While it might seem easy, waiting tables is a very demanding job, which is why we tip them. Not only do they need to manage multiple tables’ orders at once, but they must also always wear a smile – even if they receive no tip at all! However, 27-year-old Armando Markaj didn’t mind the challenges of waiting tables while he worked at Patsy’s Pizza to put himself through college.
While working at Patsy’s, Markaj always tried his best to put on a bright smile and serve his customers the best he could. Sure, he had some bad customers, but he adopted a thick skin while working at Patsy’s, so they didn’t affect him. Well, until a mean-spirited customer accidentally forgot something incredibly valuable behind after leaving no tip. Markaj needed to make a choice: do the right thing or give the woman some instant karma…
1. The Life of a Waiter
Armando Markaj was another 27-year-old young man trying to make his dreams come true in the Big Apple. However, New York City is expensive! So, in order to help his parents pay for his college education, Markaj began waiting tables at the popular Patsy’s Pizzeria in Harlem.
Before long, Markaj started to love waiting tables and providing the best service he could. And not only did he provide accurate and quick service, he always did it with a bright smile on his face. Then, one day, everything changed. On that fateful day, Markaj’s shift started just like any other. When a woman and her daughter came into Patsy’s, he had no idea she would test his patience, unlike any patron before her…
2. Patsy’s Wall of Memories
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Patsy’s Pizzeria’s current owner, Frank Brinja, is incredibly proud of the establishment’s heritage. Believe it or not, Patsy’s has been around for almost a century! It first opened its doors back in 1933 and remains one of the most popular restaurants in Harlem, for both tourists and locals alike.
To immortalize Patsy’s legacy, Brinja has decorated the walls of the restaurant with pictures of several famous faces who have dined at the pizzeria, as well as many accolades it has won. The photos and awards have been painstakingly collected over the course of 86 years. That day, Markaj noticed that the two women who had just entered were angrily scrutinizing every single detail of the wall as he approached. No one had ever had a problem with the wall before…
3. Pizza For Two
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As Markaj spotted the two women looking at Patsy’s wall of memories and their unhappy faces, he knew that the table could become a problem. So, to try and start things off on the right foot, the waiter quickly approached the table and greeted the women with a warm smile. Then, he proceeded to take their order: a small New York-style pizza for two.
At this point, everything seemed fine. Markaj thought that he had perhaps judged the women too quickly. However, just as the waiter turned to walk away, the older woman stopped him. Then she asked Markaj a strange question, one he had never heard before. The waiter was at a loss of words…
4. A Strange Question
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At first, when the woman stopped Markaj, he thought he must have forgotten to add something to their order, messed up their drinks, or something along those lines. However, that was not the case. The older looked at him sternly and asked, “Why are there so few pictures of women on the wall?”
It was clear that the woman felt furious about this perceived problem. When Markaj opened his mouth to speak, no words came out. Was this a real question? When the woman starred at him, clearly waiting for a response, the waiter realized this was no joke. The woman expected an answer!
5. Not the Answer She Was Hoping
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Markaj laughed nervously and foolishly tried to answer the question with a joke. “Maybe women don’t eat a lot of pizza…?,” he stammered, trying to laugh it off. Unfortunately for the waiter, his joke completely bombed. After his response, the woman’s eyes narrowed while her mouth turned downward into a mean sneer.
The waiter realized that this woman already had her mind up about him and Patsy’s Pizza. He knew that he would pay for his flippant answer when it came time to earn his tip. So, Markaj gave them space, while making sure their food came out and on time. It wasn’t hard at all, as the server had plenty of other customers to attend to.
6. An Empty Table
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After the awkward incident, Markaj did his best to ensure the older woman and her daughter had a pleasant experience at Pasty’s Pizza. He made sure their pizza came out on time and checked into to make sure it tasted great as well. Then, when they asked for the check, Markaj made sure to deliver it promptly. Meanwhile, the server gave them space, tending to the busy restaurant.
