Mayor Johnson, Let Me Give You a Tip
By James Banakis
April 29th, 2026
Tipping is a uniquely American phenomenon. If you have had the opportunity of travel outside the country, you know the rest of the world doesn’t do it and doesn’t really understand it. We do. For most Americans it’s an integral part of our entrepreneurial, capitalistic system. At its purest custom it is our way of saying thank you for exceptional service. At its most base tradition it can form the basis of a pay-off, a bribe. We Americans though know the difference.
We also know it’s certainly not necessary to tip the guy who hands over your drycleaned sportscoat even though there’s a jar on the counter. Most of us treasure the custom, because it rewards hard work and brings out the best in us all. You know who hate it? Communists!
As a business owner who has spent a lifetime operating restaurants, which employs people who rely on tips as a part of their income, I consider myself as a specialist on this subject. You can imagine my disbelief when our Marxist mayor referred to me and my fellow restaurant owners as slave owners, and our cherished employees, as slaves. He linked his position on his push for reparations, compensation for his twisted perceived generations of harm. He includes the restaurant industry as the major perpetrator.
Here we have an elected official who instead of trying to improve the commerce of our city, and promote jobs, attacks one of Chicago’s most significant job creators. This is another example of what I referred to a few weeks ago, as bizarro behavior. Johnson is a buffos, a Greek word translated as clownish and silly. Every action he initiates is dripping in racist victimhood, and collectivism.
I learned about tipping from my generous father who modeled what I would refer to as proactive greasing. As a waiter approached the table, the old man would place a bill in his shirt pocket or secure the bill between his first two fingers, and transfer while shaking hands, winking, and smiling. His reward? Every waiter, car hop, hotel maid wanted to please him. He didn’t do it to be a bigshot. He merely reasoned it was an investment, and made more sense up front. He was a Chicago guy through and through.
In my lifetime, I’ve been a waiter, my grandmother was a waitress, my mother was a waitress, and I’ve hired and trained thousands of waitstaff. None of these people ever thought of themselves as slaves. For many, it was a fun and profitable way they financed their education. I always reminded new employees that they were in fact running their own businesses. We provided the workspace and product; they sold it and reaped profits based on their cunning perseverance.
Like any entrepreneur, sometimes they had great days and sometimes they had slow ones. They were just like us, the owners only we carried more risk. It was always a mutual relationship. I can’t think of a waiter or waitress who would have ever wanted to forgo tips for a higher base hourly rate. A great waitstaff is always a dynamic sales force. They guide the diner on what to order to attain the best dining experience possible. They are in fact our partners in the success of our enterprises. They are risk taking capitalists betting on themselves, and I’ve always been proud of them.
We all recognize great service, and the knowledgeable customer feels happy to reward that proficiency. Waitpersons are probably the highest compensated employees in the retail segment of our economy. The best among them makes a lot of money!
I’ve witnessed many examples of patrons overtipping beloved servers. There was a group of businessmen who a few weeks before Christmas, left a $1500.00 gratuity as a way of sharing the joy of the season, to a single mother. Single mother waitresses formed the backbone of our breakfast restaurants. They were among the most dedicated, hardworking, joy filled, and selfless employees of all. I always thought of them as daughters.
When I was with Lettuce Entertain You, we had many delightful tipping company tales. My favorite involved Frank Sinatra. Whenever Sinatra was in Chicago, he stayed at the Ambassador East and held court until the wee hours of the morning at the Pump Room bar.
On one memorable night a buzzed Sinatra, the last man standing, asked his bartender what his largest tip was he ever received. The bartender answered $400.00. Sinatra promptly peeled off 5 crisp $100.00 dollar bills and handed them to the bartender. As he was leaving Sinatra shouted back, “Who was the cheap bastard who left the $400.00?” The bartender answered, “That would be you sir.”
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office elaborated on his comments suggesting that tipping was started by white employers in the South after Emancipation to avoid paying a living wage to Black workers. Horse bleep! This is another example of Marxist revisionist history. Remember, Communists hate it when individuals overcome adversity and win. They hate it when business prospers and lifts all boats. Marxists flourish amid despair and hopelessness. They win when they convince those who are at the bottom of the economic pyramid that they are hapless victims.
Mayor Johnson who is punishing Chicago daily, succeeds only at equating everything with race. He does this every day, loud and clear, without shame or apology.
