It was indeed a happy new year for a US-based Indian restaurant after a customer left a generous and symbolic tip of $2,020 on January 1, 2021.
Masala Mantra Indian Bistro based in Florida’s Cape Coral posted a picture of a bill on its social media handle where it showed how the customer paid them a tip of $2,020. What is even more surprising is that the total bill for the food and drinks, including tax, was $269.
Captioning the post, Masala Mantra Indian Bistro wrote that a $2,020 tip was given to their server Dawn. The post further mentioned that they cannot stop smiling and feeling happy for their employee. The restaurant mentioned in its post, “God bless this group of kind folks.” The year 2020 was especially hard for restaurant owners including theirs. However, this act of kindness made their year, as mentioned in the post.
The Masala Mantra Indian Bistro further expressed its gratitude for all their patrons' support, especially in a difficult year like 2020. The restaurant is hoping that the new year brings new hope and makes everything better than last year.
The feel-good post also attracted netizens who posted kind comments. One user on Facebook said, “Wonderful! Makes me happy to know there are good people in the world,” while another user said, “Congratulations Dawn...and Happy New Year!!!”
Posted by Masala Mantra Indian Bistro on Thursday, December 31, 2020
This year, coronavirus outbreak took over the world and affected many businesses. One of them happened to be the food business. As countries around the world issued lockdown measures to curb the spread of the deadly virus, people stopped going out to eat and dine.
According to a report by CNN, around 17% of America's restaurants have already permanently closed in 2020 as the industry faces further danger. The report mentioned that the National Restaurant Association is requesting the Congress to pass a new stimulus to help the industry that has faced severe losses due to the pandemic. In December 2020, the group said that 1,10,000 restaurants have already permanently shuttered in the year, with 10,000 of them closed in the past three months, reports CNN.
A survey of 6,000 restaurant operators conducted by America’s National Restaurant Association revealed that 87% of full-service restaurants reported an average of 36% drop in revenue and 83% of them expect sales to get worse over the next three months as coronavirus continues to spread in the United States.