Employees at a Washington state diner were stunned by a frequent customer this weekend with a tip that far exceeded the recommended 20 percent standard.
The noble man tipped the staff $3,000 on a $39 check at the Brief Encounter restaurant in Bellevue.
"At first, they didn't know who it was," diner owner Melanie Bard said of her mystified employees.
The 12-person staff initially thought it was a mistake, but the back of the receipt spelled out a story from the big tipper:
"You guys do a great job! When I was 7, I washed dishes and my mom cooked in a diner like this. We were dirt poor and didn't have money for Christmas. Hopefully, this will help all of you have a better Christmas," the customer wrote.
The diner owner said she knew it was Dwayne Clark, CEO and founder of Aegis Living, an assisted living community, who comes in to eat regularly on the weekends with his wife. "He's a great customer when he comes in," Bard said, adding that he has been coming in for the past eight years.
According to Clark, he wanted to “do something in appreciation of my mother, who's not with us anymore, and because of the Christmas season.”
Clark recalls tagging along with his mother as she worked in the food service industry to provide for him and his three siblings, putting all four of them through college.
"I saw how hard my mom worked for people who weren't always appreciative," Clark said.
Clark left the tip with Julie Welsand, his waitress at the diner Saturday, a spokeswoman for his company said
Clark requested that the money should be split evenly, $250 each, which Bard said helps them out the gift-giving season. Clark stressed that this is isn't about the amount of money he gave, but instead about the sentiment behind it.
"You don't have to give money. You can write appreciative notes and say thank you," he said of wanting to inspire a tipping movement this holiday season. "It would go a long way to nourish all of us."
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/diner-regular-tips-staff-3000-39-check-time/story?id=51861188
That was so so sweet wow .. im always doing my best to give and this year has been really hard on me and my husband and i sure would love if we got that kind of help.. just once to make it so we aint so stressed out about paying the rent and all other bills for just one mon.. to get something nice we could both use.. 2 me that would make my year.. glad there are still some nice people out there.