Twitter has gone off the rails because a bar restaurant owner split a tip given to a single bartender between the other bartenders and serves.
At The Stumble Inn Bar and Grill in Londonderry, New Hampshire, an anonymous customer with a bill of $37.93 decided to tip $16,000 to the bartender. It was tweeted that owner Mike Zarella decided to split the tip between the other servers as well.
Zarella told TODAY Food about what happened:
"A gentlemen came in at the bar and ordered a beer and a couple of chili cheese dogs, and then he ordered pickle chips and a Patron (tequila) drink."
"At around 3:30, he asked the bartender … for the check. She gave it to him and walked away, and then he said to her, 'Don't spend it all in one place.'"
The customer only ordered chili cheese hot dogs, pickle chips and a tequila drink.
The bartender, Michelle McCudden, hadn't looked at the tip amount right away because the restaurant was so busy. When the customer repeated several times, "Don't spend it all in one place," she checked the receipt.
Zarella continued:
"She said, 'Oh my god, are you kidding me?' She said, 'No, no, that's crazy,' and he said, 'No, I want you to have this."
"He's come in a few times since then… Last Saturday night he came in, I sat with him to talk with him for a couple of minutes."
"I told him that we were all uncomfortable with that kind of money, and he said no, he wanted this to happen."
WOW! A customer at The Stumble Inn, a restaurant in Londonderry, NH, left a $16,000 tip on a $37.93 tab earlier this month. \n\nThe owner, Mike Zarella, says he plans to split the tip between all 12 staffers that worked that day= $1333 a piece! @Stumbleinnnh #7newspic.twitter.com/UWHE7thh0P— Amaka Ubaka (@Amaka Ubaka) 1624454494
According to NBC 10 Boston, there were eight servers working that night and all staff members regularly share tips with one another.
McCudden explained what happened next:
"We went up and we thanked him."
"It's just been a really rough year for all of us. For someone to do something like that really restored my faith in humanity."
"He just said that we work really hard and he wanted to do something nice and he just really wanted us to have it."
Even though the tweet was later corrected, it made many people upset that it was assumed Zarella made this decision without the consent of the other staff.
So he unilaterally decided to steal $16,000 from the server who received the tip. Is that even legal?— KD (@KD) 1624469003
When they try to split my $16k tippic.twitter.com/Rc3I9uX0Wc— delone (@delone) 1624473202
\u201csplit the tip between all 12 staffers that worked that day\u201dpic.twitter.com/oQuAovMu3C— TikTok: (@TikTok:) 1624590719
There's no way. I'd be pissed if that was MY tip lol tipout appropriately but my boss ain't gonna literally steal my blessing and give it to everyone else. Thats my blessing to give! But however, if it's tip pool... bet lol— Kendall (@Kendall) 1624469480
Owners all of the sudden know how to handle proper and fair wages when it comes to somebody else money huh?— Montrell Thigpen \u24c2\ufe0f\u272a (@Montrell Thigpen \u24c2\ufe0f\u272a) 1624470150
Also it sounds like he is trying to pad his bottom line so he doesnt have to break even the other wait staff if they dont make enough tips to break min wage.— Pfizer Permanente (@Pfizer Permanente) 1624489360
My wife jus told me at some restaurants the waiter and waitresses have to \u201ctip out\u201d the hostess and the bartenders\u2026why is someone you aren\u2019t paying enough responsible for paying other staff members?!— Dano2\ufe0f\u20e3\u274c\ud83c\udf0d (@Dano2\ufe0f\u20e3\u274c\ud83c\udf0d) 1624504245
I\u2019d simply ask \u201cwould this be getting split by 12 if it was $100 tip? No? then don\u2019t touch my 16k bitch....I\u2019ll be sick tomorrow so make sure y\u2019all got coverage\u201dpic.twitter.com/eUoon2CVrP— Fenty\ud83d\ude18\ud83e\udd70 (@Fenty\ud83d\ude18\ud83e\udd70) 1624488006
This is why I ask wait-staff for their CashApp or some other money app. If YOU gave me good service I want YOU to get the tip!— Jon DeSade (@Jon DeSade) 1624482265
It\u2019s just as legal as it is to pay servers $2.25 an hour sadly I would really be sooo hurt if they just took all that money for me from me— Your mother (@Your mother) 1624646609
No one should\u2019ve know about the tip but the person leaving it, the person receiving it, and the person writing the checks. Period. Give that server their full tip.— Brown & Bougie (@Brown & Bougie) 1624470408
The customer didn\u2019t tip the restaurant, they tipped one person. If this was me, & I read this on the news I would go up to the restaurant like \u201cno. If the server wants to do that then they can, but if you force them to, then I\u2019m not authorizing that\u201d. then I\u2019d tip the server cash— Kaila \u263a\ufe0f (@Kaila \u263a\ufe0f) 1624538891
Now, people are leaving bad reviews on google.
These reviews have me CRYING. I wanna know what the owner doespic.twitter.com/5Xz4tsle5T— j (@j) 1624592416
Y\u2019all they are reviewing the place on Google pic.twitter.com/6s0Q1anNgb— JayR (@JayR) 1624556052
Amaka Ubaka tweeted a clarification as well but her original tweet has already gotten over 800 comments and 9.3 thousand retweets.
\u2022everything operated as normal outside of the staff also deciding to include cooks on the tip \n\u2022the owner received none of the $16,000 amount #7news— Amaka Ubaka (@Amaka Ubaka) 1624635239
Zarella said:
"People that are well-deserving got a huge tip."
Regardless of the tips being slip, Daily Dot writes that the tip helped a single mom plan a vacation.
@kileywrestling/Bluesky
