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By GRAHAM HICKS

In January, I wrote about restaurant tipping, moving from appreciation for good service to unacceptable levels through subtle suggestion, guilt and “suggested tip” options.

Just a few years ago, tipping was 10 per cent of the bill for average service, 15 per cent for exceptional service.

Today, servers expect 15 per cent for average service, up to 25 per cent for exceptional.

The column generated a massive response — at least 100 readers joined in with their thoughts.

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Ninety per cent agreed that tipping has spun out of control.

Albertans were doubly piqued because servers had — much as they downplay it — already received a major raise when the minimum wage jumped from $10 to $15.

It’s the mobile payment terminal’s “suggested tip option payments” that stick in most craws.

The terminal, used for credit and debit card payments, used to have tip options of 5 per cent, 10 per cent or 15 per cent. Most have moved up to “suggested” tip options of 15 per cent, 20 per cent and 25 per cent of the bill (including GST).

Those options, incidentally, are chosen by the restaurant itself.

“I have been a standard 20 per cent tipper,” said one reader. “I thought it outrageous, but I was doing so out of obligation rather than for good service. Thanks for the support. I will drop my usual tip to 15 per cent and not feel guilty.”

“I live in the USA and travel extensively,” wrote an American. “Tip Shaming, as I call it, has become pervasive. I dined where self-service beer was dispensed using a pre-paid card. They had the audacity to ask for the tip on arrival, to “facilitate payment” after the meal. Tipping before service, are they crazy?”

This column isn’t hollering to do away with tipping. City restaurants have tried, and then rescinded, no-tipping policies. Servers make less in a no-tipping environment. The best quickly move on.

It is time, however, for customers to push back against excessive and greedy tipping expectations.

Excessive tipping has become a sore point, to which the market is responding. Restaurants with suggested 20 per cent or higher tipping options are seeing fewer customers. They are just too expensive.

Here’s my tip.

Stop feeling obligated to leave a 20 per cent tip!

Proudly select the 10 per cent tip option for average service, 15 per cent for exceptional service.

If service was bad, do not tip at all.

You can tip at 10 per cent to 15 per cent. There’s no obligation to tip at 15 per cent to 25 per cent.

Be not afraid of confrontation. Challenge whoever’s in charge as to why 18 per cent, 20 per cent or higher “suggested tip options” are listed on the mobile payment terminal.

Don’t be intimidated.

Don’t worry about being called cheap.

Your family income has not jumped by 10 per cent. If anything, it has dropped. So why tip at 20 per cent?

It’s about fighting group greed through group action.

“Hey Hicks,” chuckled one reader. “What’s the difference between a Canadian and a canoe?

“Canoes tip.”

RESTAURANT NOTES

• Thanks to Guru Fine Indian Dining for hosting January’s Art of Conversation, the monthly get-together founded by radio legend Rob Christie and me in 2006.  Guru specializes in light Indian flavours without setting one’s mouth on fire. Owner Keshav Pareek is opening a second Guru in the ICE District.

• With the blessing of owners Darren and Sylvia Cheverie, Chartier chef Steve Brochu is leaving the Beaumont gem to open his own catering/cafeteria in Edmonton. May Steve’s successor fill his big boots.

• Tony Saporito is expanding his Nello’s Cucina Italiana in St. Albert, opening at 11520 100 Ave.. The space is familiar and familial. It was his dad’s Il Pasticcio restaurant, before Nello Saporito passed away last year.

• Quick, delicious and economical, the Crudo family has opened Amore Pasta in the heart of the downtown, off the north lobby of Sutton Place Hotel, across the hall from the Rose & Crown. The Crudos, best known for Café Amore and the Black Pearl, quietly opened an Amore Pasta in Riverbend a few years ago.

• My advice for Valentine’s Day? Wait!!!  Even the best restaurants are rushed on Valentine’s, menus are limited and designed for quantity, not quality. Take your sweetheart before or after Feb. 14 when restaurants are more relaxed. If you’re going all out — Hardware Grill, La Ronde, Harvest Room, Madison’s, Violino, Ruth’s Chris, Sorrentino’s Downtown, Butternut Tree. For great food in an informal atmosphere — Corso 32, RGE RD, Bundok, Cibo, Café Linnea, Rostizado.