Diner Denies Ardmore Server Tip After Being Asked To Wear Mask

ARDMORE, PA — Despite Pennsylvania restaurants being allowed to offer dinner outdoors and indoors with a 50 percent capacity limit, the industry is still working to keep customers and staff safe while remaining financially viable.

In Ardmore, John Henry's Pub has been strict with enforcing mask usage, social distancing, and more to keep its patrons and workers safe.

It's safe to say about 99 percent of John Henry's patrons are happy with the Cricket Avenue's stringent adherence to safety protocols.

But what about that 1 percent?

Well, it turned up at the eatery Sunday.

Manager Kathy Kearney told Patch a man came into the restaurant Sunday and walked past the bar without a mask on.

"She asked him to put [a mask] on," Kearney said of the server. "And he brushed her off."

Then when the server went to pick up the bill after the diner left, there was no tip.

Instead, "mask" was written in the line where tips are added to the final total.

"She was taken aback, so was I," Kearney said.

She took to social media, posting a photo of the receipt and said the diner should be ashamed for his actions.

But a few days later, Kearney told Patch she chocked up the rude "tip" to the customer being in a bad headspace.

"It was probably someone having a bad day. We're in stressful times and that may have been a gut reaction on his part," she said. "We're all in the same storm but in different boats. Everyone deserves a pass."

John Henry's precautions regarding customer and staff health include spacing all tables are 6 feet apart, making hand sanitizer available to all, and signage out front that illustrates the rules.

And as an added precaution, the restaurant and bar has an optional contact tracing sheet, so patrons can be notified in the event of a positive case being identified in the restaurant.

All this is solely to protect everyone involved in the restaurant.

"If you didn't like our rules,"Kearney said, "leave it blank or put a zero."

But Kearney said the focus shouldn't be on the one negative incident.

"Our customers are very respectful," she said. "We've gotten so much positive feedback in the past few weeks."

She went on to say she's gotten messages from customers asking for her Venmo account so patrons can tip servers, and even said one patron slipped an envelope with a tip inside it under her door because the business hadn't opened.

Kearney said operating a business in this time has been like a roller coaster.

"Some days are great and it feels great and then the next day the bottom falls out," she said.

Overall though, she is just glad the restaurant is open.