Two Coast servers share massive tip as elves spread cheer with stack of $100 bills
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Community organizes annual Big Tip Breakfast to surprise and reward servers.
- Participants pool funds; 25 guests and donors handed servers $3,600.
- Founder Boothby continued the tradition despite cancer treatment at MD Anderson.
It almost didn’t happen this year.
But on Saturday morning, a group of family and friends kept a five-year tradition alive.
About 25 people filled booths at Toasted Yolk Cafe on Howard Avenue in Biloxi. To their waitresses, they looked like any group that comes in for breakfast and time together.
By the end of the meal, they learned it was much more.
John Boothby came up with the idea of the holiday breakfast five years ago. He looks for a place that serves a sit-down breakfast, where the owner doesn’t make a big fuss and where the wait staff can use a boost.
Each person at the tables contributes a $100 tip — “at least” — Boothby said. Others who can’t attend the breakfast add their Ben Franklin to the pot.
The two waitresses quickly and efficiently took each order, served the eggs and pancakes and cleared the tables, chatting with the group, not knowing what would happen soon.
The start
The tradition started when Boothby researched and found out the average Christmas spend is $600, and realized some people couldn’t come up with that. In December 2021, he planned the first breakfast with the owner of Phoenicia, a restaurant in downtown Ocean Springs that many people he knows and works with frequent.
The next years the surprise came at Port City Cafe and Brew Paddle Cafe in Biloxi and Lazy Oak Bistreaux in Ocean Springs. One of the waitresses was just starting to take college courses and said she planned to use the money for books. Others needed it to pay bills or shared part of the money with the other wait staff and spent the rest on a nice Christmas for their kids.
This year
Typically the big tip breakfast is held just before Christmas, but this year Boothby didn’t get out of the hospital and back home to South Mississippi until Dec. 24. He is being treated at MD Anderson hospital in Houston for stage 4 brain cancer.
Despite his challenges, he wanted the tradition to continue and servers to benefit from the generosity of his family and friends, most of whom live in Biloxi and Ocean Springs, and who own or work in a variety of Coast businesses.
The feeling
Several in the group commented as they gathered how wonderful it was to enjoy breakfast with friends and do something special for deserving people in the community.
Finally, as each person paid their breakfast bill and added a 20% or more tip, the surprise unfolded.
Boothby handed two wads of $100 bills to their servers — Melody Monroe of Gulfport and Rebecca Curi of Biloxi — who burst into tears.
“It was so cool,” Boothby said, as he held back tears and the whole restaurant applauded the event and the servers.
They try to limit the number of people at breakfast to 25 and take more tips from those who can’t attend but want to be part of the surprise. Last year they had 44 $100 bills and this year he handed the women $3,600.
In past years, other groups who learned about the event were inspired by the big tip breakfast and chose to surprise their wait staff with big tips. Will they do the same this year, even past Christmas?
Boothby said he hopes a lot of people will be so inspired. “That’d be awesome,’ he said.
The honor
It wasn’t as much about the money as it was to be honored, Curi said.
“I can not believe it,” she said. “I’ve been serving for all my life, and I’ll be 48 this year.” Nothing like this has ever happened, she said, or was ever expected.
“We just go and smile and work,” she said.
And they went right back to work, but the recognition and experience stuck with them.
“I’m still in shock. I’m still shaking,” Monroe said as she carried another order out of the kitchen.
“It’s a blessing for these guys to come and bless our servers,” said John Lockett, co-owner of the restaurant with Ryan LaFleur.
Boothby’s neighbor, Benji Richoux, and others at the breakfast said they plan to ensure the Big Tip Breakfast is a tradition that continues in South Mississippi for many years.
