Anonymous wrote:Hell, I worked at a Buffalo Wild Wings and there was a server who make $100k/year there.

She worked her ass off - 12+ hour shifts every day. Not worth it for me, but she and her boyfriend had a drug habit that needed to be funded.

Concur with other former servers.

The last time I waited tables in DC, it was at a moderately priced place, and I made $200-250/night. An amazing night might get me $400.

But I don't see why WP servers could get $500 regularly since:

-It's a much pricier place-- 2-3x more expensive. A tip on a $250 meal is $50 vs the $20 tips I got on $100 meals
-It's 14 years since I waited tables, and people tip a higher PERCENTAGE now, as well
-WP may also pay $10-15/hr base to keep good servers, vs $2/hr (so that's another $100)

$500 per night would be easy.

My brother was never a fan of school. He did well in HS because my parents pushed him and made sure assignments were done. My parents pushed him into college after HS, which he ended up having to leave after getting put on academic probation and then asked to withdraw. They then tried him at NOVA and he still didn't do great. He did a bit better under their supervision, but it caused lots of fights between them because he didn't want to be living at home and they didn't want to have to treat him like a child.

They finally told him if he could support himself, he could move out. They also agreed to not pay for any more college classes until he got serious about it. He found a serving job and started making enough to move out and in with a friend. He was a great worker and the service industry type work was perfect for him. He quickly moved up over the years and as soon as he was old enough, he started bartending. He was soon making more money than I was at my job out of college. Plus, he didn't have any loans.

I helped him do his taxes for years and it was not at all unusual for him to make $80-120k as a bartender in VA, not DC. And that was what was reported on his W2 in credit card tips. That's not even counting the cash tips that he never kept track of throughout the year.

He's now part-owner of a restaurant in the DMV area. He still makes more than I do!

My niece is making $500-700/ night on weekends at a lesser restaurant

I believe it. I've worked at some decent but not amazing restaurants and easily made $250 a night so at a really nice, fine dining restaurant, making $500 a night doesn't seem unreasonable. And you walk away with cash each night. You still have to claim the money but the law (at least then) is that you only have to claim a certain percentage of sales, not your actual tips. I want to say it was 12% that you had to claim but people tipped closer to 20-25%.

I worked in a resort town on the east coast but several of my co-workers would work on the east coast for summer and then go to Colorado for the winter to work the ski resorts or go to FL or Hawaii for the winter. Not a bad life.

If they really make that much money, go see how few of their waiter staff are actually BIPOC (hint almost none of them).

Anonymous wrote:This is why tipping needs to stop ,

Good one. If you are talking about WP restaurants where uber rich go, the nerve they have giving away their money.

Anonymous wrote:Wolfgang Puck claims his wait staff makes $120,000 a year. I'm guessing he's referring to tips, but I find it hard to believe. For that amount of money, it seems like there would be many applicants for the positions he claims he can't fill. Is this actually true?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wolfgang-puck-waiters-make-120000-a-year-but-i-cant-find-them-163442777.html

Top waiters working full time at high-end restaurants in the country's most expensive markets can make over six figures. These are extreme outliers, and almost wholly unrepresentative of the actual take home pay of the vast majority of tipped restaurant staff.

Anonymous wrote:If he banned tipping and paid $120k as a wage, he would have plenty of applicants.

Well there’s your problem, you don’t want to actually have to work and earn the $120k. You have the same opportunity as the guy making the wage, you just have to take advantage of that opportunity.

https://75main.com/

This is hardest restaurant in the US to get a reservation at this summer.

Folks will tip thousands just to get a table. Folks are scalping reservations on line, my favorite if you let folks join you they will pay for your meal.

Waiters get use of customers beach houses, boats. Cars as cash tips are so 2020.

A good tip is here is $500 plus a week at my Aspen ski house.

My family (4 adults and 1 child) just ate at 2941 Restaurant and we tipped $100. He was working several tables. He at a minimum made $300 from 5pm-7pm. He probably was there all day, so I'm sure he made more than $500 that day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why tipping needs to stop ,

Why? So people can’t have the dignity of work and support a family?

Plus servers work much harder than many white collar professionals I know...

I can't wait for robots

I believe it. A meal at The Source for a family of 4 was like $400. God I miss The Source! Great food, excellent service. I have zero issues with wait staff earning that much!

Hell, I worked at a Buffalo Wild Wings and there was a server who make $100k/year there.

She worked her ass off - 12+ hour shifts every day. Not worth it for me, but she and her boyfriend had a drug habit that needed to be funded.