Maggiano's Tipping

pennyluwho · November 2014

Hello! What did/are people doing with tipping at Maggiano's? Do people normally tip on top of the 20% service charge? We were thinking of tipping each individual waiter and bar person, and would love to hear what others have done!

dbacksgirl · November 2014

Well.... interesting you should ask. This is something that I recently had to face and even now, I still don't know how I feel about it. It does say specifically in the contract that the waiters/bar staff are paid a higher rate and no additional gratuity is required. That said, the staff there was amazing to us and the service, barring just a few minor things was absolutely top-notch. We had guests commenting throughout the reception that they were really impressed by how well everything was timed and how great the bartenders and wait staff was. Therefore, I really wanted to take care of those guys. I pulled one of the banquet captains aside and asked him to be honest with me about what they would consider a "good" tip. I was floored when he told me that a lot of people give them an additional 10-20%!!!! Now, I don't know if he was just saying that or what but I think my jaw hit the floor when it came out of his mouth. In his defense, he said over and over that ANYTHING would be greatly appreciated because while they are paid a higher rate for events, the staff sees ZERO of that 20% service charge. I tried to gather my composure and told him that I absolutely wanted to show appreciation but there was no way that I had budgeted 40% of the reception costs for tips and service charges. That seriously would have been almost $4000!!!!! We ended up adding $700 to the tab for tips and asked that it be divided between the waiters, bartenders and bussers, etc. Like I said, I'm still kind of struggling with this. I don't know if it is too much or too little. I do know, however, that 5 of the guys personally thanked me and then the captain did again the next day when I came to pick up my decor (they boxed it all up for me!). So that is just my experience but the bottom line is that a lot of people don't tip above the 20% service charge but since that doesn't go to anyone but the restaurant, I think anything at all above that would be really nice and the staff would be very grateful for whatever you'd like to give them.

aggiespartan · November 2014

If you make a reservation at a restaurant for about 20 people where you will likely only have 1 waiter, do you think that 21% is given to your waiter/waitress?

hmgiffor · November 2014

Grrr...that annoys me that the 20% goes to the restaurant. I haven't really budgeted to for additional tips but I don't want to seem cheap and that I don't care about quality service. I wish in the contracts they would leave out that stupid service charge and let people actually TIP like they are supposed to!

Thanks for the info though so I can think about how I want to handle this.

jdaigle44 · November 2014

This has been something that has been troubling me as well. I am almost tempted to ask my coordinators at Maggiano's if they can give a better break down on how the 20% service charge is distributed and exactly how much of a wage increase the serving staff and bartenders get for working these events.

pennyluwho · November 2014

Thanks for the information! I know that people on here have talked about doing flat cash amount to each person the night of the wedding (like $25-50 dollars a person). I can't imagine adding another 20% though... yikes. I'm so torn, because I really do want to thank their staff for what I have no doubt will be great service.

KrisLSmiley · November 2014

I'm planning on handing out some $20 bills in addition to the prepaid 20%. Some peoplewill get a $20 others may get a couple of $20s depending on what they've done. But I'm not adding another 20%!

hmgiffor · November 2014

I like that idea of having 20's. Then I can do what I want with them and not worry about who is given what amount.

pennyluwho · November 2014

That's a great idea, @krisLSmiley! I'm totally doing that. I would feel much better using that strategy.

missbruiser · November 2014

That is weird. They charge you 20% service charge and then want you to tip more? I have been in the restaurant business for over 10 years, if it was me, I would ask more about it. I've worked private parties where the gratuity was added, but, we pooled the tips, so I did not get the full amount. Which is fine, since, I did not do all the work myself. I've had the host give me an extra $20 or $50 on the side. I had one host that gave me $450 tip, but, since we pooled tips,I ended up waking with $250. Wa wa waa

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