Grafton Grill server surprised with $2,020 tip #2020TipChallenge
Hayley D’Auteuil flipped over the credit slip left behind by at Table 13 on a slow and snowy day at Grafton Grill & Crust and felt the breath leave her body.
“I started shaking,” she said. “I went over to the pizza chef and said ‘are you seeing this? I’m not hallucinating?'”
The family of four, who dropped by for lunch on December 5 while visiting the area from Connecticut, shared a meal for the cost of $96.84. They wrote “Thank you” with a smiley face and the notation #2020.
The tip was $2,020.
$2,020.
“There was nothing really out-of-the ordinary about them,” D’Auteuil said. “They were just a typical family. We didn’t discuss anything personal. I was just doing my job and then — this.”
It’s called the #2020TipChallenge, a tipping trend that started at a Michigan eatery last January. Former New Kid on the Block Donnie Wahlberg picked up on the challenge, adding a $2,020 tip to a bill at an IHOP and taking to social media to ask others to do the same. Other celebrities, including singer Harry Styles (picking up the check for Adele and James Corden, as you do), joined in, along with diners who just wanted to help restaurants and servers hard hit by COVID-19.
Naturally, word spread throughout the restaurant community. In fact, only a few days before, Grafton Grill owner Stephen Belifiore and D’Auteuil were chatting about the the trend.
“I’ve seen it in the news at least twice now,” Belifiore said. “I didn’t think it would happen here.”
D’Auteuil, who is studying nursing at Becker College and hopes to work in pediatric oncology, decided a portion of the jackpot needed to be paid forward. She donated to the Why Me House in Worcester, a home away from home for families while their children undergo treatment for cancer.
“And the rest? Well, it’s going toward student loans,” she said.
D’Auteuil wasn’t able to thank the family in person. She did track down the person who paid on Facebook and sent a thank-you, but never heard anything in return.
The customer, after all, had already made their point.
“I’m usually not a lucky person,” D’Auteuil said. “I can’t believe it happened, of all places, here, during a snowstorm.”
