HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) - Two weeks ago, one of Cindy Kienow's regular customers left her a $100 tip on a tab that wasn't even half that. This week, he added a couple of zeros.
Kienow, a bartender at Applebee's, got a $10,000 tip from the man—for a $26 meal—on Sunday.
"I couldn't move," Kienow said. "I didn't know what to say. He said, `This will buy you something kind of nice, huh?' And I said, `Yeah, it will.'"
Kienow said the man, whom company officials have declined to name, comes in several times a month and eats at the end of the bar. He has always tipped well, she said, usually leaving $15 on a $30 tab.
Then came the $100 tip, followed by the real shocker.
"He usually signs his ticket and flips it upside down," said Kienow, 35, who has worked at the restaurant for eight years. "But this time, he had it right-side up and said `I want you to know this is not a joke.'"
It's not, company officials agreed.
"This is a great deal for us and a great deal for Cindy," said Rhodri McNee, vice president of operations for JS Enterprises, the owner of the Hutchinson Applebee's. "We did have a guest leave this tip on a credit card, and we're doing everything to make sure it's a valid charge."
The company is in the final stages of verifying the tip, McNee said, while also working to maintain the customer's privacy and make sure the money goes through the proper channels to get to Kienow.
"Nothing would make us happier than to present her with that check," McNee said. "She's been with us for eight years, and she's a great employee who does a great job."
Kienow said that while she always talks with the man when he comes in—usually about current events or the weather—she can't think of anything that would have prompted the huge tip.
"I've been waiting on him for about three years," Kienow said. "We'd just talk across the bar he's a really nice guy. I hope he comes back in so I can tell him thank you, because the other day I was kind of dumbfounded."
Kienow, whose father will have to take some time off work for surgery on both of his knees, said she hasn't decided what to do with the money.
"I'd like to take care of my parents, since they always took care of me," she said. "But I feel like he wanted me to buy something for myself, and there's a Jeep that I've had my eye on for a while."
http://www.propeller.com/viewstory/2006/08/31/bartender-gets-10000-dollar-tip-on-26-dollar-tab/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fnews%2F2006%2F08%2F31%2FD8JR9I800.html&frame=true
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
These large tips are confusing to me. Why is it that the guest doesnt just simply write the waitess a check? It would be more personal and a transaction between two people...Applebees wouldnt have to be involved lol.
Also, I would think it would create an akward relationship, now this waitress will feel morally in debt to this man...serving him just wont be the same.
At the same time I wouldnt mind if it happened to be haha. Im sure she needed it.
I agree with Angelina, it would make more sense to give her a check---just because it was would be a lot less of a hassle. But I think he was going for the meaning behind it---more of a
"thank you" rather than a "here is some money"...she probably would have asked what the check was for if he had given her a check.
There sure a lot of tips in large sums. Could people in society believe that this tip will help the person out, or provide better service, or is it that they feel better about themselves for doing it. What could be the reason for someone giving that much money out in a society that is soo capitalistic.
Post a Comment