The Daughter and I used to take my mother to the Serendipity Tea Room every so often. We even invited my sister and her daughter sometimes. It's a delightful little place located inside an antique mall in Bartlett, TN (a Memphis suburb). They seat you at a table and bring menus. The tea is bagged tea but is served in little vintage pots. They bring sweet little heart-shaped biscuits and spread to enjoy with your tea until your food comes:
I had the chicken salad and lemon tea:
and The Daughter had the pasta salad and Earl Grey. You can see the menu here. It was a wonderful meal, a nice atmosphere, and there were fond memories of times we'd been before. We don't go often, but we always enjoy it, the service is always welcoming, and the food is consistently good. A delight!
Just one little issue: They do add the gratuity to the check, even if there's just one person or two dining. It's labeled "gr" in a cursive scribble. I had to ask what it was the first time we went. At that time we were told they had trouble with people "running us to death and then not leaving a tip." I never forgot that. It seemed an odd thing to tell us. And we've never noticed any of the sweet little elderly servers being "run to death" or noticed any particularly demanding diners, for that matter. That first time I had already placed a generous tip on the table, but I picked it back up when their policy was explained to me. I would leave a bigger tip than they assess, but I'm not leaving more if they are going to add it to the tab. Just call me stubborn on this subject; but it's my understanding that the amount of a gratuity is to be determined by the one being served, not by the server. If they add it to the bill, it's a service charge in lieu of tip.
The Urban Spoon gives it a score of 78%. Yelp gives it 2 out of 5 stars. Go Memphis has a positive review.
Please join Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T(ea) Party, where most folks are of an artistic bent, and where our host is in the middle of an abstract series.
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It looks like a lovely tea room and your lunch looks good. I agree with you that "gratuity" is up to the person leaving the tip and it would annoy me if it were simply added to the bill.
ReplyDeleteDarla
I always get off cheaper if they decide how much the tip will be ;)
DeleteWhat a beautiful place for tea, so glad you had a day of it with your daughter. The food looks yummy and both meals would be of my liking. I agree with you on the gratuity, should be up to the customer. I'm sure others have complained about it and hopefully they will change it in the future. Thanks for sharing and Happy T Day!
ReplyDeleteIt's been like this for years, so it won't change, but it's such a beautiful spot!
DeleteWhat a lovely place to lunch and enjoy tea. I'm not so sure about having the tip included but in many places in Europe the gratuity is included in the bill so you don't eave any other tip. I think I prefer giving my own tip, especially if someone deserves a little extra. Happy T day!
ReplyDeleteThey always tell me I should feel free to leave extra, but I never have. Some folks leave a tip, not realizing it's been included, because the "gr" isn't explained unless you ask.
DeleteWhat a lovely place!I'd like it to be in Brazil!
ReplyDeleteooo, me too! That way I'd have been to Brazil, which is a dream destination. :)
DeleteI think i would be a little miffed too if a business added the tip to the bill....... thats assuming an awful lot on their part.........Looks like a lovely place. Thanks for sharing! Hugs! deb
ReplyDeleteThere are restaurants around here where a tip is added if there are more than 6-8 in your party. This is the only place I know of that adds it to every ticket. It is definitely a lovely place, though. :)
DeleteIt looks like a really lovely real tea spot.
ReplyDeleteI am getting hungry now ;-)
Funny enough I have noticed at more than one 'tea room' a notation on the check saying 'Tip/Gratuity not included' which I found a bit odd making me think they weren't perhaps getting consistent tips? We tip according to the service and like being generous when we can, but I too feel it should be the customer's choice.
In Europe tipping is done much less than here.
Happy T Day
oxo
I'd prefer having the food prices raised, eliminating tips entirely, and paying staff a living wage. But nobody asked me ;)
DeleteAn AMAZING tearoom! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHappy T-Day!
xxx
Susi
It is a wonderful treat of a tea room :)
DeleteThis is a beautiful tea room. The ONLY one we had in town folded not long after Sally and I visited them. I'm glad we went, but Tea Rooms in Wichita are probably NOT such a good idea, apparently. It was the second one that folded that had been in business less than a year.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the tip. I've had servers who fussed all over me and catered to my every wish. I've left them far more than was expected. I've had servers who were very busy and may have forgotten something I requested, like a straw for my water. I take their being busy into consideration and usually leave a decent tip. I've also had servers who felt I should be grateful for their serving me. I leave them just enough to show my distaste for their service.
