This happened during the global health crisis when our restaurant was only allowed to have outdoor seating, so we didn’t have many huge tables available.

We had only one table with six chairs and about four or five tables with four chairs.

A family of twelve — six adults and six kids, I think — came in. According to our policy, we had to sit them separately, and they weren’t allowed to move seats.

Four out of the twelve decided to sit at the six-chair table because it was a lot bigger. (We allow customers to sit wherever they like just as long as they are following policy.)

About thirty minutes into their meal, a family of five came in.

Me: “It’ll be at least a twenty-minute wait. There are people using our only six-chair table, and we aren’t allowed to bring tables together.”

The family of five was about to leave, but then the people who sat at the huge table called us over and said they could move to a smaller table.

The family of five thanked them, and we moved the four people’s food to another table.

The family of five ordered their food, and toward the end of their meal, one of them asked me:

Customer: “Can we pay for the table who gave up their seats for us?”

Me: “Oh, most certainly! However, they are actually a party of twelve, and their bill is probably over $200. Are you all right with that?”

Customer: “Psh, that’s fine.”

He paid his family’s bill (around $50) AND the other family’s $200+ bill, plus automatic gratuity. He also tipped my coworker and me $20 each on top of the gratuity. He spent about $300 that day.

The party of twelve was shocked and thanked them for their kindness.

It was a good night shift!