WILLIAMSTOWN, W.Va. (WOWK) – A waitress at a popular West Virginia restaurant received a life-changing tip on Sunday.
A server at DaVinci’s Restaurant in Williamstown was shocked when her customers left her a $2,000 tip on a $148.41 order.
“She was shaking when she came back and she asked me if she could accept it,” Chris Bender, the owner of DaVinci’s, told NewsNation affiliate WOWK. “She was shaking and kept saying she couldn’t take it and I told her ‘Yes, you can!'”
The receipt showing the tip was shared on Facebook on the DaVinci’s page.
“There are Sundays, and there are SUNDAYS. Today, one of our servers received an amazing gratuity. You can imagine her excitement! We are so fortunate to have such generous customers,” the post said.
Bender said the server is a single mother who doesn’t even have a phone and is driving a car with two spare tires on it, so the money is going to come in handy.
“She said she’s going to pay her rent and put the rest into her savings,” Bender said. “This was much-needed and well-deserved. This is absolutely life-changing for her.”
Because the server doesn’t have a phone, the restaurant owner wasn’t able to call her to see if she would be OK with her name being published.
According to Bender, the customers who left the generous tip weren’t regulars. They came in the middle of Sunday afternoon and enjoyed an Italian meal and then ordered dessert, the Mississippi Mud Pie made fresh by the restaurant’s chef. Bender said the couple liked the dessert so much that they asked to buy a whole pie and the waitress went back to check to see if they even had a pie to sell them.
“They said ‘This is divine and we want to buy a whole pie to send to our son,'” Bender said. “The server went back and asked and we only had 10 pieces left. She went out and told them that there was only 10 pieces of the pie left and they said they’d take all 10 pieces.”
Bender said the server works hard and relates very well to her customers.
“The customers all like her,” Bender said. “The couple was talking to her about college and she told them she didn’t get to go to college because she’s a single mother raising a young daughter and couldn’t afford to go. She said she left a job at the hospital because serving here was better for her and her daughter.”
DaVinci’s servers have received large tips in the past, Bender said, but never one as big as $2,000.
“We’ve had a couple $500 tips and a few $250 tips, but this one is the highest anyone has ever given to one of our servers,” she said. “Typically, customers give larger tips around the holidays. This is the biggest by far.”
DaVinci’s has been a Williamstown staple since 1980. Bender is the former general manager who eventually bought the restaurant with her husband in 2012.
“We have some servers who have been here over 25 years and they all relate so well to everyone,” Bender said. “We have such a great staff who enjoy the work they do and they really enjoy our customers.”