I used to track service and tip really bad waiters nothing but hold the amount in "escrow". The good servers got not only their own 20% but all the tips held back from the bad ones. lol I don't do that any more.
DeleteWhat a fabulous little tea room! Oh, it only more ladies, or mothers and daughters could enjoy such a rarity together! I'd love to sit and sip awhile with a special woman, mom or friend in my life. Happy T-day!
ReplyDeleteYes, it is such a treat! :)
DeleteBeautiful Tea Room, what a nice setting to have tea in. There are NO tea rooms anywhere near me..(frown) I would love to take my GDs to a place like this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
Happy T-day
This is not our only one! I feel fortunate. Glad you liked it :)
DeleteLooks like a lovely place to enjoy tea. I have not been to a tea room, but I would feel really pampered. Like everyone else, I feel the tip should be determined by the customer.
ReplyDeleteIt is a lovely place, just perfect for a lady lunch :)
Deleteoh how lovely in every way! looks like being pampered with beautiful surroundings and good food...happy T day!
ReplyDelete"Pampered" is the perfect word :) That's just how it feels! Happy T Tuesday!
DeleteI wrote about tipping on my blog today too. There has to be a better way! Thanks for the visit to the tea room. It looks lovely
ReplyDeleteThere is a better way, but it requires actually paying real wages to the servers. Not sure why that's never happened. Happy T(ea) Tuesday!
DeleteThat doesn't seem right to just add the tip to the bill. I wouldn't want to leave extra after that explanation, either--but it looks like a wonderful place for a special lunch. Happy T-Day! :)
ReplyDeleteOh, it is a delightful place! Happy T Day! :)
DeleteThis place looks lovely - pity about the gratuity thing! I hate it when it's on a bill as I prefer to give if I have good service! I did once ask for it to be taken off - but that was only so that I could make sure that our server actually got it herself! That chicken salad looks yummy! Chris:-)
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of asking for it to be removed. This is a small business, so I trust the servers are getting what's being assessed. It must work for them, but I'm surprised they seem to get such bad tippers as customers. Service is always good there.
DeleteLovely place and that chicken salad looks super yummy!
ReplyDeleteHappy Tuesday!
They do have wonderful chicken salad. Happy T Day :)
DeleteHappy T-Day!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely place and yummy looking chicken salad. I agree with you about eliminating tips entirely, and pay a real wage. Bad food or slow food is beyond the servers' control. But sometimes the servers got blame for that too. I know cause I was a server during my college days.
That chicken salad is sooo good! I think bad service at a restaurant should be handled in whatever way you handle bad service at a retail establishment. That'd be easier on everybody.
DeleteLooks like a lovely place! Interesting about the tipping. I live in a non-tipping society, and service is included in the price of the items on the menu, so it´s never an issue really to appraise the value of the service in particular, but of course one would expect places with good service to get more customers. Many Swedes are now more traveled and have started to tip a bit more, but only for exceptional service, and only in restaurants. It is rare, though, for table service in a café, so what I do if I am particularly happy with someone is to send an email to the management, saying that person is an asset to their establishment (perhaps they will remember when it is time to negotiate a salary raise or promotion).
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that many waiting staff here are uncomfortable about receiving tips. I think perhaps they feel patronized, in the sense of being looked down upon. This can be one reason that many Europeans are such bad tippers in the US - they are likely to feel very uncomfortable finding themselves in the position of salary payer to every serviceperson they encounter, without having any cultural "feel" for what is their reasonable share to give. I´d be relieved to find that gratuity was added to the bill.
20% of the pre-tax food bill is an expected tip. Expected. For exceptional service you'd leave more. For bad service you might leave less, or perhaps nothing at all.
DeleteI think it's a bad system that puts the diner as you say "in the position of salary payer" to the wait staff. The added gratuity at this restaurant was 15%, which is less than I would've left. I would much prefer all restaurant workers be paid real wages and eliminate tipping entirely.
I've started seeing tip jars on the counter by the register at places where ordering is done at the counter. I'm not sure what to make of that.
Oh, that´s right - I´d forgotten about tax not being included in American prices. I never did get used to that. And you tip hairdressers too, don´t you? I don´t know that ours or your system is better or worse, but they are different and probably points to different historical experiences. Sweden is still a society very marked by the labourer´s ethic. You know, it´s considered honorable to pick up your own trash, and so on. (We used to be known as a very tidy and clean nation! ;-)) Being waited on is difficult for many still, but it´s changing as we are moving away from industrial society into - what, I´m not really sure. I am a bit worried after our latest election, which has given us a much less stable parlamentary situation than we have had. But now I am *really* digressing from the subject of tea!
