Earlier this month, a waitress at a restaurant in Arkansas received a $4,400 tip for serving a table of more than 30 diners. Since then, the gesture — which the table intended as a nod of appreciation to the servers — has devolved into a nightmare for the waitress, Ryan Brandt, and a public relations mess for the restaurant.
The Post’s Jonathan Edwards reports Brandt said she was told that the servers would have to split the tip with other staff at the restaurant, Oven & Tap, in Bentonville, Ark. Brandt’s lawyer, Bill Horton, told The Post the owners of the restaurant fired Brandt for later telling the customer how the tips from their party were distributed. You can read the full rundown of events here.
I’ve been The Post’s food critic since 2000, and I often deal with these types of questions — such as how to tip or what is and isn’t reasonable to expect of a dining experience. I talk to longtime chefs, owners, head waiters, hosts, dishwashers, you name it, to understand what they’re seeing from the other side of the menu.
I answered reader questions about tipping on Tuesday. Read the chat below. Questions were edited for accuracy and clarity.
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Teddy Amenabar, an editor on The Post’s audience team, produced this Q&A.
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