(New York Times) — Rosemarie Ingleton left a $110.40 tip on a $552 check at Indochine on Wednesday night, after making an ineffable calculation based on ambiance, food and, of course, service. But she did not give a lot of thought to how it would be distributed among the staff. “At a place like Indochine, where there are so many people attending to you, my assumption is that they’re sharing the tip at the end of the night — I’m hoping,” said Dr. Ingleton, a Manhattan dermatologist. “But I don’t really know.” Few diners do, simply associating the tip they leave with the waiter who takes their orders. But how those tips are shared has become an increasingly contentious issue in the industry, stoking resentments among some workers and prompting a recent raft of lawsuits against some of New York’s most lauded dining rooms.
