The Nest

Friday, August 03, 2007 4:59 PM

Should you tip the sommelier in a restaurant?

Q: Settle an argument we had--in public--at dinner last night:  should you tip the sommelier in a restaurant?

A: The sommelier [saw-muh-LYAY] is the on-staff wine guru in a high-end restaurant. He or she is the person you can call over to your table for a wine recommendation and, if you’re a willing audience, a mini wine lecture. If you want to know more about a particular grape, the region the wine was made, what the weather was like in Burgundy, France in the summer of 1985 (seriously), you can glean this kind of info. from a sommelier. The sommelier should also open and pour your wine as part of the wine service.

So if you get the full monty of service, I think you should tip the sommelier separately, particularly if he or she recommended a good wine that was in (or below) your budget, and didn’t make you feel like a piece of lint for not knowing more about wine. For most bottles of wine, $5-$10 is a nice gesture.

But be sure you don’t double-tip! If the sommelier hooked you up (recommended, opened or decanted and poured the wine), deduct the price of the bottle of wine from the bill total and tip the sommelier 10 or 15 percent. When you’re figuring the tip for the waiter, subtract the price of the wine from the total you tip on.

But what if the waiter makes off with the sommelier's tip?, you ask. At this level of restaurant, the waiter probably won't stiff a co-worker out of $10, or feel shorted--he'll probably be impressed that you're tipping the sommelier to begin with. If you’re worried about it, tell the waiter, "Hey, I slipped an extra $(insert amount) in the tip for the sommelier. If you wouldn't mind, please pass it along to him/her for me." P.S. Tipping the sommelier is also a great way to get recognized the next time you roll into the restaurant.

At the same time, I don’t believe tipping the sommelier is a must (or, generally, expected) unless you ordered a very expensive vintage and received great service. If the “service” is simply some wine wank saying, "Go for the Yellow Tail with your lobster", then no, a tip probably isn’t in order.

Spending big bucks in a swanky restaurant (even if it's a special occasion) is
a prime occasion for those couple quibbles over money and etiquette to come out. What are your dining-out dilemmas?