Customer Leaves $10,000 Tip For Workers At Florida Restaurant

MIAMI, FL — An anonymous patron at the Castaway Waterfront Restaurant and Sushi Bar in Marathon, Florida, left a big surprise for her waitress last week — a $10,000 tip.

The restaurant on its Facebook page shared the receipt showing the generous tip on a $193 bill, saying "well deserved Khara and Team Castaway."

Khara Wilson, the waitress, told Florida Keys Weekly she was working a busy shift at the restaurant Tuesday when the woman came in with a party of 10 for breakfast. While the party waited for more people to arrive, Wilson began to chat with the woman, named Pam, and learned she was visiting family and set to fly back home to Oklahoma on a private plane.

Pam later approached Wilson and asked her how many people were working at the restaurant that day.

“I asked her why she wanted to know, and she told me it would be a surprise … but that I needed to share with all the staff,” she told the newspaper.

After the woman and her party left, Wilson found the surprise to be the hefty tip, which will be split among the restaurant's 14 employees. For her portion of the tip, she told the newspaper, she'll use it toward paying her bills and a vacation in Costa Rica.

The mysterious Pam joins a growing list of wealthy diners who have left generous tips for their servers.

In December, a diner at the Souk Mediterranean Kitchen in Toledo, Ohio, left the staff with a $5,600 tip that was split among its 28 employees. It was an early Christmas gift for the staffers, who had been struggling to get by after the coronavirus pandemic caused business to drop, according to CNN.

A waitress at the Seaglass restaurant in Salisbury, Massachusetts, received a $5,000 tip from a patron in February 2020 after the diner, billionaire Ernie Boch, was inspired by a tipping challenge started by actor Donnie Wahlberg, according to a report from KIRO-TV.