Blog
On February 20th, one of our Miss Shirley’s team members, Ron Barnette, witnessed something remarkable – a truly random act of kindness from one of our guests!
Ron, a server at our Roland Park location was tending to two nearby tables last Thursday, when one of his guests, a woman dining alone, signaled him over to have a quick word. The woman asked him, “Can I pick up their check?” motioning to the next table over.
He was touched by the woman’s question and asked, “Do you want me to let them know?” The woman just shook her head “No” and gave him a note to replace their check.
Sitting at the table beside the woman were two siblings, Loyola University freshman Alison Breitenback and her 14-year-old brother, Jack.
Last fall, Alison left her family home in Westchester County, N.Y. to attend Loyola, where she lives on campus. The siblings’ mother, Laura Breitenback, had dropped Jack off at Alison’s dorm to give the two a chance to catch up.
Alison, 19, decided to take her brother to Miss Shirley’s to enjoy a late breakfast and have a long chat about what she had missed since winter break, the last time she had seen Jack.
“We were just catching up,” said Alison. “It’s kind of weird for me not to be there while he’s in high school.”
The two siblings shared a few words about our Applewood-Smoked Bacon with the woman sitting alone beside them, but Alison worried that they had bothered her when she noticed the woman signal over the server, before receiving their check.
“I handed the checkbook to the girl and stood back to catch her reaction,” said Ron.
The note enclosed in the book read: “Enjoy your day! It was a treat hearing a brother and sister get along so well.”
It was then that Ron went over to let the two siblings know that it was the woman who was sitting beside them who had paid for their meal.
“It was a real joy seeing their face light up when they opened the book. You don’t see stuff like that every day, and I made sure to tell the woman, before she left, that she had made my day” said Ron.
Mother, Laura Breitenbach later tweeted a photo of the receipt, saying “Thanks to customer @MissShirleys today who paid my kids check. You made a mother VERY proud.”
You made us proud as well! Our Miss Shirley’s guests truly are AMAZING!
