5f the service sucks I will leave a penny, if it is great service i will usually leave a $20.00 tip or better just because I have a soft spot for young people who try hard to do a good job.
Check this out.
Back when hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast, I went down to Bay St.Louis Mississippi to mud out flooded homes for a week with our disaster team.
The town was in shambles and only a select few businesses were operating.
There was an Italian smorgasboard type restaurant open and you can tell the owner went to great lenghths to get things fixed up enough to serve the public as he was the only guy in the whole complex that was open.
Needless to say, the place was packed with government workers, non government workers, disaster relief groups and pretty much any hungry local family this night.
I had $450 bucks in my wallet which I took just in case, but everything was provided for us workers and we really did not need any money unless we ate out.
Pretty much all ther employees working there had either lost their homes totally or they were damaged to the point that they had to live elsewhere , such was the case of our young waitress who said she was 17 y/o.
This girl was running her tail off to make sure everyone was happy, and she did it with the biggest smile on her face.
She was so sweet that our table just had to strike up conversation with her, and we found out that her home was a total loss as it was swept down the road in pieces, and she was living with her uncle.
We could not believe she could seem so happy with what had happened to her home and town for that matter.
I made the decision to empty my wallet for this girl's tip, and everyone else at my table followed suit.
We came up with a total of $4500.00 from our whole crew that night.
I called the manager over and told him to make sure that she got half of the money as soon as we left because we knew she would not accept it, and that the rest is for his restaurant.
he assured us that his insureance was up to snuff and that he was going to give it all to her.
Well just as we pulled off in the car we saw him take her to the side and say something to her, and she put her head in her hands and started laughing and crying at the same time.
Gosh I love moments like that.