Finally, Someone Created A Dining Check With No Math Or Writing

By Anthony Todd in Food on Jan 9, 2017 3:35PM

Dishes on the table at Income Tax.

It's the small things that make me happy. Especially when I'm at a nice restaurant I've had a couple of glasses of wine (and maybe some sherry and some brandy) and it's the end of a long night, the last thing I want to do is math. Yet math is exactly what every restaurant in American forces every diner to do to calculate the tip and the total of your bill. Not any more.

You might say that this is a very small thing to complain about, and you'd be right. In a world where the entire American political system seems to be on the verge of chaos, I'm getting excited about having to do slightly less math. Further, I've always prided myself on being able to calculate tips and totals on the fly, even after a bunch of drinks. But I've also always suspected that bad math causes a lot of restaurant confusion on the back end, as servers try to figure out exactly what the heck you managed to do with those numbers.

Income Tax to the rescue. The Edgewater wine bar (which we wrote about a few weeks ago when it opened) is using a Square-based payment system. And all you have to do to tip? Check a freaking box.

Before you say "someone thought of this whole no math thing long ago" and point out those pre-printed, pre-calculated tips at the bottom of some checks, remember that even if you take the suggestion to tip 18 percent and use their number, you still have to add the tip and dining costs together to get your total. There is literally no math here.

Look!

Photo by Anthony Todd.

I've seen this at coffee shops and retailers before, and there are probably other restaurants that use this, but this is the first time I've ever seen a paper ticket brought to the table without any math required. Like I said, it's the little things.