After taking a few orders, Markaj returned to collect the check. Surprisingly, he found the table empty and the check oddly light. At first, the waiter prayed that the woman hadn’t left the place without playing the check. However, when he looked inside the bill, he found something far more hurtful…
7. No Tip Inside
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When Markaj picked up the light bill, he figured that the two women had rushed out while he was busy attending other customers. However, as Markaj opened the leather folder, he breathed a sing of relief as the women had paid their bill. However, that’s when he noticed something terrible: the women had paid but had left no tip.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a mistake, either. On occasion, a customer had paid the bill and forgotten to leave a cash tip. It happens from time to time, when people are in a rush. But that wasn’t the case this time. Not only had the older woman put a line through the tip area, but she had also left Markaj a rude and hurtful note…
8. A Rude Message
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The handwritten message Markaj found on the bottom of the bill is one he’ll never forget: “Maybe women don’t tip either.” The waiter could barely believe what he saw. He had not been awful to this woman, it had been a simple misunderstanding!
However, Markaj knew he would likely never seen the woman again. So, with a heavy heart, the waiter ignored the obnoxious note and continued doing his job. But while clearing plates, Markaj discovered a white envelope underneath the napkins. While many would have thrown away the envelope, due to the woman’s behavior, the server decided not to. It could be important to her, so he decided to save it.
9. An Unexpected Discovery
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Even though the woman had been awful to Markaj, he knew better than to judge her. Furthermore, the waiter is a good person, and he didn’t want to accidentally hurt this woman by throwing away something valuable. For all he knew, she was just having a bad day. Still, a naturally curious person, Markaj decided to open up the envelope and have a peek inside.
Looking inside, Markaj saw what looked like a check and the CitiBank logo. Knowing the importance of a check, he immediately ran out the door to chase the woman down. Markaj hoped he could find the woman quickly and return her valuable property.
10. It Was Too Late
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Unfortunately, outside of Patsy’s Pizza, Markaj had no luck finding the woman. By the time he had returned to the table, comprehended the no tip, and opened the envelope, the woman had been able to enter a cab and leave the area. “I just pulled up the flap, and I saw ‘CitiBank’ and thought it was important, so I ran out to the street to look for her, but she was gone,” the waiter recalled.
With the woman nowhere to be found, Markaj had no idea what to do next. On the one hand, he could simply throw it on the garbage. The woman had been incredibly rude to him, after all. On the other hand, Markaj could try finding more information on the older woman, which would be the right thing to do. Would he try to help the woman that behaved so obnoxiously towards him?
11. Time to Investigate
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Still considering what road to go down, Markaj opened the envelope to get a better idea of the situation. Inside was the most significant check that he had ever seen in his entire life. Believe it or not, the rude woman had left behind a check for a whopping $424,000! Nearly half-a-million dollars lay in Markaj’s hands. He could not believe what was happening!
Markaj wondered how anyone could forget a check for $424,000 just lying around on the table. Plus, how could she leave no tip, with all the money she clearly had? After seeing the check, Markaj realized he had a major decision to make.
12. The Right Choice
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Armando Markaj was facing one of the biggest decisions of his life. If he wanted to, he could teach this mean-spirited woman an incredibly valuable lesson in instant karma. Markaj also felt confident no one would know it was him, either. If they came back looking for the check, he would just say he hadn’t seen it. The waiter could even attempt to cash it, making all his financial problems disappear.
Of course, Markaj knew this wouldn’t be right. After all, these choices would make him just as mean as the woman who had ruined his day. So, Markaj called someone to get their opinion on the matter…
13. Life-Changing Decisions
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Markaj continued to think about the serious moral dilemma for the rest of his shift. Afterward, he decided to call Frank Brinja, the owner of Patsy’s Pizza. In the end, Markaj figured the owner should have the final say in the check’s fate. Like most of us, Brinja could not believe what he was hearing over the phone!
“He called me immediately and hands me this check, and I was like, ‘Oh my…’ I didn’t want to put it in my pocket it was so much money,” Brinja explains. “We thought for sure it was a billionaire or something who came in here, because who walks around with a check like that?”
14. Tracking Her Down
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Patsy’s Pizza had never dealt with this sort of situation before, so they had no idea how to proceed. “Normally we just put things left behind in the lost and found box in the back, but I wasn’t going to do that with almost half a million dollars,” Markaj explained
In the end, Brinja and Markaj decided to track the rude woman down and return her check. Fortunately, the check gave them her name, Karen Vinacour, and her bank, so they had a place to start. “We decided we would hold on to the check for a couple of days to see if she would drop by or if we could find her ourselves,” he said. However, despite these clues, Brinja and Markaj could not find the woman! Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, Karen Vinacour could not believe she had lost her check…
15. Losing Her Mind
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While Brinja and Markaj tried to find her, 79-year-old Karen Vinacour felt like she would lose her mind. After she had realized that she’d lost the check, she didn’t know what to do. First, she frantically called her daughter hoping that she had it. Unfortunately, Vinacour’s daughter told her that she hadn’t seen it. Afterward, the two of them looked everywhere, even digging through their trash bins!
