All that booze definitely added to it, but did you look at the prices on the rest of it? A large water for $12.00???

Me lost me cookie at the disco.

Jesse -- try a department store discounter like Ross, TJs, Filenes. Housewares there are effing insane, but I would guess you'd need to find a spacious store in the suburbs.

I know Dana is not moving to Thailand, but I thought it would be awesome to be an expat in Bangkok, or especially Chiang Mai.

I can dance better than that dog, but I do have the advantage of bipedalism.

A large water for $12.00???

I'm assuming that's a large bottle of some fancy premium bottled water - not just a large glass. (I mean, it's still a lot of money, but it's not an unusual markup for that kind of restaurant.)

[Before tax & tip, if you take out the wine it's a $1600 bill. Which is still a lot, but at least it's a number my brain can cope with - it's the difference between saving a month's wages vs a year's.]

I want this house:

[link]

A $47,000 restaurant tab

My question: Who gets the $7300 gratuity??

Who gets the $7300 gratuity??

In the blog posting, he talks about it:

he told me that tips are pooled at Nello’s and that night’s glorious take was divided up among fifteen employees - waiters, food runners, bartenders, bus people and a maitre’d. In a pool house it’s common to divvy up the tips according to a percentage formula. And while the waiter at Nello’s wouldn’t tell me what that formula was, it’s obvious that everyone had a nice pay day!

The linked post asked the same question, and the poster called the restaurant and spoke to the waiter for that dinner. According to him, the restaurant puts all tips into a pot and everyone splits it, from the maitre'd to the bus boys, on a percentage basis.

ETA: Or, what Tom says. Hi, Tom!!!

Aims, that's in the post.

The waiter was very circumspect and didn’t want to talk about his patrons. No problem. I wouldn’t either. But he told me that tips are pooled at Nello’s and that night’s glorious take was divided up among fifteen employees - waiters, food runners, bartenders, bus people and a maitre’d. In a pool house it’s common to divvy up the tips according to a percentage formula. And while the waiter at Nello’s wouldn’t tell me what that formula was, it’s obvious that everyone had a nice pay day! Congratualtions guys!

Aah, x-post!

What's sick and sad is wasting that wine on mediocre food that costs way more than necessary. The markup on water might be expected but $30 asparagus?! And that's not even counting the markup on the wine. Russians!