servers make, but it isn’t like in Europe where servers make a good wage and their livelihood doesn't depend on their tips. The wage for most regular jobs here (teaching English included) is quite low, so leaving a tip will really help the servers out, I’m sure. Why then the awful service? Why, at the end of the meal, leave your customers sitting there waiting for their bill for a long period of time?  How could that possibly contribute to their desire to leave you a tip? The worst part is that I end up feeling bad, because in the states, I will always leave something, usually 15% for poor to moderate service, and 20% for good service. Then again, the standards for service in the states are different. If I received service like I usually get here, I might not leave anything. How can someone expect a tip here when they aren’t providing tip-worthy service? You’d think if you’re trying to make a decent living, you’d do what you could to make that happen. It’s kind of maddening.

There are plenty of people in the states who make arguments against tipping—thinking that they shouldn’t be EXPECTED to tip, shouldn’t receive dirty looks when they walk out leaving you $5 on a tab of $100. (This guy in particular is one of those up on his soapbox of anti-gratuity, I’m sure all of his uneducated figures help him sleep at night.) I want people like him to come here and see what bad service is like. I bet I’d be hard-pressed to find even one of them that would find this service acceptable, though they don’t want to tip.

Even in states (like on the West coast) where servers earn a regular minimum rage as opposed to a low server wage (like in Wisconsin, $2.33/hr), if you want someone to wait on you, bring you everything you want, when you want it, and then if something is wrong with it, end up taking all of your negative bullshit like it’s no thang, then you better show it. If you’re not tipping, you’re going to end up with servers like here in Argentina, because who would do that job?? You’ll see who, and you won’t like it. The entire restaurant culture in the USA that everyone knows and loves will be ruined.