Brandt was given a generous tip after she served a party of 40 people with help of only one other diner. However, the restaurant manager was not able to digest the matter and decided to take away the tip demanding that Brandt will be getting only 20% of it while the rest will be distributed among other servers. However, the power of social media soon landed the diner in trouble.
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A few days back on December 6, server Ryan Brandt served a party of over 40 people at Bentonville's Oven and Tap. She had little to no help and was helped by just one other server.
However, her hard work of the night paid her well as each diner chipped in $100 each to say thank you to her.
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"We knew servers were really hit hard through Covid and it was something that we had come up with the help give back," one of the diners, Grant Wise, told CBS 5.
However, to everyone's dismay, the generous tip was swiftly taken away from Bradnt as her manager instructed her to pool the tip so it could be shared amongst the other staff who hadn't worked the table.
Even though this is a very common practice in some restaurants, but Brandt insists that in the three years she had worked at Oven and Tap, she had never been asked to share her tip money before.
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The restaurant manager arranged for Brandt to receive 20% of the money.
However, things took a turn when real estate company owner Wise found out what had happened, he demanded the tip be returned then gave Brandt her $2,200 share directly.
The very next day Brandt was fired from her job. She told CBS that the situation was "heartbreaking".
“They fired me from Oven and Tap over the phone and I’ve been there for 3 1/2 years and that was really heartbreaking. Especially because I didn’t think I did anything wrong," she said.
Releasing a statement, Oven and Tap claimed that Brandt was fired for reasons unrelated to the tip and maintained that they had "fully honored" the diner's request.
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“After dining, this large group of guests requested that their gratuity be given to two particular servers. We fully honored their request," read the statement, adding:
“The server who was terminated several days after the group dined with us was not let go because she chose to keep the tip money. The other two servers who received generous tips that evening from the Witly organization — including one who also received $2,200 — are still members of our team.”
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“Out of respect for our highly valued team members, we do not discuss the details surrounding the termination of an employee," the statement continued.
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As the news of Brandt being fired from her job reached Wise, he set up a GoFundMe page on behalf of the former waitresses' and has already raised over $8,700 to help her through the holiday season.
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