A group of local good Samaritans in Arkansas looking to brighten the holiday season of one lucky local waitress saw their planned good deed go down in flames when the waitress they generously tipped was forced to hand over most of the money… then got fired.
Grant Wise, a real estate mogul, put together the “$100 Dinner Club” to aid servers who had suffered financially during the COVID pandemic. The idea is that everyone present at the dinner puts up $100 towards the tip, regardless of how much they spend on the meal.
“We knew servers were really hit hard through COVID and it was something that [a friend] had come up with to help give back,” he told KNWA.
Wise said he had called ahead at his chosen destination, the Oven and Tap in Bentonville, Ark., to make sure that servers did not have to share tips.
Wise was hosting a real estate conference in town and invited a large crowd to dine as part of the club. After the meal, Wise gifted one of the two waitresses who served the group, Ryan Brandt, a check for $4,400 to be split between the two of them.
The gesture left Brandt in tears, and the video of the presentation was posted on Instagram.
“I'm so sorry to interrupt everyone's dinner, this will only take 60 seconds,” Wise says in the video. “We have a table full of absolutely amazing people from all over the country who have traveled here, and tonight we're hosting a $100 Dinner Club.”
Then Wise puts his arm around Brandt and points out the group he’s dining with.
“Everyone at this table has contributed or tipped $100 for you and for the other waitress who unfortunately had to go home because she's not feeling well,” Wise said. “And then we put it out to our social media channels, and then we actually had a bit more money sent in, so we are tipping a total of $4,400 for you to split with the other girl who took care of us.”
But not long after receiving the money, Brandt’s managers told her she would have to share the tip with all of her co-workers, a request they had never made of her before and the opposite of what Wise said he was told before the meal.
“I was told that I was going to be giving my cash over to my shift manager and I would be taking home 20 percent,” Brandt told FOX 59.
Brandt said she was “devastated” by the policy reversal.
When Wise learned that the money was dispersed in a way he did not intend, he said he tried to open a dialogue with the restaurant’s owner to “ensure that everything was going to be OK but was unable to connect with her outside of a few text messages that eventually stopped.”
At that point, Wise returned to the restaurant in person to get his money back, then gave it to Brandt outside. Later he found out Brandt had been fired.
Brandt told KNWA that she was let go for accepting the tip and for “violating rules” by sharing the restaurant’s tip policy with Wise.
“I'm so saddened to hear that the girl we tipped the other night at our $100 Dinner Club has been fired from her job,” Wise wrote on Facebook. I don't fully understand why this would happen to what seems like such a sweet and kind-hearted woman. Nonetheless, I'm committed to showing her that there are great people in the world that will do good when they can.”
Wise then posted a video on YouTube announcing a GoFundMe he had set up for Brandt.
“I hope that we can help this girl stay on top, and not let something like this get her down,” Wise said in the video. “I don't fully understand it ... but I want to do as much as we can to help.”
Reached for comment by FOX 59, officials at the Oven and Tap responded to inquiries about Brandt with a written statement.
“After dining, this large group of guests requested that their gratuity be given to two particular servers. We fully honored their request. Out of respect for our highly valued team members, we do not discuss the details surrounding the termination of an employee,” the statement read.
Wise has sent shut down his GoFundMe for Brandt after she started a new job at a different restaurant December 8. The fundraiser had raised more than $8,700.
Related
