When a waitress in Arkansas earned a $4,400 tip from the ‘$100 Dinner Club,’ it would have been the most beautiful day of her life. When the restaurant manager hinted that she could only get 20% of the tip and the rest would be distributed among all the other employees, Ryan Brandt, the waitress who received the hefty tip, had planned to use the money to pay off student loans. Brandt, on the other hand, was dismissed for breaking the restaurant’s tip policy and was forced to hand over the majority of the money.
Grant Wise, the owner of a local real estate company, hosted a dine-in get-together for members of the ‘$100 Dinner Club’ earlier this month at the Oven and Tap in Bentonville, Arkansas. Each member will contribute $100 to the tip jar.
Wise had called the restaurant the day before the event to assure that the serving crew knew what they were doing.
Wise told KNWA that waitress Ryan Brandt was pleased and in tears when he gave her a $4,400 check to split the bill between her and another server who waited at their table.
When the restaurant managers learned that Brandt had received such a big amount of tips, they told her that she would have to part some of the money with the other employees. This was the first time she had ever done something like this in her three-and-a-half years at the establishment.
“I was told that I would be delivering my cash to my shift manager and would be taking home 20%,” Brandt told FOX 59, adding that she had never been asked to divide her tip before in her three and a half years at the restaurant.
Brandt is a Spanish student at the University of Arkansas. When she was forced to hand over the substantial sum to her superiors, she was devastated. She was meant to utilize the money to pay off her student loans.
After a few days, Brandt was fired from the restaurant for ‘violating’ the rules by informing Wise about the restaurant’s tip policy.
Wise discovered that many restaurant waiters were struggling and were badly affected by COVID-related problems during the COVID-19 pandemic and worldwide lockdown. As a result, he devised the concept of the ‘$100 Dinner Club.’ When he sponsored a real estate conference in Arkansas, he chose the Oven and Tap Restaurant as the location because it is his and his wife’s favorite dine-in restaurant.
Wise and his wife left the restaurant after checking with the employees that they did not have a policy on tip sharing.
“We knew servers were hit hard through COVID, and it was something that a friend had come up with to help give back,” he told 5 News, noting that he chose the Oven and Tap because it was one of his and his wife’s favorite restaurants.
“I’m so sorry to interrupt everyone’s dinner, this will only take 60 seconds,” Wise begins in the video. “We have a table full of absolutely amazing people from all over the country who have traveled here, and tonight we’re hosting a $100 Dinner Club,” he says, as he wraps his arm around Brandt, and points to some people behind the video.
“Everyone at this table has contributed or tipped $100 for you and for the other waitress who unfortunately had to go home because she’s not feeling well. And then we put it out to our social media channels, and then we had a bit more money sent in, so we are tipping a total of $4,400 for you to split with the other girl who took care of us.”
The heartwarming moment was posted to Instagram on December 10.
“I’m so saddened to hear that the girl we tipped the other night at our $100 Dinner Club has been fired from her job,” he wrote on Facebook. “I don’t fully understand why this would happen to what seems like such a sweet and kind-hearted woman.
Nonetheless, I’m committed to showing her that there are great people in the world that will do good when they can.”
“I hope that we can help this girl stay on top, and not let something like this get her down,” he said, “I don’t fully understand it … but I want to do as much as we can to help.”
In their defense, Oven and Tap officials said to FOX 59: “After dining, this large group of guests requested that their gratuity be given to two particular servers. We fully honored their request. Out of respect for our highly valued team members, we do not discuss the details surrounding the termination of an employee.”
The post A waitress from Arkansas receives a $4,400 tip, but she is fired after the manager divides her tip to others, and the customer pays back her. appeared first on Manila Papers.
Source: Manila Papers
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