Last Thursday was a tough night for Celtics fans everywhere, but it was a strange night for one particular Celtics fan - me.
I was at a bar in Brooklyn with Diana watching the game. After the upset and sometime during Kobe's kisses to his 12 illegitimate kids, this guy Greg starts talking to me. And at first he's giving me hell for being a Red Sox fan, and that he just won $1,000 on the Lakers game. Wow. Cool. But I just kept talking to him, and as it turns out, he's a Russian Jew. He was just as surprised when he learned I spoke Russian.
But that's not the point of my story...
In the middle of our convo, the bartender (who was English by the way, so insert your best British accent here) says to Greg, "Hey mate, it's really f#%@ed up that you only tipped me $2 for 3 drinks. I thought you were American, and in America you're supposed to tip $1 a drink."
Both Greg and I were shocked.
If he had said that to me, I woulda been like "First of all pal, go back to England. Second of all, $1 for a $5 drink is a 20% tip, so you're actually making a killing. Third, don't be a cheap-ass - it's ONE dollar. And finally, YOU are serving ME, so if you have a problem with the way I tip, go kvetch about it in the back because I don't care."
Unfortunately, Greg didn't have the law school acumen I have so he wasn't quick enough with an argument. Instead he just told the bartender that he goes there all the time and that he just won $1,000 on the game, and he WAS going to tip the bartender $20 at the end of the night, but now he's not going to.
It was so weird. And I couldn't stop thinking about it, even when I woke up the next morning.
And the next morning, it dawned on me... the bartender was just TOTALLY trying to ruin Greg's game!
Wow, and I thought girls were ruthless. Guys will go so far as to make themselves look like cheap-asses just to kill another guy's game.
haaaaaaaaaa. i think the funniest part is that you, like i would have done, did not realize him bagging on your friends game and not actually caring so much about the tip!
ReplyDeletebut come on esther -- everyone wants a piece of you!
wait wait waiiiiit. I love you, but I have to disagree on this one. $1 for each drink = standard. Here's the etiquette:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wikihow.com/Tip-a-Bartender-Properly
You're even supposed to tip $1 on water.
I think you were lucky to lose this cheap-ass guy
WOW how AWK...i wouldn't have know what to do. I think you are right in the conclusion. After being in London for 2 mths, they don't tip bartenders and my co workers actually scolded me when i did! So the bartender was totally ruining his game.
ReplyDelete