Mystery Man Tips Ohio Restaurant $3000 For Single Beer Purchase

A man left a $3,000 tip for a single beer purchase as an Ohio restaurant voluntarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic apparently to compensate for the losses incurred.

The owner of Nighttown restaurant in Cleveland, Brendan Ring, said the generous man walked into the restaurant just before they were closing and ordered a beer. The beer would cost him $7.02, but he additionally paid $3000 as a tip and asked the restaurant owner to share it with the four employees who were working brunch hours that day, Ring said in a Facebook post.

"So just before we closed today at Nighttown, a customer walked in and ordered a beer and asked for the check and handed his credit card slip to me, wished me well while we sit out our voluntary shutdown, and told me to share the tip amongst the wait staff, of which there were four working brunch today," the post read.

As the man walked out, Ring said he looked down at the credit card slip and "realized he left a whopping $3,000."

"I ran after him and he said: no mistake we will see you when you reopen!" Ring said in the post.

In the Facebook post, Ring said he wouldn’t reveal the customer’s name because he thinks the man wouldn’t like that. "Unbelievable but symbolic of the kind of quality folks we have known at Nighttown all these years, I could post his name but I won’t as I think he wouldn’t want that but all my waitstaff and myself and humbly grateful for this incredibly kind and grand gesture," the post read.

Gov. Mike DeWine had threatened to shut down bars and restaurants earlier this month amid peaking coronavirus cases. DeWine said the facilities typically become the source of new clusters because patrons spend a large amount of time without wearing masks. The Ohio Restaurant Association said a second closure would be "devastating to the industry."

Ohio has recorded as many as 363,304 coronavirus cases as of Tuesday, with 6,020 total deaths, according to Worldometer.