D.C. restaurant patron drops $2,000 tip for gumbo

WASHINGTON — Tips are expected at bars and restaurants. Good tips are always appreciated. Bad tips are considered rude.

But when a tip is 21 times more than the bill itself it defies all the common adjectives.

On Monday a frequent patron left a $2,000 tip on a $93 bill at Blue 44 in Northwest D.C. On the receipt he gave explicit instructions for $1,000 to go to the chef, $500 to the bartender and $500 to the owner.

The receipt read, “Thank you for Gumbo!”

Owner Christofer Nardelli isn’t naming the customer, but tells the Washington Post he and his friend had friend chicken, gumbo and Old Chub Scotch Ale.

“You think, who are these people who give these extraordinarily generous tips that just made a server or bartender’s day? And then sure enough, it happened to us.”

Dally tells the Post her share will go toward college while chef James Turner will use his to offset daycare costs.

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