WGNO

Bourbon Street bartender gets $3,000 tip from kind stranger during coronavirus crisis

NEW ORLEANS– A French Quarter bartender got a big surprise from a kind visitor at his bar “Spirits on Bourbon Street.”

It was just an ordinary summer day at Spirits on Bourbon Street, when something extraordinary happened.

“At first I didn’t look at the check that he signed, it is one of those things that you don’t count the money at the table,” Dustin—a bartender at Spirits said.

When he finally did look at the check he saw a $3,000 tip on the man’s bill which rang up to $123.75.

“This is the biggest tip I’ve ever got. I was so excited, and my heart just melted. Happy for me and my family with everything we’ve been going through especially with the virus around,” he said.

At first Dustin thought it was a mistake.

“Sometimes you get mistakes like that they they write the wrong amount as a tip, so I was like are you sure,” he said.

Then the kind $3,000 tipper who was from out of town told Dustin:

“He said in order to get anything in return you got to give something away. That was one of the things he said that his grandfather would say. He said take it, spend it on you and your family and enjoy it,” Dustin said.

Dustin said he felt really blessed to receive this surprise tip. Dustin’s a father of three kids, so what’s he going to do with the big tip.

“Oh, save it because I don’t know what the future holds,” he said.

He said the gesture means even more because of the coronavirus crisis.

“It made me regain faith in humanity and made me realize just how generous people are in this time and it’s an amazing feeling. I just try to give the best customer service possible because you never know if they’ll leave you ten dollars or 3-thousand dollars. He was just a really generous person and it was really heartfelt. It did touch me, it really did,” the bartender said.