Customer embraces Christmas spirit with a 7,000 percent tip
Dec 19, 2017, 3:15 PM | Updated: 3:28 pm

(AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
(AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Dwayne Clark, the CEO of , left a $3,000 tip on a $39 dollar bill at his regular Bellevue breakfast spot. Clark has been patronizing Brief Encounter Caf茅 for the last eight years.
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鈥淢y wife came in from shopping. She joined me about halfway through the breakfast. I got the check. I said, 鈥業 think we鈥檙e going to change somebody鈥檚 life today,'” Clark told 成人X站 Radio’s Tom and Curley on Tuesday. “I wrote the note. I handed it over to her with the tip on it. She started crying. I said, 鈥極kay, let鈥檚 sprint out of here.'”
On the note Clark left with the tip, he shared a little about his own upbringing.
鈥淚 told them about how I grew up, the fact that my mom was a cook in a diner and she used to take me when I was a little boy, I was seven, and I got to be the dishwasher. I ended up standing on a Marigold milk crate because I couldn鈥檛 reach the big lever on the dishwasher tank to pull down the handle, that we were dirt poor, and that I was leaving a tip to help them with their Christmas,鈥 Clark said.
According to Clark, he doesn鈥檛 remember being poor as a kid. It鈥檚 only when looking back on his youth that he realizes his family didn’t have much money. 鈥淚 had so much love in my family and relationships that I never felt I was poor because we had such great community,鈥 he said.
Clark left his phone number on the note in case the credit card company had trouble with the tip, and eventually the story made it to the local media.
鈥淭he outpouring of this has been so incredible, that we鈥檝e kind of started this movement called 鈥#feedthespirit,鈥欌 Clark said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to leave $3,000, first of all. You don鈥檛 need to leave money. But just on the back of your ticket or whatever, just write, 鈥楬ey I appreciate you. You鈥檝e done a great job. Here鈥檚 my story.鈥 If we just did that, I think our lives would be so much richer, so much better.鈥