This weather is amazing. I have been so ready for spring. We went to Xes Lounge to celebrate the weather and my friend’s birthday.
Xes is a gay bar in Chelsea with an awesome outdoor patio, perfect for a day like yesterday. The patio has seats and bench-like tables available. The inside is dimly lit with some interesting artwork on the walls and a small seating area. A popular place, the bar (particularly the patio) was packed yesterday.
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Josh’s post made me consider tipping in NY and what is fair. I have had many personal service jobs in my life, and so I feel I have some unique perspective about tipping for things and what is fair. When I was a valet parker in high school, my boss used to make a comment about how while everything else in the world inflated from 1960-2000, somehow, tipping for parking was still a $1 standard. I always make sure to tip between $2 and $5 depending on the place and weather. Then, as a concierge, it was erratic. The more rich the person looked, the less they tipped. That was the standard.
Once I moved up in the world and became a waiter in college, I was continually disappointed about how shitty tips were, generally speaking. So, I think that as a respected voice in NYC, we should set the standards. Please see my suggestions below and let me know what you think is a fair tip for each service:
Waiter/Waitress: 17% before tip
Bartender: $1 per drink
Delivery Person: $2 (total bill under $20), $3 (bill is $21-$40), $4 (bill is $41-60) $5 ($61+)
Valet: $2 minimum, then base any addition on friendliness and quality of service
Hair Dresser: 20% of total bill
Taxi Drivers: $1 if he sucks and/or the cab smells like shit, $2 if I don’t feel like he wants to kill me, $3 for great service
Tipping Tips:
- In a parking garage, tip the attendant BEFORE you leave, and tell him you will get him again when you get back. This will get you much better service.
- In any tipping situation, it is a bad idea to pull out a wad of cash and then give someone one or two bills. Have the tip ready before hand, otherwise no matter what you give, it will seem cheap.
- At a bar, if you plan to be drinking the whole night, give the bartender a nice tip early on and make sure he knows who gave it to him and who is in your party. Subtract against that for the rest of the night.
What tipping ideas or standards do you use?
External Links:
New York Magazine
The NYC Insider
Fodor’s
FindALink.net
HowStuffWorks
[Photo courtesy HowStuffWorks]
Did anyone see Daily Candy today?
Well, they plugged SpeedyFixIt - aka Seth Rosenberg. The man to call when you need home/apartment repairs.
Perfect for someone like me who every ONCE in a while can’t fix something myself. Yes, I know, that’s what my super is for, but I know that my super has his limits. SpeedyFixIt will paint a room, assemble furniture, add shelving, reconfigure a closet… more than I know my super will EVER do. Besides, after having the same leak in my bathroom for the 8th time (along with countless other issues), I think it’s best to just work with someone else.
SpeedyFix it has a background in fine arts, set construction, culinary arts, and architectural fabrication including metal sculpture and blacksmithing. Just THINK of all the crazy things you can have him do to your apartment! The plans in my head have already started.
One thing though - he only works in Manhattan.
Check out his site for more info.
Last night was the annual march of the elephants in midtown. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is in town for a two week run of shows at Madison Square Garden. They unload their elephants at the railyards in Long Island City and then walk them through the Midtown Tunnel, across 34th Street to the Garden.
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Not to delve overly into politics (which I do often enough whenever anyone’s in earshot of me) but I do find it intriguing that New York’s two candidates for their respective party’s nominee in the Presidential 2008 race are leading (link to Wall Street Journal’s blog posting here).
Rudy Giuliani Has between a 9 and 14 point lead over John McCain and Hillary Clinton has between 10 and 13 over Barack Obama depending upon the current polls.
It’s an intriguing situation, I think, although this new journey we’re taking to literal multi-year campaigns in any major field now is a bit unprecedented and certainly a new enough happening that polls this early surely mean little. Don’t they?
But, after so long out of the national campaign spotlight, it looks like New York could field both major choices for President of the United States.
Gotta love a company that wears its politics on its sleeve, whether you agree with them or not. Takes balls to take something as un-political as storage space and risk alienating a sector of your market with your advertising.
I swear I was walking down the street the other day and saw another Manhattan Mini Storage ad that said something like, “Just because the Bush agenda is a disaster, doesn’t mean your closets have to be.” Or some such thing. But since I’ve seen no evidence of it since, and can’t remember where the hell I might have seen it, I’m beginning to think I might have dreamt that one up. Hey Manhattan Mini Storage: if you wanna use that one, feel free!
One more shot of Manhattan Storage goodness after the jump.
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You open the door, the guy hands you the bag and the bill for $21.34. You hand him $25 and say, “Keep it,” and he says, “Thank you. Thank you very much. You are very kind man, very kind.”
Sort of reminded me of Babu Bhat from Seinfeld.
Was a $3.66 tip too much for a $21.34 bill? It’s 17%, but he had to walk up four flights of stairs. Am I too generous?
Now another report - this one prepared by the city - is dealing with the Great Blackout of 2006.
This report is somewhat less harsh in its assessment of Consolidated Edison, the power company responsible for the grid which failed in Queens, although it still places blame on the company for failing to maintain an adequate system.
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A short post. Really just a thought.
Apparently, the Black Party was this weekend. For those of you out of the loop, that’s a big.gay.party.
Anyway, one aspect of my job which causes me - well, mostly agony but sometimes - occasional joy is its location. It’s in a heavily-clubbed/barred area, which affords me some fun moments on weekends like this.
Because this was a designated party weekend, I got to walk to work this morning (I work at 7AM so it’s early enough to catch these stragglers) and watch all the partygoers leaving their respective places of worship (and my worship, I don’t mean Jesus; we’re talking Beyonce and so on and so forth). It’s quite an intriguing mix of people.
The weekend’s gay theme notwithstanding, it was still an amazing mix of people, specifically ages. It prompted my own internal monologue on age and clubbing as well as got me pondering just what we go out for and when it stops suiting our needs and purposes (if ever).
So what brings you, gentle reader, out for a night on the town? Is it a weekly event for you? Is it for special occasions like birthdays, or events like the Black Party? Do you opt for the night in at home when given the choice?
In honor of the impending Passover holiday, I decided to take a tour of my Jewish roots and make a trip down to the Lower East Side to enjoy the delicacies that my grandparents enjoyed so long ago. So, I made two stops on the corner of Essex and Grand Streets that really reminded me of how great SOME Jewish food can be…
First up was Kosar’s Bialys. My father is convinced that I must’ve had bialys before, but I honestly have no recollection. So, while I was in the neighborhood, I had to stop at this famous store. I enjoyed my bialy with a thin layer of scallion cream cheese, and I must say that it was absolutely delicious. For those of you who aren’t “in the know,” a bialy is similar to a bagel, but it doesn’t have sugar in the dough, so is therefore less sweet. It also has more yeast, so it is more chewy, and finally, it is only baked, whereas a bagel is boiled. So, you have that chewy sensation, but it is softer, and the outside doesn’t have that same sheen as a bagel. I must say it was quite a treat. My girlfriend and I were both impressed. Plus, we bought them just out of the oven, so they were still very warm, which made them even better!
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