Waiter, split that check

[palo]

@weinoo: Sometimes the weight of the world is self-imposed.

 

@patrickamory: Other than common practice, what is the rationale behind this? I alluded to the fact that this decision might be slanted as to how we are perceived by our fellow diners. Does this influence our aversion to separate checks?

 

p

[radtek]

With some people and certain establishments I prefer separate checks. Depends on the situation. Am I on a date? 

[gulfporter]

Separate checks are pretty rare among the New Yorkers I know… in fact I can't remember the last time I was in a party that requested them.

In today's cashless society, none of my friends (nor I) carry cash.  

 

So, what do you NY'ers do when there's one check and 3 couples and no one has any cash on them??   Or are NY'ers still carrying wads of money?

Edited April 5, 2015 by gulfporter (log)

[radtek]

I had to loan my buddy $20 last night for cash-only Vietnamese. He's one of the ones I quit splitting the check with...

[BeeZee]

my husband and I often dine out with another couple who do not eat as much as we do...they often share an entree. So when it comes time to "split" the bill, we decide amicably on an amount to be contributed. The other couple always offers to split the check, but we will throw in a couple of extra dollars to offset the difference (often it is easiest for us to pay the tip to offset the difference). I agree that it is harder to work things out with larger groups, or heaven forbid, co-workers, where there are too many personalities to accommodate (or hidden politics).

[Tri2Cook]

I don't understand why groups who intend to pay separately would have an aversion to requesting separate checks. Separate checks when paying separately doesn't feel like a burden to me, it feels like common sense. For those not wanting to divide it evenly, why put it all together and then spend time taking it all back apart? The idea that it's some sort of burden on waitstaff is silly. I've worked in places where each guest got their own check as standard policy and it didn't cause any problems or confusion for the waitstaff or the kitchen. If the group is fine with one check, great. If the group wants separate checks, get separate checks*. It really is that simple.

*And if you have that one bigshot in the group that always tells the server to put it on one check after the rest of the group asks for separate, when the check comes, hand it to him/her and say thanks.  



 

[MetsFan5]

Really?  IMO that is simply not true.  But perhaps it points to what your milieu is and the circumstances you move in.  I might suggest that one's experiences might not be universal, even if the "general thrust" of the dominant sector of society might say that something is "universal".

 

Cash is very much present in the US economy to this day.  Whether in New York or elsewhere.  I myself carry in my wallet several hundred in cash all the time.  It is very useful.

I dined out today and we all, collectively decided that splitting a check via credit was more appealing than throwing wads of cash around. I regularly carry about $400 in cash, but we utilized our credit cards for reward purposes. And when I lived in NOLIta? I never paid cash. Same with when I worked in Union Square. Cash is not the king when dining in NYC. As someone who lived next door to SoHo.

[Deryn]

 

 

*And if you have that one bigshot in the group that always tells the server to put it on one check after the rest of the group asks for separate, when the check comes, hand it to him/her and say thanks.  



 

 

Interesting choice of word to describe someone (like me) who has always thought it was just nice/decent to pay for others if I could. It is the way I was raised and the way my father/family always did it. If I enjoy the company of those I am eating with and have the wherewithal to pay for the meal, I always offer to do so - and I mean it - and I have, many many times.

 

Thanks IS all that was ever desired but even if that wasn't received, it is no big deal (although if I paid 20 times in a row and never heard a word, I might have reconsidered, but that has never happened - except with my own children). But, to hear that doing that for someone else connotes something (that I want to be or am some sort of 'bigshot') that never even occurred to me before saddens me. I guess it is a good thing I don't get out much any more.

 

Luckily, I don't think my kids have learned this annoying habit from me so their generation is safe. Their only real problem will be if their calculators/phone apps don't work and they have to add/divide things up manually - could be messy since many of them can't do simple math.


 

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Separate (or non) checks usually come up, in my experience during work outings, and they are a NIGHTMARE.

