'A Christmas blessing': Missouri bartender shocked with $1,000 tip
Now, the server said she can make Christmas magic for her five kids
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}St. Nick would certainly approve of this generous gift.
A bartender in Missouri said she’ll get to make Christmas magical for her five kids after receiving a $1,000 tip from a first-time customer, perhaps inspired by the spirit of the season.
On Sunday, a barkeep named Valerie worked her shift at Jose Pepper’s in Liberty and served two customers who stayed awhile at the Mexican restaurant, Fox 4 KC reports.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“When his friend went to pay the bill, he said ‘I want to give you a tip’ and handed me his credit card,'" Valerie remembered. (iStock)
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“He and his friend came to the bar and spent a couple of hours eating, drinking and watching football,” she recalled. “When his friend went to pay the bill, he said ‘I want to give you a tip’ and handed me his credit card.’”
However, she couldn’t just run a cashless transaction, and charged him $0.79 cents for a drink to make it work. When the customer handed back the bill, Valerie was stunned to see that he had tipped a thousand bucks.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I was just shocked,” the bartender said. “I was dumbfounded. I looked at him and asked if he was serious. Or was this a joke?”
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“He said, ‘If this will make your Christmas and the rest of the year better, then that makes me happy and it’s well worth it,’” she added.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I was just shocked,” the bartender said. “I was dumbfounded. I looked at him and asked if he was serious. Or was this a joke?” (iStock)
The good deed snowballed; in another "Christmas blessing," Valerie said the other customer left a $150 cash tip, too.
“It’s a huge blessing for us. We have five kids and now we can pay our bills and our kids can have Christmas,” she told Fox 4 of the sweet surprise. “I was able to do all my Christmas shopping for my kids.”
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jon Branstetter, president of the Greater Kansas City Restaurant Association, said he’d never heard of a local server receiving such a tremendous tip, and called it “a wonderful story.”
Forever thankful to her Christmas “angel,” Valerie said that she hopes to pay it forward to someone else in need, a mission especially important as the coronavirus pandemic continues to upend daily life.
“The man who gave me this is an angel. He will make this a memorable Christmas and story for us to tell the rest of our lives,’’ she mused. “I will always remember the Christmas I received that $1,000 tip.”
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