Hmmmm. What do you think? I think this is a whole culture shift that won't fly in North America! I got along just fine without tipping in Germany (ok, well you round up a Euro or two or three or four or five but you certainly don't add 10-20%!) to the point where I had a hard time re-adjusting after 3.5 years there!
WHEN Thomas Keller, one of America's foremost chefs, announced that on Sept. 1 he would abolish the practice of tipping at Per Se, his luxury restaurant in New York City, and replace it with a European-style service charge, I knew three groups would be opposed: customers, servers and restaurateurs. These three constituencies are all committed tipping - as they quickly made clear on Web sites. To oppose tipping, it seems, is to be anticapitalist, and maybe even a little French.
But Mr. Keller is right to move away from tipping - and it's worth exploring why just about everyone else in the restaurant world is wrong to stick with the practice.