 

In this area, many of the better value for quality restaurants are mom and pops, and they are cash only. I don't have time in my life to analyze their software or motivation for doing it that way, but I do know that many of these establishments refuse to split checks for large groups, like yeah, co-workers going out to lunch together.

 

Amedeo's:  http://www.amedeosrestaurant.com/   and

http://www.yelp.com/biz/amedeos-italian-restaurant-raleigh

 

I love their food and the DeAngelis family who have operated their restaurant for over 50 years. I do not love their policies.

 

Whenever a group of us would go out there from the YMCA "family" we would get one check, and it wasn't even itemized per person or order. I learned to bring a pocket calculator to break it down after our first outing. I tend to be thrifty, and I really got stiffed my first time out. So here I am doing all this work to make everything equitable for everyone on what is supposed to be a fun break from work, and with a tiny keyed calculator, when I can run a full-sized 10-key at speeds that impress seasoned accountants. Frustrating in the extreme, and I'm sure I made no friends of what I consider thieves who over-ordered anticipating the check to be split without consideration of who got and ate what. Then everyone changed each others cash between one another, and paid me and I brought it all up to the register sometimes with a LOT of change.  GAH!  Fortunately, everyone already knew it was cash only. SituationNormalAllF'dUp.

 

I started with the Y in accounting and moved to IT, so it was nothing for these folks to exploit me. They did it all the time. Screw up their computer through operator error, just ruin my day/life, who cares? Support personnel. I would have opted out of these lunches, but anyone who's worked knows that the social events are paramount even for nerds like me if you want to have any chance at success. I'd much rather read a book and eat alone than put up with this crap.

 

It's a real problem when restaurants refuse to split checks when you're dining out with colleagues. That is when you most need them to accommodate this need. It's usually not that big a deal with family and friends you actually want to go out to eat with.

 

BTW: for any "Andy Griffith" fans out there, the Y where I worked in downtown Raleigh is the model for the Y where Barney Fife took his fictitious vacations. There ain't no Mount Pilot, although there is a Pilot Mountain in NC. 

Edited April 6, 2015 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Interesting choice of word to describe someone (like me) who has always thought it was just nice/decent to pay for others if I could.

The  was included to indicate that I was just being silly with that little add-on. The point I was trying to make basically boils down to: why do we care? If a group wants a single check, no problem. If they want separate checks, no problem. If the group wants a single check and one individual says "I'd prefer my own check", let them have their own check. Still no problem.

[patrickamory]

Cheaper, more casual restaurants or brunch / diners - people contribute cash, sure.

 

Dining out - people drop credit cards. Since I rarely dine out in groups of more than 4 (often 2 couples) that's 2-4 cards, sometimes 3. Not hugely popular with restaurants but they definitely prefer it to separate checks. I actually can't imagine requesting separate checks at a hot new-ish restaurant like, say, Estela but I'm sure it happens.

 

If it's a larger group it's probably a company function or something similar, and it all goes on one card.

 

Alternatively, in mid-sized groups or deuces, one person takes the group out, and that is reciprocated the next time that party dines together.

 

This is just my experience obviously!

[Tri2Cook]

Not hugely popular with restaurants but they definitely prefer it to separate checks.

As a person who makes their living in a restaurant, I'm still asking: why do we care what the restaurants prefer? They're not feeding us out of the kindness of their heart, regardless of how high-end, new or trendy the place is, they just want our money. If I'm giving them my money, I don't really care if they like how I choose to give it to them.

 

[patrickamory]

Tri2Cook: 

 

Well, it's complicated. Isn't the diner's relationship with a restaurant a give-and-take, especially if you intend to return? or if you plan to see any of the people in FOH or BOH again at some other restaurant (which is a given in the NYC restaurant scene)?

 

Eating a meal at a good restaurant is not like walking into a deli and buying a six-pack - it's more of a relationship. Of course I believe that it should be skewed in the customer's favor - we are talking about a service industry to some extent - but also the work of producing and serving food is a craft that can reach the level of a work of art, often produced on narrow margins and under high stress.

