Waffle House is known to stay open through everything— rain, sleet, shine, and in this case, employee shortages.
Early Sunday morning, one lone employee was tending to a crowd of hungry diners at a restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama, when a man in a blue shirt asked the employee if he could put on an apron and dive right into work.
Other customers soon followed, washing dishes and busing tables.
Ethan Crispo, one of the customers who came from a birthday party that evening to witness the moment, told AL.com that the unidentified Good Samaritan in the blue shirt who asked for the apron and the other helpers “made a difference to many people that night.”
Certainly [their actions] made an impact on me,” Crispo said.
“Humanity isn’t just good,” he continued. “It’s great.”
Waffle House spokesperson Pat Warner said in a statement that a scheduling miscommunication led to a man tending to the restaurant by himself.
Warner added that Waffle House appreciated the customers who stepped in to help but prefers that its own employees stay behind the counter.
Other Waffle House customers have gone above and beyond serving food. In 2018, one Waffle House customer, who was also a concealed carry permit holder, opened fire on two armed robbery suspects at a location in Georgia, foiling their robbery plot.