As others have said: you tip on the price of the item as if it were included on the bill. So, effectively, you add the would-have-been price to the total and compute your tip based upon that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A subtle way for a server to make a 100% profit on the owner's capital.

Yes it's a FU to the owner. Stealing.

Meh. I’d rather it go to the bartender than the owner.

Absurd. Restaurants and bars are hard enough to run. The owner is way more invested in your community than the bartender. The owner is paying his rent, taxes, sending his kids to school, trying to get by. What, you think he's running this thing from his yacht via satellite?

Anonymous wrote:I do not add it to the tip. The bartender is stealing from the restaurant.

As a long time bartender, I can you that most places allow the bartenders to have a house check. The house check is a certain percentage of your ring. So let's say you ring $5000 a night, your house check is up to $500 to use as you see fit. A bartender is the marketing arm of a restaurant or bar, you make people feel important, help them impress folks they are with, they come back and spend more money.

They are not stealing, if it is a reputable place they have a house check and yes, you ring up the house check as well so it's all tracked.

Anonymous wrote:A subtle way for a server to make a 100% profit on the owner's capital.

Yep. I used to do this, but then kind of lost respect for the bartenders who are clearly stealing from the owner. I still tip as if I had been charged for the comp item, whether it is a legitimate free dessert for messing up an entree that was conveyed by a manager or a bartender giving me a free drink. So a free $10 drink, I no longer add $10 (or more) to the tip), I do tip 22-25% on whatever the bill should have been if I had been charged for everything I receive.