A regular customer of Blue 44, a restaurant in Washington, D.C., left a $2,000 tip for the owner, bartender and chef.
The man is known as a generous tipper and comes to the restaurant a few times a month.
The patron came to the bar with a friend and ordered fried chicken, gumbo and his favorite brew - Old Chub Scotch Ale - for a total of $93. When the store was about to close, bartender Laura Dally was surprised to see a $2,000 tip in the bill holder together with the credit card slip. There was a note saying it should be divided among the three: $1,000 for chef James Turner and $500 each for Dally and Nardelli, reported the Washington Post.
"I was in utter shock," she said. "I was completely speechless. I had to do a double-take."
There is also a note saying: "Thank you for the Gumbo!"
The chef e-mailed the patron prior to the visit asking him for advance notice on the next time he would be in the restaurant so he could make the gumbo he liked, and the customer responded that he would be there on Monday, according to Inquisitr.
Dally said the customer came in with his friend and jokingly chanted, "Gumbo! Gumbo! Gumbo!" After they finished their meal, he requested some gumbo to go, and Turner provided extra several quarts.
The next day, owner Nardelli sent the customer an email thanking him for the extremely generous tip and received a heartwarming response.
"He said he's very happy with what we've built and that he's proud to be a customer," Nardelli said.
"It's flattering," Nardelli added. "It's nice to see somebody appreciate what we do and they're willing to leave something like that for us. It's hard to believe anyone deserves a tip like that."
Meanwhile, chef Turner, who received $1,000, told Huffington Post, "To have an individual take the time to thank me for something that I put time and effort into is so appreciated."
