A Kansas waiter has described how an insult scrawled on a receipt instead of a tip ended up raising thousands of dollars.
Noah Bierig, a 19-year-old bartender at Bubba’s 33 in Wichita, said the incident happened on a Sunday two weeks ago.
He was serving a group of young people when he felt at least one of them seem to be staring at him, watching him with her painted nails and pride bracelet, giving him withering glances.
But when they left, he was left crying: not only did they not give him a tip, but one of them wrote a homophobic insult instead of an amount.
A friend of Bierig’s shared the receipt online, setting off a surprising chain of events. The man’s name was printed on it in cursive, prompting a full-blown apology.
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Noah Bierig, a 19-year-old bartender at Bubba’s 33 in Wichita, said the incident happened on a Sunday two weeks ago.
“When I first walked up to the table, I got a couple dirty looks,” Bierig said. KAKE News from the initial meeting.
“And every time I walked away, they’d start laughing a little bit.”
She said it was one man in particular who seemed upset by her painted nails, a gift from her mother when she came out.
He said he felt the client and his group were not friends.
It didn’t bother him, though, he told the local news station, as he sat with them at the restaurant while working another shift.
He recalled how he did his best to serve the table like everyone else, despite being uncomfortable.
After they left, she was shocked to find that one of the group’s receipts had no tip and the line instead had the word “f*g” written on it.
He said the insult left him beside himself, even though he did his best to contain it.
After they left, she was shocked to discover that one of the group’s receipts had no tip and the word “f*g” was written on the line. A friend posted the receipt online afterwards, sparking outrage.
“That hurt me a lot,” he said.
“I’m not the type to cry at work, but I have to say that this was definitely the first time that happened to me.”
But after one of his friends posted the bill with the offender’s name prominently displayed, a respite came as a horde of outraged viewers bombarded the customer with messages expressing their displeasure.
The customer, bewildered, came out to apologize, but also said he had not received good service.
“I know it was wrong of me to write what I wrote,” James Blick wrote on Facebook before deleting his accounts. “And I am very sorry.”
“The overall dining experience was not that great,” he added.
“I shouldn’t have gone into it saying what I said.
‘I tried to call the restaurant to apologize to the guy, but I couldn’t get through. I’m so sorry to anyone who was hurt or affected by my words.
The customer, James Blick, apologized online and complained about the “hateful comments, messages and phone calls” he and his wife have since received. He later deleted all of his social media accounts.
“I have learned a valuable lesson from all this and nothing like this will ever happen again.”
The man went on to complain about the “hateful comments, messages and phone calls” he and his wife have since received, before deleting himself from social media.
But not before something good came out of all the attention the incident generated.
Bierig’s friends organized an online fundraiser through the city’s LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce that raised thousands of dollars.
ThereAnyone can offer an amount that is treated and tabulated as the fair tip they should have received.
“Whatever comes out of there will be donated,” Bierig said as the leads continue to arrive.
On the support she has received, she added: “It’s crazy. I never thought something like this would happen based on just a couple of Facebook posts from my friends and family.”
He said Bubba’s 33 will match his donation to GLSEN, a company that works to stop discrimination, harassment and bullying toward those with different sexual orientations.