But no matter where they looked, Vinacour did not find the check. She had no idea what to do next. The woman wasn’t even sure when she had lost it! Vinacour just prayed she found it before someone with bad intentions did. Little did the waiter who she had so severely mistreated know, the check was even more important than he thought…
16. Life’s Savings
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As it turns out, Vinacour was not an incredibly wealthy woman. The $424,000 check was actually Karen Vinacour’s entire life savings! The morning before she ate at Patsy’s Pizza, Vinacour had sold her house, and planned to put the 400 grand towards the home she would retire in.
In one afternoon, Vinacour had lost all the money she had spent her entire life working for. As anyone would, she felt like her whole world was collapsing around her, and there was nothing she could do about it. Desperate and hopeless, Vinacour began looking in every last place she had been in the past few days.
17. A Desperate Search
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After tearing through her home and trash, Vinacour began retracing her steps to find the check. First, she called the coffee house across the street from Patsy’s where she had stopped for coffee before pizza but had no luck. Then she called Pasty’s only to recieve quite a strange answer: “She said she had called Patsy’s and nobody knew anything about a check,” Vinacour’s real estate broker said in an interview.
However, Vinacour had no idea she had called another, unrelated Patsy’s Pizza! “I didn’t stop to think that maybe she called the wrong one,” the broker commented. Desperate to find her money, Vinacour tried one last move…
18. Nothing They Could Do
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Desperate and convinced she had looked everywhere, Vinacour reached out to her bank, in an attempt to cancel the check. Unfortunately, she was met with even more bad news at the bank. “They said they couldn’t immediately cancel it because it was a cashier’s check. I would have to wait at least three months before they could even start the process, and only if someone didn’t cash it in the meantime,” Vincour explained.
Without the check, Vinacour would have to move in with her daughter, a senior home, or end up on the streets. With nowhere to go, she had been staying with friends and family, sleeping on a different couch each night. If someone did not call soon, Vinacour would have to kiss her lifelong dreams goodbye…
19. A Helping Hand
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Meanwhile, at the real Patsy’s Pizza, waiter Armando Markaj and owner Frank Brinja had still not heard from Karen Vinacour. After a few days, Brinja knew he had to do something about the situation. However, while most people would reach out to the authorities, Brinja had a totally different idea in mind.
Instead, the owner of Patsy’s Pizza decided to call a local newspaper to see if they could help track her down. Believe it or not, they managed to track her down within a matter of minutes! When the restaurant called and told Vinacour they had her check, she could not believe it! She wouldn’t end up on the streets after all!
20. She’s Here!
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A relieved Karen Vinacour arrived at Patsy’s Pizza within an hour of receiving their call. There, Armando Markaj greeted her at the front door. “She got here within 10, 15 minutes, and she was here actually crying, she was like, nervous,” Brinja said. Of course, it is not every day that someone returns a $400,000 check!
As Vinacour approached, everyone at Patsy’s Pizza had one question on their mind: would she apologize to Markaj? After all, the last time she had been there, Vinacour had left without even leaving Markaj a dollar for his hard work. Did she feel sorry that she had stiffed him, given everything that had taken place?
21. Feeling Shy
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As Vinacour entered the restaurant, everyone could tell that she felt more than a little uncomfortable when she saw Markaj waiting for her. “She was so happy, and she was in tears,” said Brinja. “But, the second she saw Armando, you could see she got a little shy.”
It’s safe to say that Vinacour must have felt like a complete fool. In the end, she did realize that she had made an error and wanted to make it up to the waiter. So, Vinacour offered Markaj a finder’s fee. However, he rejected the offer! “She offered to tip me, but it was… You know what, I did it for the sake of myself, so I’m not taking the tip now,” Markaj said. So, Vinacour offered something else…
22. Accepting The Apology
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When Markaj did not take Karen Vinacour’s tip, she offered something else: a sincere apology for her behavior. “She apologized. The apology was accepted,” said Markaj. “I’m happy for her, really,” he confessed. “Saturdays are pretty busy, and I was very close to taking everything left on the table and throwing it out when I saw an envelope.”
