Tips on drink tipping

Tipping a dollar per drink is not one of the Ten Commandments at restaurants, it just seems like it. That number was the standard when I first started frequenting bars, and it’s still a standard. Few people really questioned it until New York Times food critic Frank Bruni raised controversy by asking if it should be raised. Not to $2 per drink but to a percentage of the total, the way people tip servers on food.

On one side of the argument are the customers who argue that tipping a dollar for a beer that it took less than a minute to pour is too much. On the other side are mixologists and bartenders who continue to invent elaborate drinks that can take a month to perfect and several minutes to make and yet, for their hard work, they receive the same tip.

Clearly the one-size-fits-all standard isn’t working. So a New York-based blog asked readers to vote on what the new standard should be: 20 percent of the total; a tip based on service; still $1; or nothing. The poll was unscientific but did generate a good deal of press and more than 400 votes. The clear winner, with 70 percent of the vote, was keeping it to a dollar per drink.

It’s sad to see people so stuck in their ways.