Mark

I have been a bartender/waiter on and off for about 5 years total. I have always heard that patrons should NOT tip the owner of a bar/restaurant when that owner is the bartender/waiter. Is this true? I\’m perplexed over this question because a new bar/restaurant opened near my home recently, and the owner and his wife typically share the bartending duties. I really like him – he’s funny, personable, attentive and fast, even when the place is crowded. She, on the other hand, is pretty awful. Now, as a former bartender, I tend to be very lenient in my judgement of service personnel, and I also tend to be VERY generous when tipping (50% for really good service), but on a recent visit for lunch, there were 4 people at the bar and this woman let me sit with an empty beer bottle in front of me for 9 minutes (I timed her), while she did bookwork, chatted on the phone, and ate her lunch. I knew about how much I owed – the bill totalled about $18 – so I placed a $20 bill on the bar and left. However I felt badly about maybe not leaving enough of a tip. HELP!!!