Anonymous Country Star Tips Waffle House Waitress $1,000 Shirell Lackey was working a double shift at the restaurant from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. when a country music star (whom Lackey is choosing to keep anonymous) stopped in to pick up food.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It's not uncommon to receive a tip on the check when you're working as a waitress.
But for Shirell "Honey" Lackey, who works as a waitress in a Greensboro, North Carolina Waffle House, receiving a four-figure tip was anything but the norm.
Lackey was working a double shift at the restaurant that went from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. when a country music star (whom Lackey is choosing to keep anonymous) stopped in to pick up food.
While on the clock, the waitress was also going back and forth between seeing customers and taking care of her daughter, something that the singer took note of.
"He was like, "I have to respect a mother that would do whatever it takes to support their child in a society where people don't even want to work anymore,'" Lackey told Fox 8 News of the singer. "I do it because Bella [my daughter] is everything — but it's nice to be recognized for doing the things we do as mothers."
Related: Why Restaurants Have Rules Against Really Big Tips
Lackey said that someone in the singer's group tipped her $50 prior to the singer coming in, and when he heard about how she was working while caring for Bella, he came in to see her.
Fox 8 reports that the mysterious country star also gifted the waitress two concert tickets to one of his upcoming shows, baby clothes and toys for her daughter that he mailed to her home.
There are currently 1,946 Waffle House locations, according to data company ScrapeHero, with 182 of those being in the state of North Carolina.