Gratuities reside at the intersection of gratitude and generosity. It’s a street that I’ve lived on throughout my life. First as a paperboy, later as a cabdriver and waiter and bartender while in college. It is the essence of the hospitality industry of which I’ve been a part of as an entrepreneur. It’s as American as baseball, and it’s as Chicago as Italian Beef. Like my dear old man would always say, “the guy works hard, you take care of him, and he’ll take care of you.”
Mayor Panic Attack, tipping is an American tradition. More specifically, it’s a Chicago way of life, we all know it and many of us do it with panache. Do us in the hospitality industry a favor and find another madeup grievance to cry about.
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Jimmy Banakis is a life-long restaurateur. He was an honorary batboy for the White Sox in 1964. He attended Oak Park River Forest High School, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Chicago-Kent Law School. He claims the kitchen is the room he’s most comfortable in anywhere in the world. He published an extremely limited-edition family cookbook. He’s a father and grandfather, and lives in Downers Grove Il.
Comments 28
Great column. I bartended my way thru college and tips were my main source to cover tuition. Story about Sinatra brought back great memories. My father was EVP for The Management Group, Ron by Yale Wexler and Jerry Cataldo. Offices were in the Ambassador West. Once in a great while he’d treat our family to dinner at the Pump Room. On one occasion we listened to Ike Cole play the piano and sing. My sister once accompanied him on a song. Truly terrific memories. Mayor Panick Attacks is a chumbalone.
James,
Not only are you an awesome restaurateur, you are a great writer.
I love your stories. I love your take on politics and life.
Sir:
Your words here are powerful.
Thank you,
So well said. Excellent column from someone in the trenches. When we first moved out of chumbalone land I was living solo in the new house. I went to an outback for dinner as a treat midweek. New waitress likely first day solo. Also of an age and face that screamed single mom. We had time to chat a moment during dinner and my suspicions were confirmed. I put an extra 20 on the tip. You can often tell those who are struggling. I had a successful professional practice for years. Time to give back. Did so during my career too. Thanks for a great column.
Excellent article. People who produce nothing and add no value to anything are either consciously or subconsciously envious of those that do. Adding value includes any type of productive hard work. I went to school in Oklahoma. One older student had an interesting take on things. He grew up on a ranch with many siblings. He and his brother were the ones who got up early milked the cows and fed the animals. He and his brother both had traditional conservative values. He mentioned his sister, who could never seem to wake up, was mostly lazy and blamed her parents for having to live on a ranch out in the country instead of living in a city. Of course she became a teacher and uber liberal. The point being the working class of this country have not been valued by people like Mayor Johnson for decades, as he is someone who produced nothing and added no value to anything. I hope that made sense.
Excellent James!!
Whenever I took a client out for lunch or dinner I made sure to ask for a specific waiter or waitress who really made a difference. They knew me and my generosity was for their services and pleasant demeanor.
When a few became clients I understood why their incomes were very substantial and a few would wind up owning the restaurants they worked at. Thank you for reminding us how important we all are to one another. The Mayor doesn’t have a clue.
I once saw an excellent speaker that stated blaming others for your lot in life is a form of enslavement. Taking personal responsibility for your actions and choices releases the shackles. When you think about it, unless you had a horrible childhood or experienced significant trauma, most of your present circumstances are based on the choices you have made for yourself. Sometimes those choices are made in a few brief moments in time. I chose to quit school, I chose to stay in school, I chose this area of work or study, I chose to stay at this job, I chose to switch jobs or careers, I chose to marry this person, stay with this person, divorce this person, have children with this person…The inequities of capitalism are a fraction of the inequities of socialism or communism as only the socialist or communist elites live well while everyone else suffers. It is interesting how spoiled rich kids seem to gravitate to socialism as they have been brainwashed. There is a line in the movie Platoon where after actor Keith David calls Charlie Sheen a Crusader for dropping out of college because “why should the poor kids go to war and the rich kids get away with it” by saying the perfect line “you have to be rich in the first place to think like that”. Spot on.
The full story here is that the mayor wants a $25 /hour wage for all restaurant staff. Admittedly, this would provide the waiters with more money. In order for a restaurant to stay in business, how much would they have to raise the menu prices? 50%?
Mr. B
Excellent. I can think of all of my friends that have become successful in life after beginning their working careers waiting on tables, pouring drinks and moving beer kegs. I have always had my favorite breakfast waitresses that as you point out made the restaurants. That’s why I hated Covid, it killed the hospitality, restaurant industry.
I love it when someone, who obviously knows what he’s talking about, writes such an informative and entertaining post. Well done, Jimmy! I have enjoyed your prior posts, and look forward eagerly to many more.
