Melbourne waitress in shock after customer leaves a staggering $10,000 tip for a $500 meal
- Replies 7
It’s not a secret that one of the hardest aspects of being a food service worker is to cater to the different expectations people have when it comes to your service or their meals – especially if a customer is not satisfied.
It can often be a thankless job, but sometimes, all that hard work can pay off big time. This is exactly what happened to a student and waitress who was tending to a customer’s table when something absolutely incredible happened.
Lauren was the lead waitress for a table of four people at Gilson in Melbourne’s South Yarra on Saturday afternoon. Gilson is a trendy Italian restaurant frequented by social media influencers, models, and reality TV stars.
According to the working student, the table spent a total of $500 on steak and pasta and one drink each.
The group was so impressed with Lauren’s service that one offered a huge tip of $10,000 when they finished their meals. But Lauren wasn’t even sure if she was allowed to accept it.
She then tried to explain to the group that tips are shared between the restaurant’s 23 workers, but the businessman who offered to pay said he’d only leave a tip if Lauren received 70 per cent of it ($7,000).
The other staff received $3,000 between them (or $136 each).
Although leaving a tip for food service workers is not common in Australia, this gesture of kindness left Lauren speechless and caused her to burst into tears.
‘I made them say the number out loud because I thought “what if I have just gotten too excited and I’ve stupidly read an extra zero” or something like that,’ she told reporters.
Lauren added: ‘I keep going over it again and again in my head. The actual experience of it happening, second by second, was surreal and amazing.’
Another waitress named Charlotte told reporters that Lauren came up to her while crying. ‘She was like, “is this real? Was it a mistake? What do I do?”’ Before adding that Lauren is ‘a really hard worker, so, she deserves it’.
‘I am just extremely grateful, to know that they thought that much of my service is amazing,’ Lauren admitted.
Another waitress (also named Lauren) told reporters that the staff were also in ‘pure shock’ over what had happened.
‘Lauren’s a great waitress and it’s a wealthy area – that has to be taken into consideration. We have high net worth customers and hatted restaurants next door. And the tipper was a successful businessman,’ the waitress claimed.
Lauren (the one who received the big tip) shared that she cut back on her part-time work hours in the restaurant after receiving the cash so she could focus on her studies. Some of her colleagues suggested that Lauren should spend her tip on a well-deserved holiday.
‘I’m going to be honest, I’ve never been overseas, so the first thing that everyone was saying to me was to go on a holiday,’ she explained.
You can watch Lauren’s interview below:
The owner of the restaurant Jamie McBride revealed that he was ‘so pleased’ to see his employee gain some extra recognition from the group of customers.
‘It’s very pleasing; it makes the team feel really special when they’re acknowledged, especially when no one’s ever expecting anything like that,’ he told reporters.
He added that the whole staff was ‘overwhelmingly proud’ of Lauren. ‘The generosity of some people is unbelievable,’ he said.
It was announced that the tipper is a young, self-made cryptocurrency businessman who owns more than $120 million worth of property in Toorak. In a follow-up report, the mystery diner was revealed to be Australia’s youngest billionaire.
Ed Craven, the 27-year-old cryptocurrency entrepreneur, made his fortune as the co-founder of the online casino enterprisestake.com – a website that sees an average of AU $565 million wagered in the form of bets every day. Reportedly, Mr Craven and co-founder Bijan Tehrani had been on track to make $1 bn in profits by the end of 2022.
He now boasts an impressive property portfolio as sources say he bought two mansions in the ritzy suburb of Toorak last August, including an $88 million ‘ghost mansion’, which is believed to be Australia’s second-most expensive house.
Two months after the impressive purchase, Mr Craven hosted a wild Halloween party at his new home allegedly attended by 400 guests. It included ‘zombies and werewolves’ roaming the halls, a performance from an unnamed ‘international guest’, two bars with signature cocktails, catering, a make-up room with professional artists, and a photo booth.
Mr Craven also purchased another luxury Toorak mansion for $38 million earlier in 2022.