DeleteSales tax differs from place to place, since cities can add on additional sales taxes. We tip hairdressers, too, and the person who shampoos your hair gets tipped separately. I think your system is better :) It sounds better if you know what the final price will be at the outset.
DeleteMemphis used to be noted for its cleanliness, winning all kinds of awards. I don't know if there's less shame these days in being seen to be messy or what, but there's more litter now.
I've often thought a parliamentary system and coalition government would give minority views and the "little guy" more say in government than our 2-party system, which sometimes seems shaped solely by big moneyed interests. Does it not work that way?
We have, for most of the 20th century, had a five-party, 2 block-system, where the left has been in opposition to the right. This has made for pretty strong governments, albeit not without a need to negotiate within the blocks, so in that respect you are right. Now, however, with a third, 13%-of-the-vote strong player, whose representatives display appalling views of racism, antisemitism and other injudiciousnesses, which both traditional blocks are loathed to even talk to, the parliamentary situation is such that any government is going to be weak, unless parties can start making deals across the traditional border of right-left. It´s a cultural gulf very hard to bridge.
DeleteI just hope there will not be a re-election - that would make the third part even stronger. I am afraid this third party (the Sweden Democrats) builds its strength on a general discontent with just what you mention: that all parties nowadays, even the left (except the communists, but they are very small), lets its politics be shaped by "big moneyed interests". People see that whatever the rhetoric, the working man gets the wrong end of the stick each time, and they vote for change in the sense that any change must be good. The result is a parliamentary situation where little will be done by anyone, with every new policy being blocked by the opponent. [sigh]
"they vote for change in the sense that any change must be good." We see that here with bumper stickers urging us to vote everybody out and not re-elect anybody. We also have a new far-right influence in the "Tea Party" voters. (I think _all_ of the politicians are too far right. The center has drifted right over time so that it seems to me a true classical liberal is hard to find). So in our primary elections when the 2 parties select their candidates for the general election, the Tea Party wing of the Republican party supports a candidate even more right-wing than the right-wing Republican already in office. We get folks carrying loaded guns in public to make a 2nd amendment point, and militia groups from out west threatening to go down to the Mexican border and keep out illegal immigrants by force. These are such strange times when Obama is called a socialist and health care for everybody is a controversial issue. :(
DeleteAnd the Christmas Wars have already begun! I've already been warned of upcoming boycotts against any business who has employees say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" because of course that means they are trying to ban God from the USA. I swear, what ever happened to basic civility?
The Christmas Wars? That was new to me. Well, the Swedes aren´t crazy about the building of mosques either, but not because they feel their religion is threatened - we are largely secular, as is most of Europe. Some people here are just as hostile to the "Coca Cola Santa" and his "ho ho" as any other influence on the old Swedish ways - we are just barely getting used to Halloween, which was introduced in Sweden some ten years ago. Change is inevitable, and the internet has given kids a whole different perception of what world to consider "theirs". Like you, I hope sense and decency prevails.
DeleteThe Christian conservatives object to a perceived increase in secularization, they object to attempts at multicultural sensitivity when it involves such practices as "happy holidays" instead of "merry christmas". A commonly heard slogan is "Keep Christ in Christmas". They claim this is a Christian nation and are sensitive to any attempts to support our church/state separation. They support the practice of Christian prayer before government meetings, nativity scenes on government property, teaching Bible classes and holding Christian prayer in public schools, etc. I hear some of them object to Hallowe'en as a pagan observance. Right now there's an investigation by the Freedom From Religion Foundation into the paid chaplains on staff for public universities' football teams here in the South. The definition of common sense too often means "whatever makes sense to me" ;)
Delete"The definition of common sense too often means "whatever makes sense to me" ;)"
DeleteSo true!
What a fascinating topic has been raised. I thnk tipping has always been contentious - well it is with me. I won't pay it as part of the bill and ask for it to be removed, or remove it myself, I am quite good at math, but I then always make sure my server gets their due dependent on their service. As for your T subject this week, then it's a Wow, from me! I'd love to go somewhere so elegant for afternoon tea, or lunch. I would have that salad I think :) Thank you for showing us such a pretty place :D
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked it :)
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