Ohio Customer Leaves $3,000 Tip for Restaurant One Day Before Closing Down

A customer at a restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio, left a $3,000 tip on a $7 tab after hearing that the establishment would be temporarily closing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A customer who ordered a $7 pint of Stella Artois beer at Nighttown in Cleveland, Ohio, left a $3,000 tip the day before the restaurant was set to be temporarily shut down due to Ohio experiencing a recent uptick in coronavirus cases.

The restaurant owner, Brendan Ring, told Breitbart News that the customer handed him the signed check and told him to “share the tip amongst the staff.”

“I looked down at the check, but I didn’t have my glasses on, and it looked like $300,” said Ring. “But when I put my glasses on, I realized the tip was for $3,000. I ran out the door after him and said there’s been some mistake.”

“He said, ‘No, I meant it. It was no mistake, I’ll see you when you re-open,'” added Ring.

The restaurant owner added that he split the top among the four wait staff that were working that day; each of them received $750.

“I walked back in, and I had four severs working on Sunday,” said Ring. “I showed it to the first server — and I have a reputation for being a bit of a jokester, so she thought I was kidding. But the next server I showed it to started crying, and that’s when the reality set in that it was a real tip.”

“We’ve all heard these types of good stories before, but I think, during the time of COVID [Chinese coronavirus], the whole world is in the same boat, looking for the same good news,” he added. “I’ve gotten calls from media companies all over the world. I talked to the whole world today. It’s mind boggling.”

When asked if he is closing the restaurant in response to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R) recent issuing of a statewide curfew, Ring said that he had made the decision on his own, with his staff’s health in mind, as Northeast Ohio has seen an uptick in coronavirus cases.

“The virus doesn’t come out at 10:00 p.m., that curfew is going to prove to be absolutely useless,” said Ring. “My decision [to close] was made based on what’s going on.”

“I’m not a not a big government guy,” he added. “I’d rather make my own decisions, I’d rather not to be told what to do.”

Ring added that his restaurant has been around for 55 years. “We can afford to press pause for a minute,” he said.

The restaurant owner said that he hopes to re-open in January, but that it’ll be contingent on how the Cleveland area is doing with regards to the coronavirus.

“My hope is to open again sometime in January,” he said. “But when I reopen all depends on the virus, not the government.”

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.