My wife and I have eaten at 18 Seaboard a number of times and always enjoy it. The food is excellent and the service is usually very good. I recently noticed that they were holding a wine dinner event that sounded like fun and was going to sign up for it until I noticed that they required a 20% gratuity. First of all, a gratuity is defined as a voluntary payment for service and should not be required. If they are going to require it, they should just include it in the price and pay their staff an actual living wage like other business. And 20% is absolutely ridiculous! While I often pay that for outstanding service, requiring it regardless of the level of service is completely wrong. Tips used to be suggested at 15% which, as prices go up, the tip would go up as well. Increasing the tip and making it required is unacceptable.
Needless to say, we will not be attending the wine dinner and will have to decide whether we want to go to 18 Seaboard again at all for dinner. Hopefully, they will return to a reasonable policy for gratuities -- like suggesting an amount and letting their customers decide what to pay.
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