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The Lantern wrote
Local owner caters toward women
Libby Zay
Issue date: 9/22/08
There is something different about the way Elizabeth Lessner does business. Lessner is co-owner of three Columbus bars, all of which have, in her mind, the same demographic: women.
“I never felt like bars cared about me,” Lessner said, who has ownership interests in Betty’s Fine Food and Spirits, Surly Girl Saloon and Tip Top Kitchen and Cocktails. Her next brainchild, a downtown hot dog shop called Dirty Frank’s Hot Dogs, is scheduled to open in October.
The new restaurant and bar will serve food late nights and its d�cor will pay homage to the Columbus Clippers, who Lessner calls “hometown heroes.” She said that if the restaurant takes off, she would be interested in building another location near campus.
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- Dirty Frank’s Hot Dogs opening downtown in July
- Ohioanna All-Star Market coming to Short North
I’ve been going to Tip Top since the week it opened. It’s one of my favorite places in the city. The food is great, the service is always friendly and prompt. My father and I were making it our monthly lunch spot for quite some time.
A few months ago I brought three friends to Tip Top solely for the sweet potato fries. They are sooo good. We all had cocktails, and we ordered two baskets of fries. Along with the fries came a spicy mayonnaise, but the amount served wasn’t enough. We asked for more, got more, and that was that.
When the bill arrived, we were charged .50 for the extra side of mayo. Our bill was over $50 in cocktails, and if I remember correctly the basket of fries were $6 each. I think with the tax and tip we left over $80.
If you’re making over $60 in nearly pure-profit items–booze and fries–why bother tacking on a silly charge of .50, especially when enough isn’t served with it in the first place?
It’s not about the 50 cents; I have no complaints about the prices themselves at Tip Top. Instead it’s about the impression it left on me. Is the economy really that bad that you have to charge for mayo? Or, is your business really doing that poorly that every penny counts?
Ever hear of Bob Farrel with the whole “just give em’ the pickle” thing? Doesn’t it make just make more sense to give us the extra mayonnaise, something that may cost a paltry .10, in hopes of having our business to return to spend another $60? I mean, in all honesty, I haven’t come back since.
Methinks you’ve overthought this a bit. If this is a basic condiment like ketchup in which no preparation time is needed, I think it should be gratis. If the spicy mayo is house-made, and requires preparation time, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to charge. If you wanted an extra helping of fries, you’d be charged for those.
Methinks you’ve overthought this a bit. If this is a basic condiment like ketchup in which no preparation time is needed, I think it should be gratis. If the spicy mayo is house-made, and requires preparation time, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to charge. If you wanted an extra helping of fries, you’d be charged for those.
I like to roll sushi. Whenever I make sirachi mayo, it takes less than a minute to make. I don’t know their recipe, but I can’t imagine the prep time on their spicy mayo being an hour or anything like that.
I think what bothered me was that our bill was already a pure profit bill. Drinks are marked up at least 300%, and fries cost so little they’re nearly all-profit. I had no problem spending $80 on some friends from out of town. I’m nearly positive that if that .50 weren’t on the bill, it would have just ended up in the server’s pocket since I usually tip high and round up.
But If they’re already making so much off of us, why tack on that extra 50 cents, especially when the ramekin was only half full when we got it? It just left a bad impression on me.
I don’t know, by definition needing condiments means you’ve purchased food…so I think condiments of any kind (and in any reasonable amount) should just be part of the package.
I guess it’s the restaurateur’s prerogative whether to charge for additional condiments, and there really is a fine line here. I would think most fine dining establishments would charge extra for an additional serving of sour cherry demi-glaze, but McDonald’s lets you take all the ketchup packets you want. This falls somewhere in the middle. I guess without knowing if the mayonnaise used is made from scratch (labor intensive) or from a jar, it’d be hard to judge.
You should probably call a restaurant in advance and ask them their policies on extra condiments if this is such a high priority. Sheesh, you paid for everything else you ordered and consumed. Why draw the line at a 50 cent blop of mayo?
You should probably call a restaurant in advance and ask them their policies on extra condiments if this is such a high priority. Sheesh, you paid for everything else you ordered and consumed. Why draw the line at a 50 cent blop of mayo?
Ha ha, that’s hilarious, I literally laughed out loud. :-P
It’s not that I examine a bill relentlessly, adding everything up to make sure it’s correct. I don’t bring out a calculator and make sure the tax is accurate. It’s clearly not the .50 either! It’s the act itself. Why charge extra for mayo? It’s fricking mayo! A jar costs what, $2? The ones they buy in bulk cost less than that, I’m sure. It’s stupid when you’re already spending $6 on a basket of fries to charge for extra mayo, especially when there wasn’t enough in the first place.
You could just spend 2 bucks yourself and carry a jar of mayo at all times. It’s good to be prepared.
You should probably call a restaurant in advance and ask them their policies on extra condiments if this is such a high priority. Sheesh, you paid for everything else you ordered and consumed. Why draw the line at a 50 cent blop of mayo?
Ha ha, that’s hilarious, I literally laughed out loud. :-P
…Well, thanks for having a sense of humor about my ribbing. It would be pretty funny to call Lindey’s or Rosendales & grill them about their condiments before making a reservation.
Seriously though, BW3′s charges .50 for each lil’ tub of sauce/sour cream & it never seems to be enough. I guess it never occurred to me to expect it to be complementary, regardless of my tab.
I can kind of understand how MBT feels though…
I was at Roosters last night, and there is a $.50 charge for bleu cheese and another $.50 for celery with the wings. It always irritates me, because those things are pretty much standard with wings in many establishments. However, the menu does explicitly state that bleu cheese and celery are extra, so I expect the charge.
