'We All Just Started Celebrating': Restaurant Staff Surprised By $2,000 Tip

WATERVILLE, Maine (CBS Local) -- The staff of a restaurant in Maine is celebrating after a customer left a ridiculously generous $2,000 tip on a $48.76 bill.

The manager was able to keep it a secret for most of the night until the restaurant posted the over the top tip on Facebook.

"We all just started celebrating," Christina Ames, a food server, told CBS affiliate WABI. "The cooks out back were jumping up, we were just happy. It was somebody appreciating hard work. It was somebody who wanted to do something good, and I think it was well executed."

The couple, who were described as an "older gentlemen" and his wife, arrived at the Silver Street Tavern & Restaurant in Waterville around dinner rush on Saturday night. Zack Denis, who has been working at the restaurant for almost three years, took their drink and dinner order.

"You wouldn't have guessed they were anything other than average Joes," he told WLBZ.

The couple was friendly and easy to wait on, but at the end of the meal they asked to speak with a manager. Denis said he was a little concerned because, at one point, a wine glass was taken from the couple's table by mistake. A bartender noticed and replaced it.

"We didn't know if they were complaining," Denis said.

Instead of complaining, the customers praised the staff to the manager, citing three separate people who made sure their dinner was enjoyable.

Asking to remain anonymous, the couple requested that the $2,000 tip they were leaving on a $48.76 bill be divided among all of the 14 employees working there that night, including waitstaff, bartenders and kitchen staff. It came out to about $142 per person.

"I am super glad that it was shared. I don't think that would have been right for one person to get the whole $2,000 tip," Denis said.