A better gift than 20%
Not all of the good cheer warming the industry this holiday season is likely to come from restaurants. Consider the Santa in street clothes who’s already making servers happy with his acts of unbelievable largesse. Yes, the serendipitous gifts known as Tips for Jesus are back, as mysterious as ever.
This is no feel-good story for children. An unfamiliar restaurant patron leaves a four-figure tip for his server, always on a cash payment for a relatively small charge, after scrawling “Tips for Jesus” on the tab. It happened in 2013, it happened in 2015, and it happened just last week at a New York City restaurant called Guyer’s. A guest bought roughly $100 in drinks for himself and his party, then left a $5,000 tip that reportedly had the bartender bawling.
“Tips for Jesus,” said a message written on the receipt. “We’re back!”
Some have speculated that the New Age version of Mr. Claus is Jack Selby, a former executive of PayPal who walked away from the cashless payment system with a fortune. And, indeed, Selby was spotted in Guyer’s when the tip was left.
But the assertion was quickly assailed by observers who noted that no single person could leave so many gifts in so many locations. The rumor holds that it could be one culprit and an army of helpers.