Low Life is amazing. I hadn't heard of the Riis book, but will now seek it out. Thanks for the info.

Yes yes yes to everything you said about terrible WA drivers. It's all compounded by the fact that they think they are good drivers. And don't even get me started about not-existent or last-possible-moment turn signaling.

Yep, I'm sure that's a product of having no competition. Thanks for the shroom!

LOL ...
"I have cholera!"
"What?"

I agree that this is a good conversation to have. Old people are generally much less freaked out about death than young people.

Spoklahoma

10% feels about right to me too, but I didn't know if I was going to get sent to bad-tippers' prison. Thank you for the validation.

I mostly agree on the split tips aspect, and that is the one thing that gives me pause about leaving a lesser one. However, where is the line drawn? For example, they've got a tip jar at Red Mill burgers. Just like at Blue C, every employee is working hard to serve me, but leaving a 15-20% tip isn't even on my radar there or, frankly, anywhere that I'm ordering food from a counter. In those places, I'm more apt to leave my loose change or maybe a dollar (perhaps more for a huge order).

Notable exceptions to this are for bartenders and baristas, for whom I typically leave $1/drink.

I'm not sure I agree here. While yes, the servers do handle special orders (if you order one), bring food (if you sit in the bar), and respond to the blue light (if you push the button), we generally do none of those things. If we did, then of course I'd feel compelled to tip more.

I've also gotta disagree on the kids aspect. First, the only reason I even mentioned kids is to explain WHY we go to Blue C to begin with (as opposed to a place with decent sushi). As far as kids in restaurants, there are courteous parents and discourteous parents. I like to think I'm in the former group as we always make sure to get our kids their own food order (as opposed to just getting an extra plate and sharing ours), we clean up our messes, and we don't bother going out if our kids are showing the least sign of being tired or otherwise grumpy. In other words, we're not just occupying space, and people dining around us don't notice that we are there.

I generally start at 20% when figuring a tip. But that's at places with regular table service, where the server has to take our order and bring our food, neither of which typically occur for us at Blue C. Hence my question.

I do agree with your point about sharing tips with the host, bussers, etc, and that is the one reason I'm thinking twice about leaving a lesser tip. See my comment to ballardgirl's answer about that subject.

Hmmm ... I think you are correct about the beef patty being the norm. But, Hawaiians do love their Spam!