MEMPHIS, TN. (WATN) – A Tennessee waiter is reminding people to practice tolerance after he was stiffed out of a tip while working at On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina. The customers reportedly left a note explaining why they left $0.00.
“I was more shocked,” said Nathan Bergeron. “The fact that they would be so blatant and put it out there.”
WATN obtained a photo of the receipt with what some people are calling a racist remark written on top of it.
“We don’t tip white ppl! LOL” was written in black ink on the top portion of the table’s final receipt Sunday.
The bill was for $47.00.
“I treated that table no differently from anyone else,” he said. “Obviously in this business, we don’t always get a tip. You just move on about it and go onto your next table.”
Bergeron said the comment was left by his last table of the night. There were reportedly three people sitting at the table, a husband and wife and a teenager.
Bergeron cashed out and took a photo of the receipt and says he sent it to a number of friends via text.
One of his friends asked if she could post it to Facebook to raise awareness about the situation, specifically racism.
“He’s a good person. He goes to work, does his job,” said Brandy Sciara. “When I saw the comment I cried. I was always told, ‘If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all.'”
Sciara posted the receipt and it was shared dozens of times before going viral.
“Community support has been wonderful,” said Sciara. “Everyone is standing behind Nathan.”
“I’m not going to let this bring me down,” said Bergeron. “I love what I do. I get to meet new people every day and interact with people from all different backgrounds.”
WATN reached out to On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina’s corporate office for comment.
In a statement, the public relations spokeswoman said
Since the restaurant management has only just been made aware of the post and the employee’s reported personal situation, we are in the process of looking into it. We would like to speak with the employee before commenting.