While it's not mandatory and tipping habits are different in different parts of the world, the generous sum is too good to ignore. We’d still like to know your thoughts on this, members! So, feel free to share them with us in the comments below.
It can often be a thankless job, but sometimes, all that hard work can pay off big time. This is exactly what happened to a student and waitress who was tending to a customer’s table when something absolutely incredible happened.
Lauren was the lead waitress for a table of four people at Gilson in Melbourne’s South Yarra on Saturday afternoon. Gilson is a trendy Italian restaurant frequented by social media influencers, models, and reality TV stars.
According to the working student, the table spent a total of $500 on steak and pasta and one drink each.
Lauren said the group spent $500 on steak and pasta. Credit: Ron Lach/Pexels
The group was so impressed with Lauren’s service that one offered a huge tip of $10,000 when they finished their meals. But Lauren wasn’t even sure if she was allowed to accept it.
She then tried to explain to the group that tips are shared between the restaurant’s 23 workers, but the businessman who offered to pay said he’d only leave a tip if Lauren received 70 per cent of it ($7,000).
The other staff received $3,000 between them (or $136 each).
Although leaving a tip for food service workers is not common in Australia, this gesture of kindness left Lauren speechless and caused her to burst into tears.
‘I made them say the number out loud because I thought “what if I have just gotten too excited and I’ve stupidly read an extra zero” or something like that,’ she told reporters.
Lauren added: ‘I keep going over it again and again in my head. The actual experience of it happening, second by second, was surreal and amazing.’
The waitress was left speechless by the generous tip. Credit: Shutterstock
Another waitress named Charlotte told reporters that Lauren came up to her while crying. ‘She was like, “is this real? Was it a mistake? What do I do?”’ Before adding that Lauren is ‘a really hard worker, so, she deserves it’.
‘I am just extremely grateful, to know that they thought that much of my service is amazing,’ Lauren admitted.
Another waitress (also named Lauren) told reporters that the staff were also in ‘pure shock’ over what had happened.
‘Lauren’s a great waitress and it’s a wealthy area – that has to be taken into consideration. We have high net worth customers and hatted restaurants next door. And the tipper was a successful businessman,’ the waitress claimed.
Lauren (the one who received the big tip) shared that she cut back on her part-time work hours in the restaurant after receiving the cash so she could focus on her studies. Some of her colleagues suggested that Lauren should spend her tip on a well-deserved holiday.
‘I’m going to be honest, I’ve never been overseas, so the first thing that everyone was saying to me was to go on a holiday,’ she explained.
You can watch Lauren’s interview below:
The owner of the restaurant Jamie McBride revealed that he was ‘so pleased’ to see his employee gain some extra recognition from the group of customers.
‘It’s very pleasing; it makes the team feel really special when they’re acknowledged, especially when no one’s ever expecting anything like that,’ he told reporters.
He added that the whole staff was ‘overwhelmingly proud’ of Lauren. ‘The generosity of some people is unbelievable,’ he said.
It was announced that the tipper is a young, self-made cryptocurrency businessman who owns more than $120 million worth of property in Toorak. In a follow-up report, the mystery diner was revealed to be Australia’s youngest billionaire.
Ed Craven, the 27-year-old cryptocurrency entrepreneur, made his fortune as the co-founder of the online casino enterprisestake.com – a website that sees an average of AU $565 million wagered in the form of bets every day. Reportedly, Mr Craven and co-founder Bijan Tehrani had been on track to make $1 bn in profits by the end of 2022.
He now boasts an impressive property portfolio as sources say he bought two mansions in the ritzy suburb of Toorak last August, including an $88 million ‘ghost mansion’, which is believed to be Australia’s second-most expensive house.
Two months after the impressive purchase, Mr Craven hosted a wild Halloween party at his new home allegedly attended by 400 guests. It included ‘zombies and werewolves’ roaming the halls, a performance from an unnamed ‘international guest’, two bars with signature cocktails, catering, a make-up room with professional artists, and a photo booth.
Mr Craven also purchased another luxury Toorak mansion for $38 million earlier in 2022.
.png){kind=icon}