Having been on the serving side of the table, I tip well for good service. End of story.
Panic Attacks has never had a real job so he’s clueless about real work and earning your living.
Efcharisto, Mr. Banaakis.
We tip well for sit-down service in restaurants where we are actually waited on, checked on, water glasses kept full, and drink refills done in a timely fashion. I don’t need servers pretending to be my best friend, but do appreciate someone who’s cordial. Even when we get a server who’s phoning it in or rushing to turn the table over, we still tip, just not as much.
That said, I think tipping culture has gotten out of hand. I refuse to tip for cafeteria type places, take out orders, or a coffee shop where all the cashier, excuse me, “barista” does is hand my cup. (Maybe if I ordered a complicated fancy coffee, I’d tip, but for a black coffee? GTFOH)
Now, if Brandon Johnson put out a tip jar to fund his getting out of Chicago and never coming back, I’d be generous! 😁
Low IQ race hustlers like Kamala HarrisJohnson, Toni Taxwinkle, Ayanna Pressley, dare I say Barack Hussein Obama, whose scholarship at Harvard and the Harvard Law Review, was shown to be decidedly mediocre at best, are a boon to Republicans.
As long as the democrats embrace the divisiveness of racial politics they will never gain the 60% support they should. I think people like those previously mentioned are put in play by oligarchs, like a JB Pritzker, in order to manage the opposition. They want to manage to opposition by keeping us divided. There are plenty of white people struggling, they vote red because people like Johnson are absolutely disgusting to have to listen to. He’s there by design though.
The last thing the elites want is for workers to get together and demand full employment, health care, affordable housing, public safety, clean, affordable public transportation, an end to predatory corporate practices that ciphon wealth to the top .1% while we have blurt and more homeless.
Democrats are just as amoral, duplicitous, crooked as the Republicans., They are indeed two cheeks of the same backside.
I’m all for tipping. Tips should not be taxed. I just believe we should have the same public health care they have in Israel, who Lindsay Graham loves so much. Israel has health care for everyone, subsidized college, and if you’re willing to chase off some Palestinians, free land!
It’s become evident that anyone who works for a W2 is a sucker. All of the advantage go to the wealthy. A foundation is a great way you avoid tax too.
On tipping, Mr. B and I are in full agreement. Tip and tip well! We also agree on Johnson, all Democrats. But they are managed oppositon
Jimmy, the small business I’ve operated for over 35 years has allowed me to employ a few folks over the years, though nowhere near the level of your enterprises. Your observation that the wait staff are operating their own businesses dovetails with what I tell college students I’m looking to mentor and recruit at career fairs: act like an owner or partner, not an employee. Be one if the first to show up each day and one of the last to leave.
Keep those columns coming.
One of the least reliable metrics of productivity is Elapsed Time.
“Gratuities reside at the intersection of gratitude and generosity.” – Very well said! Gratitude and generosity are the words that best define tipping. I was a bus boy for 3 evenings a week and a bell boy during the weekends at the downtown Sheraton Inn as a foreign graduate engineering student during my 2nd semester at the School of Mines, Rapid City, SD during the fall of 1970. Boy! did I have a fun at those jobs. In coming guests to the hotel normally would tip me 2$ and sometimes I used to get 5$ bills too! I even got to have dinner with a visiting middle-aged couple and spent an evening with them playing cards in their room! Those were the days – Nambi
Your well-written column brings back good memories: my mom went to work to help with our family expenses, like so many South Side families in the 1950’s. She did not have the chance to finish her high school education so didn’t qualify for many jobs. She was intelligent, capable, “presented” well, etc., and was hired as a night-shift waitress at the beloved old Herb’s Grill – the ICONIC establishment for those of us in the old 18th Ward – on the corner of 83rd and Ashland. “Herb” was there EVERY day, as were his two grill-men: son, Don and his son-in-law, John, too. The era of the waitress uniforms with the little apron and the fancy hanky in the chest pocket (often with a VERY fashionable rhinestone pin!) – She LOVED her work! It was exhausting, but she was devoted to caring for the taxi drivers, the truckers, the bar-flies, the working men and women of the great South Side who knew a really good hamburger and a cup of hot, FRESH coffee. They tipped her well, Herb or one of the boys made sure she got home safely (she didn’t know how to drive!) but the tips she made at that job enabled us to keep our house. Whenever I have the privilege of being cared for by someone who can fill a coffee cup like she did – – – they get a bit extra, to be sure!
