Iced tea refills

[irodguy]

Free drink refills are a distinctly southern thing.

On the west coast it's hit an miss for instance. May places charge for drink refills.

I've lived in the Pacific Northwest my entire life and have never paid for a drink refill (and I am an iced tea fiend). My pet peeve about iced tea is that so many places here make a fruity (usually peach) flavored tea and then serve that without telling you that you are not getting the regular, plain iced tea you thought you were ordering. It's just gross.

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Interesting, I have been hit quite a few time for refill charges on trips to Northern California and about 50% in LA.

On the other hand I have never been charged for Refills anywhere in the South. The only real question is if you want sweet or unsweet tea.

[joiei]

But again, it seems as if the first concern is the tip and not the service. 

joiei, what if the person ordering lemon water isn't a little old lady, but it's the mean guy in the cubicle next to you who always steals your office supplies and takes credit for your projects? Should I give him charity, too? In fact, why should servers be obliged to give charity more than someone in any other profession?

At any rate, the people to whom I serve lemon water are rarely old ladies. At least not in my neck of the woods.

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for the jerk in the next cubicle, let him find his own charity. as for the lemon water, isn't it a judgement call? If your serving an abnormally large number of lemon waters, then charge them as if it were a pot of hot tea. And if you do not want to appear as though your being discrimantory, then menu the lemon water and be done with it. And you can charge for refills if they require another lemon wedge. But you will have to menu the item, don't you think?

Similarly with tea refills. Ethically, shouldn't you list the refill policy so the guest is made aware of this standard for the restaurant? Not just present a bill that is bloated with tea refill charges. If I am made aware of the policy in advance, then I have no problem with it.

edited to try to clarify my confusion

Edited November 2, 2004 by joiei (log)

[TheFoodTutor]

The question of whether free refills on non-alcoholic beverages are provided seems to be a difficult subject, and listing it on the menu would appear to be a good answer, but since people rarely seem to read the menu, from my observance, it definitely doesn't cover the territory. I routinely have to answer the question, "What's your soup today?" when the menu very clearly lists a calendar of soups for the week, just to make an example. And our menu is not very big, compared to other restaurants, so it shouldn't be a difficult thing to notice.

Of course, the judgement call on the lemon water and iced tea refills is up to the management, and there is often a gap between management and service staff on making these policies. The front of house manager sets prices, but the kitchen manager knows how much lemons are going for these days - restaurants pay about the same 50 cents per lemon that the average grocery store charges, and since a case will contain sometimes dozens of lemons that are brown on the inside, but you don't know that until your $2.13 an hour server cuts into it and throws it away, so you can't ask for a credit from the produce supplier.

So lemons and iced tea refills - another thing that costs quite a bit to the restaurant owner in terms of product, labor and glassware plus the long spoons, packaged sweeter and such. . . fall under the realm of hospitality to the guest in the hopes that the majority of guests will order more profitable items.

People who order water with lemon or iced tea and a high-food-cost item, like the baby back ribs, are strongly subidized in their choices by those who choose to order a bottle of wine, spinach dip and a couple of orders of pasta. It's the name of the game, and I would like to personally apologize to those who didn't know they were playing. I'm sorry, and in a perfect world we would charge exactly what it costs to provide everything you want. Plus a service charge, so that our servers could make a living.

But, you know, we're living in a very imperfect society, so this is the way restaurants do things. On the bright side, if you ask what is charged for iced tea refills, I doubt that there's a server in the U.S. who won't tell you immediately whether they're free or if there's a charge.

Ask if it's important to you, and all will become clear.