Vinacour and Markaj sealed the deal over some hot, delicious pizza. While Markaj returned the check to make peace with himself, he sure taught Vinacour a valuable lesson. It’s safe to say that she will think twice about leaving no tip from now on!
23. What She Had Missed
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After Vinacour and Markaj finished their pizza, owner Frank Brinja gave her a tour of the wall of memories. To prove a point, he pointed out all the women’s faces that Vinacour had missed that Saturday. Among them were TV host Barbara Walters, First Lady Chirlane McCray, former City Council Speakers, Christine Quinn, and Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Afterward, to drive the point home, Frank Brinja offered to do something else too. “We joked with her and said we’d add her picture up on the wall,” he said, laughing. While the woman declined the offer, one thing’s for sure: Patsy’s is Vinacour’s new favorite restaurant!
24. Regretting The No Tip
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What had started off as one of the best days of her life became one of Karen Vinacour’s worst. When she lost her check and had nowhere to go, her life turned into a waking nightmare. While eating at Patsy’s Pizza, she had no idea that her decision to leave no tip would ultimately teach her a lesson in humility and giving others a break.
Now, of course, Vinacour feels exceptionally grateful to young Markaj for doing the right thing despite her nasty behavior. In an interview with local news PIX 11, the woman plainly stated that she will forever regret leaving no tip on the receipt.
25. Going Viral
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As you might imagine, the story of waiter Armando Markaj and Karen Vinacour quickly became quite the local legend. After all, the newspaper that Patsy’s Pizza owner Frank Brinja called was none other than the iconic New York Daily News! Before long, the story was picked up by plenty of other websites, television shows, and newspapers that loved the story of two people once at odds turning over a new leaf.
Now, many locals come in just to see Markaj and talk to him about his tale! However, the waiter earned something far more useful than a little bit of local fame. Believe it or not, through all this, he made a new friend…
26. Best Friends For Life
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While Karen Vinacour was mean and rude to Armando Markaj, he didn’t get her behavior get under his skin – he just brushed it off. After all, she seemed not to be having a good day. After she left, Markaj was kind enough to save the mean-spirited woman her check for half a million dollars.
Now that Vinacour has learned a life lesson, she knows better than to treat servers poorly. In fact, Vinacour said that, in a twist of fate, she thinks she’ll be now best friends with Markaj for life! “I believe in karma, too,” she said. “I guess that’s what helped get me back to you.” However, believe it or not, as crazy as Markaj and Vinacour’s story is, its not the only case of a waiter becoming best friends with a grumpy customer…
27. Meet Melina Salazar
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Melina Salazar, a wonderful woman from Texas, has worked as a waitress for most of her adult life. While she initially jumped around, for the past decade she’s worked at the same restaurant in the city of Brownsville. Like Armando Markaj, Salazar learned over the years how to deal with difficult situations and customers.
Some customers, as you’ve just read, are a lot harder than others like Buck, a WWII veteran who seemed to hate everything around him. In fact, soon after he started coming to Salazar’s restaurant, the waitress became the only employee who would wait on Buck. While he was often a curmudgeon, Buck would change Salazar’s life forever…
28. Loving Her Job
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Melina Salazar worked as a waitress at Luby’s, a cafeteria-style restaurant in Texas. While most don’t consider “waitress” a dream job, Salazar felt differently. Over 17 years as a waitress, and six at Luby’s, Salazar learned to love her job and became incredibly good at it. Without a doubt, she was one of the, if not the, best waitress in the place.
Salazar always focused on excellent customer service, treating every single customer with respect and sympathy, no matter how difficult the customer behaved. According to her co-workers, she’s always smiling and trying to cheer everyone up. But, by setting herself apart from the rest of the staff, Salazar also opened herself up to her most difficult challenge yet…
29. Excellent Customer Service
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Because of her great attitude towards every single customer and swift service – especially those who were demanding – a manager assigned Salazar to a unique position: she would deal with the pickiest customers at Luby’s. Most of us would hate this job. But, of course, Salazar had no problem fulfilling her duties, wanting to treat everyone with respect.
Specifically, one particular customer acted so poorly that the other waitresses never wanted to take his order, unless they absolutely had to. To be fair, Salazar didn’t find dealing with this customer particularly easy. In fact, he was one of the most problematic customers she had ever deal with in her entire career. However, Salazar had her reasons why she decided to continue serving him.
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