Ryan Brandt was with another server waiting on a group of approximately 40 people who gathered at the Oven and Tap in Bentonville, Arkansas, recently.
When it was time to pay their bill, each diner in the group left a $100 tip amounting to $4,400 that would go to the two servers, KNWA reported Thursday.
“It was an incredible thing to do and to see her reaction was awesome, to see what that meant to her, the impact that it’s had on her life already,” diner Grant Wise told the outlet.
Wise owns a real estate company and claimed he contacted the restaurant to ask about its tipping policy and ensure everything would work out.
However, he later told reporters it did not go according to his plan.
“I was told that I was going to be giving my cash over to my shift manager, and I would be taking home 20%,” Brandt asserted.
She claimed the restaurant asked her to share the big tip with coworkers, a practice she alleged never happened in the years she worked at the establishment.
Wise added that pooling tips with people who did not serve his group was not his intention, and he asked the business to return the gratuity before giving the cash to Brandt.
According to Brandt, after that happened she was let go.
She claimed the restaurant told her she was fired because she violated policy by informing Wise about pooling tips.
KNWA asked the restaurant if that claim was true. Although they declined an interview, they did provide a statement.
“After dining, this large group of guests requested that their gratuity be given to two particular servers. We fully honored their request. Out of respect for our highly valued team members, we do not discuss the details surrounding the termination of an employee,” it read.
Now, the owners of Oven and Tap are sharing their side of the story, KARK reported Monday.
“We did not know walking into this how much money was going to be involved and what does generous act looks like,” co-owner Mollie Mullis said.
“The employee that was terminated was not terminated for retaining the tip. Due to the privacy and the respect of our employees, we do not discuss employee affairs,” co-owner Luke Wetzel added.
Both Wetzel and Mullis said the business’ tip policy is clear and that six percent of bar sales go to bartenders, two percent of food sales goes to the kitchen, and one percent of food sales goes to the server assistants.
“That practice did not happen,” Wetzel asserted.
Although Wise said he called before to make sure Oven and Tap did not pool tips, “They did not call ahead and ask about our tipping policy, nor did they email,” Mullis claimed.
“Because of the customer’s request, we honored it and handed it out to the servers that they asked us to distribute it to,” she added.
Brandt has since been met with a cease and desist issued from Wetzel and Mullis, according to KARK.
The pair said outside the normal tip-out policy for their support staff, pooling tips with workers at the business for big groups was a common practice.