'Tips for Jesus' Continues; Waiters Get up to $10,000
More waiters from across the country – and at least one in Mexico – have received hefty tips of as much as $10,000 with the words "God bless!" scrawled across the receipt and the handle @tipsforjesus stamped next to the signature.
Just after 12 a.m. on Sunday, a waiter at the Seagrape eatery by the beach in Fairfield, Conn., got a $5,000 gratuity on a $112 bill, The Associated Press reports.
Earlier this month, a waiter at the NoMad Hotel restaurant received a tip of $7,000, according to the newswire. Similarly, a waiter at the Hungry Cat in Los Angeles, Calif., got a tip of $1,000 from a group of three men, restaurant spokeswoman Jannis Swerman was quoted as saying.
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In another such incident, a bartender at Crudo in Phoenix, Ariz., received a $2,500 tip. "This middle-aged gentleman came in with a woman, and they sat at the bar," Micah Olson, the bartender, was quoted as saying. "They sat at the bar and had 5 ounces [of whiskey] total. The guy was really cool and bought me two ounces. When they left, I saw the tip and I went, 'Wow!' I hope one of these days, we'll find out who he is," he said, adding that the man, who spoke some Spanish, paid with his Amex "Black Card," an invitation-only charge card issued to rich clients.
A tab, dated Dec. 5 and posted on Instagram, features a young waiter, Carlos Mendez, holding a bill for $158.11 with a tip of 13,100 Mexican pesos, or about $1,000, which he reportedly used to take a vacation with his wife and two kids in a nearby village.
The TipsforJesus Instagram page, which carries photos of generous tips left on restaurant bills and elated waiters, waitresses or bartenders holding up their lucky receipts, has now gained more than 56,000 followers. The feeds come with the tagline, "Doing the Lord's work, one tip at a time."
Some receipts date back to the beginning of August. Some servers who have received the tips believe it involves a network of men who travel across the country.
However, an anonymous tipper was recently identified by a New York City waiter as Jack Selby, the former vice president of PayPal.com.
Selby dined at Bo's Kitchen & Bar Room in Manhattan along with two other patrons early this month, and before signing his tab he told Aruj Dhawan, a waiter and student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, that he was about to make his night, surprising the server with a $1,000 generous tip. "A stranger comes in and drops one thousand dollars. I was just really thankful," Dhawan told New York Post. "They called me over, gave me the check, I was amazed. They took a picture [with me] and literally, just like that, they walked out."
Dhawan's manager, Benjamin Cramer, questioned Selby about the tip and was told, "Just because. We tip a hundred times the bill."
Selby, a San Francisco-based financier and one of the original PayPal executives, made a fortune when the online payments company was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. Since leaving PayPal, he has dabbled in film production and other capital ventures.
Selby has not officially confirmed to be behind the generous tips, but he did take to Facebook last month to share an Indiana-based South Bend Tribune article about the Tips for Jesus Instagram account.
