Tipping Karma

I worked a catering party for the first time in a few months on Saturday night. Things tend to slow down in late summer as far as large catered parties go, but now the schedule is full again. Now that I'm working 9-5 I can't do as much, but thats OK. Catering work was a godsend when I started back in May. I needed the cash and I just needed to be working again. I like the work because everyone generally does their job, you finish what you have to and you go home- or out for a beer. It is hard work though, very physical, sometimes uncomfortabe conditions - in my case I sweat a bit too much. But the people I work with are nice and the money is pretty good. You get paid by the hour and sometimes at the end of the night you get an extra tip thrown in - maybe $25.00 to walk away with.

I didn't know that Saturday's party at the Philadelphia visitors center was a wedding. I figured it might be a corporate reception or some event having to do with "Constitution Day". A wedding means a long night and it was still humid out and I was tending bar in a tuxedo- outside- on the patio overlooking the Liberty bell and Independence Hall. Apparently the guests were going to be big drinkers, because we had five bartenders - three inside and two outside. So the guests start to arrive and we have a full bar -plenty of beer, wine and liquor with all kinds of mixers. It starts out relatively slow and a few of the guests offer us cash tips. Now when I'm catering I usually refuse tips from the guests - "everything is already taken care of tonight" I might say. But usually, its not a problem- people don't tip at parties like this. Most of the time the host wouldn't like it and at business parties the guests are cheap freeloaders. But tonight was different. People were insisting that we take tips. A couple bucks folded up here, a five a ten or a twenty there. It was kind of exciting. I never would have expected it, and it made me a bit nervous of what my bosses would say if they knew we were raking it in - would we have to split it among everyone?? My pockets were literally stuffed with cash. It was a hard drinking crowd. Lots of everything. I could gather most of them came from Port Richmond and Northern Liberties area of the city. Just regular folk who tip their bartenders no matter what. I thought maybe it was some kind of sociological study - rich people would never tip at a fancy party like this. I know from long experience. In all the parties I've done I might have been handed a few tips here and there. Saturday when I counted at the end of the night I had close to $200.00 (my god!) Me and my co- bartender played it cool and kept our money in our pockets. We evened out the money at the end of the night - and we gave some to the two guys who helped us out all night. It was a great unexpected bonus - I made more in tips than I'll make in salary - that has never happened to me catering before. I really need the money right now too. My bills keep stacking up even though I'm working full time. Damn economy.

We were most of the way through the party when we found out why fortune was smiling on us as never before. It turns out that the groom owns a bar in Northern Liberties, so most of the guests were waitresses and bartenders and managers themselves. Everyone knows they tip better than anyone. I guess all my years of hanging out in bars (and tipping pretty well) has finally paid off.