Tip jar

Q: A friend recently told me that you should exclude the price of the wine when figuring out the tip for a meal, since opening and pouring wine out of, say, an $80 bottle, doesn’t require $16 worth of work. Is this true? I’ve never heard this before but her dad is a big spender and apparently “knows these things.”
—Erin S., Loop

A: A big spender, huh? He sounds more like a cheapskate to us. But we asked Janna Mestan, manager of Courtright’s (a restaurant with 18,000 bottles in its cellar), what she thought, and she had a more diplomatic answer. Though she says “there is not a set rule,” Mestan told us that, overall, people tip the same amount for wine as they do for food. (Think about it this way: For parties of six or more, many restaurants figure in 18 percent gratuity, and they include the wine—which makes their expectations pretty clear.) However, “if you’re buying an older vintage or something that’s getting up into the $500, $600 range,” it’s typical to tip somewhere around 10 percent. As for the work that’s involved, Mestan agrees that opening a bottle of wine isn’t very tough. “But a lot goes into getting that wine to your table. If we don’t treat the wines properly, they’re not going to taste good when it gets to your table. It’s a little more involved than most people think.” Tell that to Mr. Big Spender the next time he feels like stiffing the waitstaff.—David Tamarkin

Throw us all of your eating and drinking questions. We can handle it. E-mail eatoutdrinkup@timeoutchicago.com.