2005 - Tipping Out Brewers
Sent:
Friday, December 16, 2005 3:23 PM
Subject: Re: Tipping Out
For Tim
O'Leary:
Normally,
the only staff members that are tipped are those that are paid hourly. That includes
wait staff. At our three Steelhead Brewing Co. locations (Eugene, Burlingame,
and Irvine,) wait staff tip out the cooks, expediters, and bussers, but not the
brewers. Head Brewers are salary employees and would not qualify for tips. Assistant
Brewers and Keg Washers are paid hourly, but are not tipped out.
I
have never heard of brewers being tipped out by wait staff, and I wouldn't recommend
it. Hourly assistant brewers and keg washers do not deal with the public directly
in any way, and their performance is not directly related to the customer's experience
while the customer is onsite.
Of course, the assistant brewer and keg
washer's performance is experienced indirectly by the customer, via the beer the
customer drinks, but the customer didn't experience a real-time service by an
assistant brewer or keg washer. In fact, the assistant brewer and/or keg washer
could do their jobs in the middle of the night, and the customer's experience
while onsite would remain the same. This is not true for wait staff, cooks, expediters,
and bussers, who must be present at the same time as the customer in order to
perform their services.. I'm curious how other brewpub brewers see this issue.
Cheers, Teri