I have a "tip" for you

Last night we went to our customary dinner after playing tennis. The restaurant was not unusually crowded, & we were seated right away. Our waitress, however, seemed a little surly from the beginning . . . Actually acting as if she were doing us a huge favor by bringing bread when we asked for it.

Although we're not typically in a hurry, our service was extremely slow. Our waitress was nowhere to be seen & did not even stop by to check on us. I'll admit I was really hungry since I had skipped lunch but waiting an hour & fifteen minutes for four salads is excessive under any circumstances.

We finally did get our meals with no apology or explanation from the waitress. At the conclusion of our meal, the conversation turned to tipping. Everyone but me felt that we should not leave much of a tip since the service was so poor. I honestly felt there was no need to tip at all believing that a tip should be for average or better service. We ended up leaving a 10% tip.

Here's my real tip for this waitress. . . I realize you can't always control the kitchen, but you can control your behavior. You could have stopped by our table, apologized for the slowness of our service, offered to replenish our bread, etc. Had you been personable & even slightly interested in letting us know you were aware that our meals were taking an extraordinary amount of time, we would probably have tipped at least the standard 15%. Tipping has now become an expected practice not reserved for good service but for any service whatsoever. I do object to feeling compelled to tip when the server is not available or interested in my service. Perhaps if tipping were reserved for good service, the servers might be more interested in providing it.