Texas Waitress Gets $2,000 Tip, But Restaurant Refuses To Give Her A Cent

A restaurant in San Antonio, Texas refused to give its waitress a cent after she had received $2,000 worth of tip from her customer. The waitress, Emily Bauer, said Red Hook Seafood and Bar had told her they could not process a tip bigger than $500.

Emily Bauer said she had only been working at the restaurant for two weeks when she was assigned to report for work last Sunday. While cleaning up the tables, she met a customer who told her he also owned restaurants. Bauer said she kept apologizing to the customer for being slow, but the man said he understood.

“He was just like, ‘I understand,’” said Bauer. “He also mentioned he owned restaurants, so he knew how hard it was to be a server. He was like, ‘Just cancel everything. Cancel everything and give me the ticket.’ So, I said okay. I gave him the ticket,” she added.

After the customer left the restaurant, Bauer realized he had given her a $2,000 tip with a note that said, “Merry Christmas! Keep working hard!”

Bauer said she started crying after opening the note. She immediately thought about her kids and spending all her money on them. “I was like, wait. I just opened it and started crying. I was like, ‘Oh my God! My kids! I’m going to spend it all on my kids,” she said.

Bauer, who has two sons, a 2-year-old and a 5-month-old, said she had never had a Christmas where she’d been able to splurge on her children so she so elated to get the tip. However, all her excitement vanished when the restaurant she was working for told her they could not process her tip.

Emily Bauer said the restaurant had told her they could not process tips larger than $500 so her fellow servers suggested that they give her four separate tips of $500, but the restaurant still refused. “I don’t think it’s our responsibility as a server to say, ‘Oh, you can’t tip me that much, I’m sorry. Oh no, there’s a limit, I’m sorry,” said Bauer.

Despite not receiving her tip, Bauer took to Facebook to thank the customer for “having such a big heart.” She said she shared the message on Facebook in hopes that it would reach him.