DEAR DAME EVELYN'S readers, Today yours truly yields the floor to readers with strong views on tipping. To wit:

Dear Dame Evelyn, I read with interest your response regarding restaurants that fail to give exact change for take-out. As a former bartender who also used to have to package to-go orders, allow me to present a response to your statement that "tipping is for table service, after all, not take-out." While I agree that giving back incorrect change is inexcusable, I would put forward the notion that tipping is for good service, not necessarily just for good table service.

To get your to-go order, the take-out person had to answer the phone, take the order, give the order to the kitchen, get the order, package the order and the appropriate utensils, ring the order up, and take payment. These are many of the same tasks a waiter performs in table service. In addition, for me (and I suspect for many of the people preparing your readers' take-out orders), time spent putting together take-out orders is time spent away from other tipping customers.

I admit that tipping take-out people is not the norm. I might, if pressed, also agree that the preparation of a take-out order may perhaps warrant less than the traditional tip one gives a waiter. To the extent that the person from whom your reader picks up the take-out order is pleasant and helpful, to the extent that the order includes everything ordered, and to the extent that the interaction is brief and professional, I would encourage your readers to acknowledge that service with a tip.

Thought you might like another take. I enjoy your column!

Kazu

Dear Dame Evelyn, Regarding the reader who was miffed about not getting back change when picking up take-out: an easy solution is to ask for a receipt. It's less confrontational, it gives the customer a hard number to expect back in change, and it makes the restaurant aware that you are watching. Restaurants are in business and would rather stay in business by making you happy than to lose you as a customer. (Business lunches always request receipts, since companies often pick up the "entertainment" tab.)

R.F.

Dame Evelyn takes tips from strangers:
Contact Evelyn Grosvenor-Smythe at dame.evelyn@comcast.net.