Tonic At Quigley's — Restaurant in Washington

I was looking for a place with a fun vibe and a menu to satisfy a picky eater for a surprise day out for my daughter's fifteenth birthday. We spent the morning at the Smithsonian and had tickets to a Kennedy Center show in the afternoon so Tonic's location a few blocks from the Foggy Bottom Metro station was perfect.

When we arrived, the hostess who greeted us was so friendly and helpful. I really appreciated her upbeat attitude and welcoming manner. I had made a reservation, but it was around noon on a Sunday and the place was deserted so we didn't really need one. I had opted for indoor seating in case it was raining or very hot. After our walk from the Foggy Bottom Metro we were rather warm as it was a humid day. Unfortunately, the interior of the restaurant was quite hot, and no air, either a/c or from outside, was circulating. It was quite uncomfortable, and also disappointing because we were looking forward to being inside some place cool after our walk.

Our table was on the second floor. It was a stark booth, with a plain wooden table with nothing at all on the table (like condiments or a napkin holder), and a wall of books. The book shelves had been scribbled on by previous patrons. It was kind of a boring place to sit and the fun vibe I was hoping for was just not there. It was very nondescript and sort of utilitarian, I guess.

As I mentioned, the place was not busy, but the few tables there were had been all sat in the same area even though there were at least two servers. We had people on both sides of our booth, and when another party came in they were seated at the table right outside of, and across from, our booth. This meant that we could plainly hear all the other customers' conversations, and a male server flirting with a GW student one table over. I don't know why we all had to be sitting pretty much on top of each other.

The food was mediocre. My daughter got chocolate chip pancakes which she said had plenty of chocolate chips (a good thing, since they charge an extra dollar for the chocolate chips) but they had parked an orange slice right on top of her stack and she doesn't like the taste of citrus with chocolate so that kind of ruined several bites right there. Her tater tots were not freshly fried, they were kind of tough and greasy but the bacon was good. I got a pulled pork sandwich that was very dry. It tasted and looked like the pre-made stuff that comes in a tub at the grocery store that you just reheat. It was very stringy and the roll was hard. The potato chips it came with were just some broken pieces from the bottom of a bag of Ruffles.

Our waitress was very nice and took our order right away and we didn't wait long for the food at all, but after a runner delivered our food, we didn't see the waitress again for a long time. She didn't come back until our meals were almost gone, leaving us with no water or soda refills until we were almost done.

I don't get to Foggy Bottom very often, in fact, I went to GWU for grad school more than 20 years ago and this is only the third or fourth time I've been back since then, but even if I lived next door, I don't think I would go back to this restaurant. I am guessing the vibe is different and more fun when it's not a Sunday afternoon, and maybe the place feels different and is better decorated/more interesting to look around at if you're on the lower floor, but between the humdrum atmosphere and decor and mediocre food, there is nothing to entice me to come back. Not a bad experience, just not anything to get excited about,...

Woman bartender runs a 40% gratuity scheme: (1) She doesn't present the bill, (2) says the amount due, and (3) doesn't say 20% gratuity included.

She did not present bill and just said it was $37.20. So I gave her $45 and requested receipt. Later I see a 20% tip was included in bill. She made out with 40%.

I presume that's why she didn't give me a bill when I first said I wanted to close out. But when I did ask for the paper bill--after paying--she oddly paused and looked closely at it. I presume she checked if the receipt DID show the automatic gratuity. She then knew her scheme was exposed. 😳

One would think that the countless crime-investigation shows and true-crime podcasts would have taught her that all it takes is one mistake🔍 to be caught.

I expect many patrons don't request the bill, she doesn't provide one, and she doesn't mention the auto gratuity. Server name on check was J.B. but two women were bartending so not sure if JB took my order and the other bartender tricked me.

Bear in mind, the third-floor lounge was almost pitch-black 🦉 making it hard to see one's hand, let alone a bill with a 20% tip line-item. Bartenders should point out the gratuity. The other two floors had adequate lighting.

She was greedy to engineer a 40% tip during stand-up comedy night at Tonic. Joke was on me, it seems. But we will see who gets the last laugh.

Aside from this, I enjoyed the curry vegetable dish. Wrapped utensils on table were convenient. Bathroom was clean but dated. Second-floor dining seemed to have pleasant ambiance. Benches outside front door are a nice touch.

Food-runner was conscientious. If anyone deserves an automatic tip or that 3% add-on, it would be him. I think he needs to scale two flights of stairs 🏃 for each order. Something tells me he would be the one to decline and tell me the tip is included. I would promote him into the forthcoming open bartender position, should he want it.

Update: Woman bartender was so busy running her scheme that she forgot to return my credit card, which was held while the tab was open. Now I have to return to the scene of the crime.

As The Who would say: "We get on our knees and pray. We won't get...

UPDATE (re the billing practices that trick you to tip 40%): The owner chimed in to clarify that the automatic 20% gratuity policy is posted online and on menus. The menu is an online one and I just checked it. The policy is not listed anywhere top to bottom, you have to click a separate button that says "things to know" to read it. My guess is few people take that step, and fewer still read the entirety of a restaurant's website before visiting. Since there is very clearly a lot of confusion caused by this policy, compounded by the fact that their payment system automatically adds another 20 percent when you pay (40 percent gratuity total), it would be nice if the "owner" could undertake to instruct all servers to warn groups of five or more of this automatic gratuity policy before they are automatically prompted to tip their server another 20 percent, something the servers currently DO NOT DO. Or better yet -- maybe don't trick people into tipping 40 percent by automatically prompting them to tip another 20 percent when there is already a 20 percent gratuity included in the bill?

Food is ok, beer selection is good, service is meh, but what really annoys me here is that they automatically charge a 20 percent service fee to groups of five or more, but don’t tell you about it. So when you pay your bill, it asks you if you want to add another 20 percent, without giving you the context that you already did. So it’s very easy to tip twice. Which wouldn’t be so bad if their service was decent, but their system (ordering from your phone) results in pretty nonexistent service — they’ll bring your food when it’s ready, but no one will take the plate away when you’re done or stop to ask you if you need anything else. Rather opportunistic...