If that isn’t spelled out on the menu, it always feels a little sneaky to me. Like when a restaurant up-charges for bleu cheese dressing on salad, or for extra cheese on the potato, etc.
It isn’t the $.50. I just don’t like having to review the check with a fine tooth comb because I’ve been up-charged on several items. Especially if the sauce was included as part of the item on the menu.
Having said all that… I think the OP probably should have said something to the server at the time. I suspect they would have removed the charge. They can’t fix something if they don’t know there was a problem.
I probably would have been annoyed too if I had gotten a half-tub of mayo and had to pay 50 cents for the other half. I can’t say that it would be enough to keep me from going back though.
I’ve had the sweet potato fries plenty of times there, and I’ve always had enough of the spicy mayo to go with them, so hopefully this can just be chalked up to a single-time offense?
A friend of mine had a date-rape drug put in her drink at Tip Top. So while I love Liz Lessner’s places, nowhere is “safe” from this kind of shit.
That really saddens me. Actually, strike that. That really ticks me off. At Tip Top? Seriously?
It’s been brought to my attention before that I have somewhat idealistic notions about the way people are and the way the world works. I guess this is just Exhibit Number Whatever. But still. :x + :(
There’s always a small percentage of douchebags that will relentlessly fuck a good thing up for everyone else. That’s scary as hell. I hope ARH’s friend was out with some companions who kept an eye on her after that happened.
Yes, thankfully she was with friends who cared and took her to the hospital right away. I always felt safe at Tip Top and Surly Girl, but it’s to the point where I don’t feel safe at any bars anymore. Sucks.
Glad to hear she ended up ok! (or reasonably ok) Note to guys, this could happen to you as well! Never leave your drink unattended for any reason, even for going out for a smoke or a quick jaunt to the restroom.
I’ve yet to make it to TipTop so I can not comment on mayo issues.
But as a lady, I love all the other joints Liz has created. I always feel safe, never worry about over crowding from sport related activities and NEVER worry about hearing cheesy pick lines. I insist that anyone visiting from out of town head to surly girl for a yummy surly girl pizza and a tall glass of lindemens frambiose.
I even had my baby shower there.
Thanks for the surly girl onesie!
Hi there,
I am the afore-mentioned Operations Manager of The Betty’s Family of Restaurants.
If anyone that any of you know ever has any safety issues at one of our restaurants, please please please notify us. Heck, if you have any trouble anywhere in the Short North or Downtown, please notify us.
We are on boards and committees that are trying to make Columbus a safer place, and we offer extra server training through the Ohio Investigative Unit. We train our new hires on safety and harassment and empower them to 86 anyone who bothers another guest or employee. And we have very close relationships with our Captial Crossroads Safety Unit and the Columbus Police that are assigned to our locations.
The only way to stop the creepy people and to make our Columbus a safer place for all of us is to keep talking. We need to keep filing police reports and keep prosecuting and keep informing each other when bad things happen.
(In fact, there is a meeting at City Hall next Tuesday at 6pm about changing the laws regarding Aggressive Panhandling. If you have had any experience with this, please attend.)
Please contact me any time through Bettys, Surly Girl Saloon or TipTop with any problems, concerns, ideas, etc.
Sincerely,
Amy Brennick
ARH, thanks for the post and for the pm response. I look forward to hearing from her. [/i]
PLEASE contact me or Amy directly regarding any dangerous incidents that might have occurred at Tip Top Kitchen. We promise to keep your information completely confidential, we simply wish to file a police report and check our camera footage for any possible evidence to find and prosecute this criminal.
PLEASE file police reports EVERY time these things happen no matter where you are, it is the only way to help rid our city of these criminals. Our staff is well-trained in identifying and kicking out people that could pose a danger to our staff or clientele.
My management team has spent the entire day pouring over our daily logs and Patron Incident Reports looking for any info related to this incident, we need your help to find and prosecute this person. Please contact us so we can check our footage and file a police report.
Time is ALWAYS of the essence on these matters. Some cameras roll over every 24 hours and footage can be lost. Thankfully, we have the footage and we CAN look for this person!
On a MUCH lighter note (but highly more caloric)…
Regarding the mayo, I’m sorry for the cost increase. I will address with management and make sure that any charge is communicated to the customer ahead of time. We pay our staff a living wage, provide health care benefits and an Employee Assistance Program and it forces us to watch every penny. I can assure you no one here is getting rich, our margins are razor thin, especially in this current economy with food cost and fuel surcharges up so much right now. I do agree that if there is an additional charge for anything, it should be communicated to the customer and I am very sorry it was not mentioned ahead of time.
As always, everyone in Columbus knows how/where to find me. If you have ANY more info on the incident at Tip Top, please call me or Amy.
Elizabeth Lessner
elizabeth@bettyscolumbus.com
614.291.8073 office
Agreed, best to be prepared. Also, mayonnaise travels surprisingly well without spoiling, due to its high vinegar content.
At Marino’s Seafood, they have a sign that says something like: “IF WE HAVE TO PAY FOR IT, YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT.” Also, charging for some optional items, allows the price of other things to be kept lower. Hence, $0.50 for extra bleu cheese at B-Dub’s, and $2.29 soda pops at Champps. Food costs have to be controlled, especially at small operations that don’t enjoy the advantages of large-scale purchasing.
You should also be aware that in a lot of places, your waiter can’t get the items you ask for WITHOUT ringing it in. That’s the number one reason the charge appeared on your check, not because the server was trying to nickel-and-dime you. If you felt like you didn’t get what you paid for in the first place, you should definitely have spoken to a manager; as things stand, they didn’t get the chance to help you out at all, and you won’t go back there again.