A young waitress is taken aback after receiving a $10,000 tip from a generous diner.
A trio of steak and pasta eaters left an astounding $10,000 tip for a waitress working at a fancy inner-city bistro.
Lauren was the main waitress for a table of four at Gilson in Melbourne’s South Yarra on Saturday afternoon, and they were so satisfied with her service that one of them offered an astronomical figure when they paid for the $500 lunch.
The surprised university student explained that tips are split among the restaurant’s 23 employees. Still, the gentleman paying stated he’d only leave a tip if she received 70% of it, or $7,000.
Several employees reported that she burst into tears when she realized how much she’d been given.
‘I made them pronounce the number out loud because I thought, ‘What if I got too enthusiastic and mistakenly read an extra zero or anything like that?’ she told the Herald Sun.
The generous tipper is believed to be a teenage cryptocurrency entrepreneur who owns two Toorak properties totaling $120 million.
Her negotiating resulted in the other employees receiving $3,000 to split – $136 each.
Gilson is a hip Italian restaurant frequented by social media models, influencers, and reality television personalities.
According to another waitress, Lauren, who worked Saturday, the restaurant staff was ‘in absolute astonishment’ for half an hour after the group left.
‘Lauren’s a terrific waitress, and it’s a rich region, so that has to be taken into account,’ she explained.
‘We have high-net-worth clients and hatted restaurants just next door. And the tipper was a well-known businessman.’
She stated that the table that tipped so lavishly was a walk-in group rather than a regular group.
They spent $500 on steak, pasta, and one drink each.
According to colleagues, Lauren, who earned the large tip, reduced her work hours in the restaurant to part-time after getting the money to devote more time to her studies.
She described Gilson’s wait crew as a “close-knit family,” with everyone wanting to share at least some of their secrets.
Lauren confessed that she had to request that the gentleman repeat the tip in case she had misheard it.
Gilson owner Jamie McBride was overjoyed to see his employees receive special recognition.
‘(It’s) quite pleasant because it makes the squad feel special, especially when no one expects anything like that,’ he said.
The tip resulted in some welcome good news for Mr. McBride, who was fined $204,000 in 2021 for underpaying his employees.
According to a Fair Work Investigation, Gilson underpaid vulnerable international visa holders by $53,850 from December 2017 to July 2018.
