Rules For Reservations

RCs gripe about automatic gratuities all the time.  Like at my restaurant. We add 18% to parties of 8 or more.  Period.  Parties are a LOT of work and if a server isn’t tipped appropriately the party can actually cost the server money.  How is that possible, Marta? I hear you asking, and I’ll tell you. Most restaurants have a tip share policy wherein the server contributes 3% of all sales to a pool that is redistributed to other front of the house/non-server employees.  This would be the bussers, the host staff, the bartender, etc.  Simply put, if you come in with a group of 20 and spend $500, I’m giving my restaurant $15 for the privilege of waiting on you.  That’s $15 if you give me a $100 (20%) tip, and that’s $15 if you run me ragged, then decide to nitpick about one stupid little thing like not getting enough hot fudge on one person’s sundae so you can justify leaving me $10 (which is 2% and you might as well have kept that) even after I got you more hot fudge.  Automatic gratuity insures that it does not cost me money to wait on you, because trust me, I’d rather spend my money on something else, like my bills.  Gratuity on large parties is there, its not going anywhere.  So Rule #1 is: Call ahead of time and determine whether the restaurant you plan to have your party at charges an automatic gratuity.  If it does, be prepared to pay up, or find another restaurant to celebrate Uncle Larry’s 50th at.

Some people seem to think the time they made the reservation for is arbitrary.  Like, “I know we made the reservation for 7, but I’m sure that means we’ll be there by 7:30, definitely before 8, I mean we’ll be there 7ish…” Let me explain something here. When you make a reservation for 20 people at 7PM, we reserve four or five tables at about 6:30, quarter to 7.  We also reserve one or two servers at that time.  Here’s what I mean by reserve. We don’t seat anyone at those tables, no matter how busy we get, and we don’t have that server(s) take any tables, no matter how busy things get.

So when you show up at quarter to 8 with 12 people, we’ve got a problem.  We’ve actually got a bunch of problems.  First of all, we had other people who were forced to wait, even though they saw perfectly good tables sitting idly by, unused for the better part of an hour. Those people could have sat, eaten, and been finishing up dessert by the time you and your posse arrived.  The server(s) made $2.65 an hour for that time and that’s it, when they could have easily fit in a few tables during the wait.

Now, you show up with two tables less worth of people, but you’ll probably try to keep the five tables and spread your stuff all over them thinking hey, they’re reserved for us, right? Wrong! They were reserved for you AND 8 OTHER PEOPLE, and all of you were supposed to be here almost an hour ago! Or, on the flip side, you walk in with 30 people and expect us to magically come up with two or three more empty tables, next to the ones we held for you, and at least one other server to assist you. Nuh-Uh.  Rule #2: Arrive on time to your reservation with the people who were originally coming with you, no more, no less.

I understand that things do come up, emergencies happen, unforeseen circumstances, yada, yada, yada.  But there is this marvelous little invention called the telephone? You push buttons with numbers on them and get connected to people and places, like restaurants where you have reservations.  In fact, I believe you originally secured this reservation with one of these miraculous devices! So Rule #3: If you will be late to your reservation, if you will have a number that is greater than or less than 2 away from the original number of people you quoted to us (if you booked a party of 20 and there will be less than 18 or more than 22 people with you in actuality) THEN CALL AND LET US KNOW IN A REASONABLE (an hour before your reservation at the very least) AMOUNT OF TIME so we can make the necessary arrangements.

Bottom line is this.  Restaurants make more money seating and re-seating smaller (six or less) tables than they do on large parties.  Sometimes, when all the hoopla of Uncle Larry’s 50th is said and done,  you cost  more money in food, labor, and inconvenience to other guests than you make for the restaurant. So realize that restaurants are bending over backwards to accommodate you, and have the decency to show up at the time you told us you wanted to come, with the number of people you said you wanted to bring, call us if anything has changed, and pay the gratuity we charge all parties of your size (the gratuity that is clearly stated on the front of the menu).  Thank you in advance.