u/Beginning-Stress5156

There's a small, locally-owned cafe a couple blocks from my house that is a neighborhood favorite and is usually always busy during the before work/breakfast rush. Every once in a while I go there, but usually just order a sandwich and pay online then go pick it up and eat at home.

The other day I had a friend over and we went for a sit down breakfast. This is one of the places you order at the counter, get a number, and they bring your order over, and you bus your own dishes. So, I order my food, get handed a number, then pay (chose no tip on the screen), and we found a table.

Usually drinks come out first and they leave it on the counter for you to grab. Whatever, no problem. Then they usually bring over the food. This time, however, they called out both the food and drinks at the same time and said "number #, it's on the bar."

Excuse me, what? Both orders were on the counter and we had to get up and grab everything. After a few minutes, someone comes by and grabs the number. We finished eating and chatted for a bit, the cleaned up our table and left.

So, we pay, get our own food, then clean up our own mess. Why TF would I tip for that? And what's the purpose of the number? I noticed it was the same for everyone that day and food was just left on the counter. Glad I didn't pay anything extra for the employees to do their regular jobs.