Audio By Carbonatix
Being a server can be exhausting. They often spend long hours on their feet, make frequent trips to the kitchen for refills, and have to maintain a friendly persona throughout, as their tips rely on it. Restaurant specials can make the job all the more difficult. One Buffalo Wild Wings server is speaking out about just that after the chain rolled out its bottomless appetizers special on June 27.
What’s Buffalo Wild Wings’ Bottomless Apps?
The Buffalo Wild Wings Bottomless Apps, though it has no official end date, is a limited-time promotion. For $9.99, you can order two appetizers, picking from onion rings, mozzarella sticks, fried pickles, Hatch queso, or chips and salsa. Once you finish those, your server will bring you another round of two appetizers, and so on.
There are a few understandable caveats to this deal:
- You can only order Bottomless Apps as a dine-in customer.
- If you order this as a party of five or more, you will have to pay extra.
- Even though the deal is being promoted as starting at $9.99, it’s likely more expensive in several states: California, New York, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska.
- The deal is only being offered at participating locations, meaning franchisees get to decide whether or not they are participating. Even though most probably are, it’s best to call ahead to confirm.
While the deal is great for hungry customers who want to load up on appetizers at a fair price, servers are not as thrilled about it.
TikToker and server Ella (@ella363741) explains why in a TikTok that has over 63,000 views. “How I feel when I get a table and all they’re eating is the new bottomless apps,” she writes in the text overlay. Her text is accompanied by a crying emoji.
Then, she mimes out her feelings of annoyance through exaggerated facial expressions, ending with her pointing to the side in a “get out of here” gesture.
Ella pleads in the caption, “Please tell me other bdubs servers agree.”
What Do Other Servers Think?
Many Buffalo Wild Wings servers weighed in with their thoughts in the comments section.
One server shared that a coinciding deal the chain offers on Tuesdays, a BOGO wing deal, compounded the issues suffered by staff. They said the “kitchen couldn’t keep up.” They also said their location ran out of two of the appetizers, onion rings and mozzarella sticks. “It was a nightmare. can’t wait to do it again tonight with boneless,” they added.
The comments section quickly nosedived into a hub for tipping discourse.
Servers claimed that the tips don’t match the work they are putting into fulfilling these orders. That’s due to the fact that it’s custom to tip on the order total rather than the amount of food ordered.
“And when they tip based off the suggested percent, like refilling those 3 times is more work not included there babes,” one server remarked.
“Like why am I getting 2 dollars off of what would’ve been an 80$ tabbbbbb,” another echoed.
Ella concurred with these sentiments, replying, “NO LITERALLY.”
Should You Stop Ordering It?
Customers, however, agreed and also advocated for higher tips on such orders.
“I feel so bad for bdubs servers for this… if i did this know i’m still tipping you $15 even if my bill is 10. we’re here for you girl,” one said.
“We tipped the same amount as the food total,” another commented.
“Me going today and tipping $20 on my $30 check,” a third wrote.
The consensus seems to be that it’s totally OK to order the Bottomless Apps. But if you are going to participate in a deal like this, it’s best to tip your server based on service received rather than a percentage of the total.
BroBible reached out to Ella via TikTok comment and direct message as well as Buffalo Wild Wings via press email.
Content shared from brobible.com.