Secrets of the City

From the Bad Waitress review: The tip jar at the counter might be the most puzzling part of the deal  does half service mean half the amount of tip and do you tip when you pay or on the way out?

I just handled it like I’d handle takeout from anywhere, which was to drop the standard 10% when I ordered. Though it was a little awkward to do so before getting my food. I suppose you could wait and tip as you leave, but I get paranoid about non-tipping leading to poor service. Or worse.

There’s absolutely no point to the tip jar at bad waitress. I’ve eaten there several times. The first time, I automatically tipped because well, that’s the norm at every other establishment across the nation sporting one of those annoying tip jars.

On my second visit, no tip was left in the jar and the cashier/waitress (the same as the first time) gave me the evil eye for not leaving her my left over $.60. Our food took extremely long to get to the table, even though the serving shelf was only ~15 feet away from the booth, and there were only two other tables occupied.

Geez, talk about living up to the name of the place.

Tice’s days were numbered when he openly supported George Bush, W/L record or sex scandals notwithstanding.

You knew the STrib’s editorial board wouldn’t stand that kind of performance and behavior! They’ll have to call in Zygi and tighten up the vetting process.

PS: Mark Dayton will be available.

Just when you ran out of things to blame on our “liberal” newspaper, let’s throw in the firing of the football coach. Jeesh, no wonder people make fun of bloggers.

Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus was in a pretty cool tribute to Ornette Coleman awhile ago — he also just recently wrote an article in All About Jazz on the other players to whom he’d like to pay some tribute that’s worth reading.

I didn’t mean to infer the STrib had anything to do with firing Tice, just that they slipped up by letting him be hired in the first place.

I guess he seemed so “nice” they never even thought to ask if he was a Republican?

I asked the cashier what she thought the appropriate tip was for the type of service they provided and she gave me a nebulous “well, we are half way between a coffee shop and a cafe” answer. She also said people were having a “hard time with it”.

If I were a server there, I would hate it, because they’re still taking orders, busing tables and serving but tips are going to be a lot smaller.

But then shouldn’t their hourly wage be higher?

Re: the WCCO studio remodeling. I’m confused–haven’t they done the view the viewer thing before? It was probably the summer of 1994 when I visited with a cousin just to see if we could get “on” the noon news, which was in the street-level studio encased in glass. We didn’t find the studio in time though. Why is Rosatti acting like the floor-to-ceiling glass is a new thing? Maybe it’s a new thing facing Marquette… Can Jason clear this up (I know he wasn’t there in ‘94, but still.)?

The Prefab movement did NOT start in Minneapolis.

It goes without replying that I obviously know that. I was simply referencing the Walker’s exhibit and the Twin Cities’ strong presence in the movement.

This KARE 11 Mike Pomeranz story is a joke! Is that news? And the “Minnesota connections,” give me a break! I can’t believe they wasted a five minute “Extra” on promoting an anchor.

And, yes, I think WCCO has had some version of the Today-show like street backdrop before. I know that funny looking noon news guy (Bill Carslon?) used to broadcast on the Mall side.

Re: Pomeranz

Just more fodder from the ‘news reader as best friend / celebrity’ trough that is somewhat unique to Minnesota.

The Kare-bears are especilally egregious in this regard.

The cloying WCCOers (Shelby , Amelia) vying in second.

There’s something about that Jeanette Trompeter, though…

Five minutes in the extra? Those douche bags ran a half hour show on him saturday morning. It went on & on & on & on…

Of course it’s not news, but can you blame them. Every news outlet needs a value add. If it was just about informing yourself, the bbc or cnn.com work great. {Also try google news without a keyword. Google continues to prove, “Anything you can do on the internet, we can do better.”

Back to kare–you’re attachment to their anchors is one of the few hooks they have, really. You’ve gotta like that talking head or you’re gone.

Memory lane-last time kare screwed an anchor, passolt ended up at blimp 9. What’s next, franky on UPN?

Couldn’t agree with you more, bud, about JT. She has a natural charm and charisma without being schmoozy.

DeRusha may be able to tell us more?

CCO will do the window thing for little while and then scrap it shortly because there will be too many political idiots and other yahoos outside the window with signs or stupid faces. I give it 2 weeks tops and then they’ll pull the shades

The Nicollet Mall studio launches tonight at ten. The plan is for that studio to be used for morning and noon shows, and then we transition to another under-construction set at the back of the building. If you walk by 11th and Marquette, you’ll see a giant hole in the copper shell. That’s where the Biz Journal illustration comes into play.

We do have contingency plans for anything that goes horribly wrong outside the window. I hope people don’t act like idiots. But I know better. We’ll see how it goes. We do have a set that uses the newsroom as a backdrop too. That’ll mainly be a reporter position– but the desk is big enough to be a set.

I watched Pomeranz last night at 10 p.m. That’s a damn fine-looking man. I’d tap that.