 

I like to think that I'm the type of eater who is aware of those margins and that stress and want to attain the happiest experience for everyone - given that I'm paying for what is an appropriately priced meal - and also want to be welcomed back, seated at a nice table, recognized, and then recognized again when I'm eating at the next place that my host, server, BOH person or chef is working…. surely it's reciprocal to some degree?

 

Maybe this is just part of the particular ecosystem of New York, where a huge percentage of the populace eats out, at all levels of restaurant, or orders in… everyone knows someone who works at a restaurant, worked at a restaurant, is investing in a restaurant, whose son or daughter is waitressing or waitering. Turns the whole thing into a different vibe?

 

Patrick

[Tri2Cook]

I understand what you're saying and I know all about the stresses involved. I just don't personally rank customers requesting separate checks among those stresses.

I'd like to hear from someone on the business side of the relationship exactly why separate checks is considered stressful or difficult or even annoying. Because, as I said before, I once worked in a place where there were separate checks for each and every customer. If there were 100 customers in the place, I got 100 tickets, the waitstaff dealt with 100 checks and, other than tables where one person paid all of the checks, there were 100 transactions going through the register. It caused no problems or stress for me, the waitstaff or the bean counters. I'm willing to accept that there are difficulties I'm not recognizing, I just haven't heard one person say exactly what they are. All I've heard so far is customers being accommodating of restaurants preferring it that way.

[palo]

Well, not being in the business my experience is limited to TV.

 

Often I will see the chef calling out orders to his staff: 

 

"Table 4, 1 strip loin well. 1 cod, 2 salad"

 

However, if seperate checks are in place, either he or the wait staff have to organize the tickets so the total orders for table 4 are placed at the same time so the food is prepared and cooked at the same time. You can imagine the difficulty this presents if we have 6 checks for the same table.

 

Again not having the experience, there may be a standard method used that eliminates this problem. I still may want seperate checks for the reasons I mentioned in my OP, but I am trying to see the issue from both sides.

 

p

[Tri2Cook]

Well, not being in the business my experience is limited to TV.

 

Often I will see the chef calling out orders to his staff: 

 

"Table 4, 1 strip loin well. 1 cod, 2 salad"

Hell's Kitchen is more of a poorly executed comedy/drama than a reality show. I'm pretty sure their casting call goes out to restaurants with the request to "give us your most useless jelly bean, the one that you'd most like to be rid of for a few weeks" and then they seed in 2 or 3 that can actually function to some degree so they can wind up with a winner. How can they have as many seasons as they've had and still not have a single contestant who, before going in, thought "maybe I should be sure I can cook scallops and risotto"? But that aside, keeping track of multiple tickets per table is just a matter of having an organization system in place that has them grouped properly before the kitchen even touches them. If it's done electronically, it takes care of itself. If it's done by hand, you assign a spot where the tickets are to be placed and the new ones go on top of the old ones face down. When you pick them up and face them towards you, they're in the proper order. If you're calling them, call all of them with the same table number. If you're hanging them, hang what you have space for and return the rest to where they were still face down. I don't know, maybe it really is difficult and I'm just not smart enough to realize it.

 

[palo]

As I said I don't have the personal experience, but I just arrived at that issue as one that I hadn't considered before. It may seem complex in my mind, but simple to someone who deals with it daily.

p

[LizD518]

Also, the server is likely not ringing in the order on four totally separate bills.  S/he is ringing it up as a table but (hopefully) assigning a guest position number to each item.  In restaurants where a server / runner system is set up, each guest should have a position number so that when a runner brings out the food they have an idea which person is getting what (ideally).  In practice, this is probably only used at fine-dining establishments.  Either way, the kitchen won't get separate tickets that go to one table - the check splitting is purely financial and happens at the computer.

Edited April 7, 2015 by LizD518 (log)

[radtek]

I'm hoping point of order systems are better now than they were. By the time I quit the industry it wasn't too difficult to divvy up the bill per customer, but with some of the PLU systems I worked with it was nigh impossible and one had to do it by hand.

 

I remember having as many as 10 credit cards to deal with just for one table praying and praying that I got it all right. Always did.