TIPPING WARS--ROUND 20

Something tells me I shouldn’t be getting into this tipping business again (and me sitting here, after all, without even the benefit of that elusive Miss Manners booklet on the subject--you know: the one I sent for, and paid for, back in early April and still haven’t received). But a column in a recent issue of the trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News, by editor Charles Bernstein, raises another interesting tipping question: How should gratuities be assigned on those special credit card blanks--most often found in fancy restaurants--on which separate spaces are given for a waiter’s tip and a captain’s tip?

Let’s assume that you want to leave a 15% gratuity for the service you’ve received. With two tip lines to fill in, do you simply split the 15% 50-50? Do you give the waiter 10% and the captain 5%--or vice versa? Or are you one of those diners who, as Bernstein says, “feel(s) guilty if they leave anything less than 15% to 17% for a waiter who has performed reasonably well and 5% to 10% percent for a captain who has done his job?”

Part of the problem is that the roles of captain and waiter are simply not as well defined in the United States as they are--or at least traditionally were--in Europe. I’ve had meals during which I’ve scarcely even seen my waiter, with the captain doing everything from taking orders to bringing food and wine to filling water glasses. I’ve also had meals at which the captain brings the menus, takes the orders, and then disappears for the balance of the meal. Obviously, in the former case I would tend to leave the captain a larger share of the tip than in the latter. But what if the captain, for whatever reasons, decides to usurp the waiter’s function (because he recognizes me as a writer, thinks I look like a big tipper, or whatever)? Is it fair to have occupied a table in a hard-working waiter’s territory and then penalize him because he hasn’t been given the chance to wait on me?

Bernstein’s solution is simple: “We urge restaurants to discontinue this practice (i.e., the use of credit card blanks with two tip spaces) forthwith and credit-card companies to refuse to participate in it or even to suggest it.”

I agree: Let credit card customers tip the same way cash customers do--with one lump sum left on the table, and then maybe a small additional amount pressed into a particularly attentive captain’s hand on the way out. It doesn’t seem to me that the customer should have to work out the details of tip distribution--or be, in effect, financially penalized because he is given one kind of blank to sign rather than another.

NOTHING TO CROW ABOUT: Another Los Angeles landmark is about to bite the dust. The Cock ‘n’ Bull, an oasis on Sunset Boulevard for the last 50 years, will serve its last Moscow Mule on Aug. 21. No big closing ceremonies are planned, but dinner on the 21st, according to the restaurant, will be by special invitation.

NEW TABLES IN TOWN: Sugar Shack has opened on Pico in West Los Angeles, on the site of the former Wan-Q, serving Caribbean cuisine, music and lots of noise. . . .

Darbar opens any day now in Sherman Oaks, serving South African Indian cooking (i.e., the food of South Africa’s large Indian community). . . . An unusual Mexican take-out place, offering what is promised to be a “whole new concept” for such things, will set up shop within the next few weeks at the Grand Central Market, downtown, under the aegis of the popular La Salsa chain. . . .

Singapore Express is slated for an August opening in the new Oakridge Marina center in Marina del Rey. “Pan-Asian” food will be featured, including satays and a special condiment bar. . . .

THE RETURN OF TASTE: The second annual “A Taste of L.A.” food and drink festival is scheduled for two consecutive weekends, Aug. 8 and 9, and 15 and 16, outdoors at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Last year’s event engendered some controversy: It was supposed to benefit local agencies caring for the homeless, but expenses for the event were reportedly so high that the agencies saw no contributions at all--angering them and participating restaurateurs alike. This year to avoid similar problems, organizers of the event have promised to turn over 10% of their gross on-site revenues, regardless of their expenses, to three key local groups aiding the homeless.