These are difficult times for the hospitality industry with bars and restaurants closing to curb the spread of COVID-19.

And this heartfelt “secret Santa” story is worth sharing…Especially at Christmastime.

A bar owner in Ohio was stunned when a customer tipped $3,000 for a single beer, just hours before he was due to shut-down the business due to Covid-19.

Brendan Ring, who owns the Nighttown, restaurant, bar and music club with a turn-of-the-century ambience in Cleveland, had announced that he was closing his venue, amid an uptick in coronavirus cases across the United States.

And it was in the final hour of Nighttown’s last night open, when a man who was described as a “regular thirty-something”, walked in and ordered one $7 Stella Artois beer and asked for the bill, said the Nighttown owner on Facebook.

The man wished him well and as he was walking away told Ring to share the $3000 tip with his employees who were working at the time.

This from Ring’s 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.

As he walked out I looked down at the tip and realized he left a whopping $3000 tip on a single beer purchase.

I ran after him and he said no mistake we will see you when you reopen!

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 wait staff and myself and humbly grateful for this incredibly kind and grand gesture. [/box]

Ring told The Independent that Sunday “was our last day open for a while because I feel the virus is so out of control in Ohio”.

“I’m voluntarily closing till it dies down a bit [because there were] 12,000 cases yesterday with a population of 11 million,” he added.