The Ace Hotel lobby bar made headlines last March when it was noticed that they were instituting a mandatory 18% gratuity on every drink. It was hard to miss, because the bar stamped every receipt with "YOU'RE COVERED: For your convenience we have already added an 18% tip to your bill. You can thank us later." Why, thank you so much for conveniently turning a gratuity into an added fee, Ace Hotel! The incredibly condescending tone of the old stamp was bad enough, but now the stamp has changed, and it's even more obnoxious: In big letters, each receipt is stamped 18% GRATUITY SUGGESTED, and beneath, in a much smaller font that appears slightly faded, "Gratuity Included." Is this their way of trying to get you to tip twice?
Blogger Cropped Pants seems to have almost fallen for it, having written in a tip, then realizing it was already included. It's easy to see how someone signing a check in mid-conversation after a few rounds of drinks could miss this and tip twice. For the record, even this "mandatory tipping" business doesn't seem to legally mandatory; in 2006 a man—dare we call him a "hero"?—who refused to pay a "required" 18 percent gratuity at a Lake George restaurant was arrested for leaving 10 percent, but the DA ultimately dropped the charges. "Case law said a gratuity is within the discretion of the customers," Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan tells the Post.
We called the Ace Hotel lobby bar repeatedly to try to find out why they changed what one server called "the Grat Stamp," and we'll update if we hear back. [Via Eater]