I learned about tipping from my Father and Grandfather who emphasized the importance to individuals financial life. Grandpa Ernie owned an electrical contracting firm in the Clearing district and regularly had breakfast at a nearby diner (open 3AM till Noon) with my Father, always asking for the same waitress who’d placed their order before they sat. He, and Dad tipped quite generously for good service, conversational skills and humor whether it be a diner, White Fence Farm or a fine steak house. Those lacking the above skills they just tipped “well” chalking it up to a “bad day”. Dad was a great communicator and humorist with all Waiters/Waitresses, he’d begin asking the origin of their name and by meals end felt like family and financially better off. When we go to a restaurant now-a-days my wife will say “you’re just like your Father”. Personally, I hope I’m like both of them.
I think everyone should have to be a waiter/waitress/busboy. Makes you appreciate what they do. And I will overtip for those that work for it. The minimum wage may actually cut down on their earnings as people may be less inclined towards their generosity in tipping.
You are right when you said “everyone should have to be a waiter/waitress/busboy”. It also inculcates a sense of service within those who do – transforming them into a ‘Christian’. In Far eastern countries like Thailand, boys between ages 8 to 14 join the Buddhist monkhood during the summer 3 months wearing the saffron robes and follow monks’ practices like carrying a mud pot in the mornings seeking food donations and finish eating that food before noon. That practice ought to teach them humility. And that’s one reason people in the far-east seem to be very humble and friendly!
-Nambi
BTW I always am generous to those who serve me breakfast. A low dollar meal with so many trips to refill coffee and food. Hardest working staff I know
Good writing of a good perspective. Thanks.
The future of tipping and minimum wage lies as always in that experimental Marxist laboratory known as California. Presently the minimum wage for sit down service workers (waiters and waitresses) is approx. $17 per hour. For fast food joints, $20 per hour. There is debate as to whether this has caused decreased unemployment in this sector. But clearly it has shaken up the industry as the following anecdote illustrates. A few years ago, my wife and I had dinner in an Italian restaurant in Santa Monica. When the bill arrived it included an 18% “service charge.” And accompanying this charge was the following text: “This is not a tip.” We were pissed to say the least. None the less I left a tip, and vowed never to go back. Apparently I was not the only one, as multiple FB posts skewered the place. And eventually according to social media the restaurant stopped this practice (whether it increased its menu prices, I really don’t know since we have never returned). Anyway, all this is in the rear view mirror for the Marxists and commies in California. They are now looking ahead to a “maximum wage.
“increased unemployment”
I assume a service charge is a tip and goes to the wait staff. If it doesn’t then it is fraud.
We eat at Reunion on Navy Pier several times a year. They started having a “service fee”, but then the “suggested tips” started at 3% and went to 7%. Last time we were there, the service fee was gone and the suggested tips started at 40%. I wonder if the wait staff were getting less with the service fee.
I always called Kasso the “Poor Man’s Royko”.
He’s very good. It is why I subscribe today.
I left the “Sot Side”, 51 years ago.
But I always subscribed to the Trib. First for Mike, then John.
I’m sad that Kasso has his health problem.
If one lives long enough they’re inevitable.
However,……………………
John’s “stand-in” writers, like today’s episode, are varied and always entertaining.
Yes, I hope Kasso returns soon.
I also hope his pinch hitters will continue to contribute.
They are an “All Star Team”.
John’s fortunate to have so many talented supporters.
My first job (after a paper route and snow shoveling) was caddying at Riverside Country Club at age 14. At first I caddied for less generous folks. My fors tip was $.25. I eventually became an Honor caddie and made money to put myself through high school and college. The higher tips meant a lot to me. When I get a caddy these days, I always tip a lot. I also donate to the Western Golf Association Evans Scholars fund.
After my Mom died, I took my Dad to lunch once a week. He always ordered the same thing – a hamburger and a cup of coffee. It didn’t matter where we went, he ordered the same thing. A couple waitresses at a Baker’s Square were very attentive and gave us great service. I started tipping them $10 on a $12 bill. It was worth it to get great service for him.
Once I took him to Hackey’s figuring he would get a great hamburger. He actually read the menu and ordered a corned beef sandwich.
We just got back from Japan. They told us not to tip. I tipped a couple people early in the trip. They were not offended, but the charge slips at restaurants didn’t have a line for a tip, so I stopped tipping. The service industry workers are so diligent and attentive, that I really wanted to tip the. Oh, well.
Written by a Man who has worked for a living and also had to meet a payroll as a self-employed entrepreneur. Both of these descriptions have never been used in regard to the mayor. Chumbalone indeed!!