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Holidos and Don’ts – tipping

14th May 202514th May 2025 funtime65

And in readiness for the Oo Es of Eh and prompted by an Italian guide on such matters we bring you Holidos and Don’ts – tipping.

A tip first of all is a contract To Insure Promptness and our American friends certainly provide that.

We have all seen cab drivers hurl luggage down at a measly tip or God forbid none at all.

While even of you have just got out of the Uber in the dodgiest and wrong part of Washington DC you are expected to open your wallet.

Tipping 100%

But what percentage of your bill should you give your service provider?

Well from experience a fifth of your tariff will elicit a warm wide smile and priority the next time you seek custom.

And so as not to look foreign, or worse, mean work it out beforehand so you’re not scrabbling around for notes.

Boston a gut

The rule of thumb too is that every service provider is entitled to your extra gratuity.

Even if you are that gormless inexperienced 21-year-old waiter getting your order wrong.

At the Black Rose Irish bar in Boston.

Now every American service provider knows the drill.

And that it is tips that make the job viable.

Everybody you would think, apart that is Faceache.

The Tragic Bus (Boy)

One of our waitress bosses at the sadly departed Guadalaharry’s Mexican restaurant by Quincy Market, Boston.

When we worked as Bus Boys, the lowest rung of the hospitality sector.

The convention for clearing the tables while the waiters schmoozed was widely accepted to be 10 per cent of their overall tips.

Which of course, said Faceache, and no I can’t remember her real name, ignored.

What was free, as well as Nachos which I have hence gone off for life, were the daily putdowns.

And getting called ‘Biafra’ on account of my then svelte figure.

All of which would have been helped with a healthy cut of her tips which I had helped win.

Customer is always right

Share it out: Everybody should get their cut

Those post-university experiences and my cousins running bars and diners in New York has led me to value the American tipping culture.

And it does work too as we witnessed first hand when our table were given free drinks on the eve of Cousin Eddie’s wedding.

Because of our extended wait.

Our American friends and family, of course, expect similar courtesy when they visit foreign shores.

A Brit of a lesson

But alas, at least here on our shores it can be erratic at best.

Which is when my formidable Auntie Kathleen, daughter of Donegal turned Queen of Queens hospitality would come in.

Reminding staff on these shores of the Holidos and Don’ts – tipping.

And what she would require for herself and her party if they did not meet her standards.

America, Countries, Food & Wine

A tale of two Dubliners

12th May 202312th May 2023 funtime65

Now, it’s rarely a good idea to get between two fighting Dubliners.

And never the famous fighting Irish, the emigrees who fled the Famine and built America and its best bars.

The two Dubliners in question here are pubs in Washington DC and Boston.

The Washington Dubliner has been pouring porter (that’s Guinness for the uninitiated) since 1975.

But they got a nasty taste in their mouth in the capital following the recent opening of the Boston Dubliner.

We’ll sue you in court

Records show that they have taken out a law suit against the Bostonians.

Saying: ‘In the suit against the East Coast Tavern Group, filed in US District Court in Boston, the Washington Dubliner, founded in 1975, is asking for the Boston Dubliner, opened last year in the space where Kinsale used to be in Center Plaza, to be ordered to change its name.

‘And pay all the profits it’s made, plus damages and attorney’s fees to be determined by the court.’

Now the Boston Dubliner, like its Irish cousin has a healthy opinion of itself.

With its site boasting that it serves the best pint of Guinness in Boston.

Now I’ve yet to road-test it, preferring, of course to patronise my old stomping ground of The Black Rose.

The Washington version in the Phoenix Park Hotel in for its part has its own brand of whiskey.

Sing for your supper

And that we’ve discovered is really at the heart of the dispute.

Because the Bostonians stand accused of selling that very brand in their bar.

Makes sense as you’d have to imagine that there would be more than two Dubliner pubs on the eastern seaboard.

Because there have been Dubliner pubs from as far apart as Bolivia, Prague and Iraq.

It’s not just drink though where the two Dubliners find a lack of a common ground.

With both claiming the best music.

The Boston Dubliner drawing Dermot Kennedy in to sing there while the Washington bar a fave for its gigs.

We’ll keep you updated when we find out more but hope the two Dubliners settle it over a pint.

Another chapter

Luke who it is: With Luke Kelly in Dublin

As an aside, the most successful Irish trad band of them all, the Dubliners, emerged from a real capital city institution.

O’Donoghues, on Merrion Row, off Grafton Street, where they would play in the snug.

With Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly et al choosing to name themselves after a James Joyce set of short stories.

Now that’s a tale of Dubliners.

America, Countries, Food, Food & Wine

The Streets of Boston

26th April 202226th April 2022 funtime65

Now I’ve experience of the streets of Boston and the difference a turning can make, albeit 35 years ago.

So when I’d overshot Chinatown in Washington Street yesterday.

And found myself crossing the Mass Turnpike bridge I knew I was off course.

Way to go Shojo

I had been personally waited on by restaurant manager Jim at Shojo on Tyler Street.

And licked my lips and fingers tearing through his Wu-Tang Tiger Style Ribs, Jasmine rice and Japanese Saison Du beer.

And heavy of tummy had decided to take a walk down Memory Lane to my old workplace, the Black Rose, on State Street.

Now the proliferation of Asian spellings and smellings ought to have alerted me that I was on the wrong scent.

The Black Rose

So I doubled back, span into a vortex and was suddenly back in 1987.

With the singer, Irish Terry, singing The Dubliners’ standard Fiddler’s Green.

I waited patiently, cradling my Guinness, for the favourite when I tended door and bar here in the Eighties.

And was glad to put bread in his jar for a rendition of Black Velvet Band.

Filled with the best type of fuel I rolled home and let the tiredness of a three-country, 17-hour Aer Lingus journey drift me to sleep.

And dream of days gone and to come on The Streets of Boston.

Before hitting the Streets of Boston again and checking out its famous T trams.

And a tea party.