https://www.nydailynews.com/ne...cf4uctkue-story.html

NYC pizzeria waiter returns half-million dollar cashier’s check to retired social worker who failed to tip him

A Manhattan woman who almost bankrupted herself when she left a $424,000 cashier’s check at Patsy’s Pizzeria over the weekend was saved from ruin by an unlikely source — the waiter she’d stiffed at lunch.

Instead of 20% of the bill, a folded up envelope was the only thing left on a table at the East Harlem institution on Saturday when waiter Armando Markaj went to clean it off.

Yet the tipless waiter, a medical student working his way through school, had nothing but kind words and smiles for a flustered and grateful Karen Vinacour when the Daily News reunited the two at the famous pizzeria on 117th St. so she could pick up her check.

“I’m happy for her, really. Saturdays are pretty busy and I was very close to taking everything left on the table and throwing it out when I saw an envelope,” Markaj, 27, told The News. “I just pulled up the flap and I saw ‘Citibank’ and thought it was important, so I ran out to the street to look for her, but she was gone.”

Markaj got the shock of his life when he fully opened the envelope and pulled out the fat bank check.

“Normally we just put things left behind in the lost and found box in the back,” he said. “But I wasn’t going to do that with almost half a million dollars.”

He got owner Frank Brija, 63, and put the cashier’s check in the proprietor’s hands.

The retired social worker stopped by Patsy’s on Saturday for lunch with her daughter after looking at a condo she hoped to buy, and the cashier’s check – mostly proceeds from the apartment she recently sold – was her down payment for the new home.

“We’d pulled out my papers to go through the all the financials again,” Vinacour told The News. “I had no idea we left it behind.”

It wasn’t until Sunday night that Vinacour went to the zippered inner compartment of her purse and discovered it empty. But still, she didn’t panic.

“I figured it’s a check, I’ll just go to the bank and ask them to stop it,” she said

Bright and early Monday, she showed up at Citibank’s flagship branch in Union Square.

“They said they couldn’t immediately cancel it because it was a cashier’s check. I would have to wait at least three months before they could even start the process,” she said.

“My world just collapsed."

Vinacour, who has dedicated most of her retirement to volunteering with charities in Laos to help underprivileged women and children, called her daughter, who immediately began searching through the household trash. She also called the real estate broker she’d been with on Saturday.

Then she ran up to East Harlem to visit a café down the street from Patsy’s, where the women had first stopped for a coffee.

“They said they didn’t have it,” she said. She was on her way to Patsy’s when her real estate broker called her back.

“She said she had called Patsy’s and nobody knew anything about a check,” she said. “I didn’t stop to think that maybe she called the wrong one.”

Dejected and heartsick, Vinacour went home.

Back at the East Harlem Patsy’s, Markaj and Brija kept waiting for the moment someone would walk in the door and ask for the check.

Brija called New York’s Hometown Newspaper for help – and within a matter of minutes, Vinacour had her money back.

“I can’t believe it, I’m so relieved. You have no idea,” a breathless Vinacour said Wednesday morning when The News called her from Patsy’s to ask if she had recently lost something of great value. “I’m jumping in a cab, I’ll be there right away.”

When she walked in the door, the first thing she told Brija was that she felt awful for not tipping Markaj on Saturday.

Vinacour said she and her daughter didn’t like Markaj’s reponse when they told him there weren’t enough photos of women on the walls.

Maybe women don’t eat a lot of pizza?” Vinacour recalled the waiter saying with a shrug.

“Well, my daughter’s kind of feisty and she didn’t like that,” Vinacour said at the reunion. “So we didn’t tip him.”

feisty isn't the description I was thinking of

On Wednesday, a slightly overwhelmed Vinacour admitted it wasn’t her best moment.

As for Markaj, he graciously accepted Vinacour’s apology and her gratitude – but declined a belated tip.

He did admit that he did spare a moment on Saturday to wonder who would have nearly half a million dollars and decline to leave a few bucks for the waiter.

“I guess I figured that it was just karma for them,” he said.

He did admit that he did spare a moment on Saturday to wonder who would have nearly half a million dollars and decline to leave a few bucks for the waiter.

She's lucky he didn't tear it up and throw it away, after deciding not to keep it.

Sounds like the waiter “triggered” her with his terrible, sexist, hate-speech reply. He’s lucky she didn’t physically attack him.

quote:

Vinacour said she and her daughter didn’t like Markaj’s reponse when they told him there weren’t enough photos of women on the walls.

Maybe women don’t eat a lot of pizza?” Vinacour recalled the waiter saying with a shrug.

“Well, my daughter’s kind of feisty and she didn’t like that,” Vinacour said at the reunion. “So we didn’t tip him.”

You wanna pick a fight about a restaurant's decor?

You take it up with the owner.

Anything less is, frankly, bullying, no matter how progressive the pretense is.

The waitstaff is hired help, it's not their job to answer for the owner's aesthetic choices.

Lucky for her the waiter is a far classier act that the two twat feminists. And they learned nothing...they’d stiff another waiter that dare assault their sensibilities.

Seems to me she left a $424,000 tip.

That ditz and her twat daughter sound like a real treat.

Not enough women on the wall. This is a real concern for you is it?

Enjoy being miserable and alone the rest of your lives.

quote:

there weren’t enough photos of women on the walls.

Why is she assuming the gender of those in the photos?

I would have taken the check and sit on it for a few months to make that easily offended bitch sweat bullets.

Sounds like Do the Right Thing, the film. "how about we get some brothers up on the wall!"

"This is my pizzeria, Italian Americans only"

How much of a piece of shit are you to stiff the waiter and have him return a half million? What dirtbags. I used to wait tables when I was young. I hated it, but it paid the bills. So many people would stiff you over, leave you a dime.

There was an African American lady one time, she left one of my coworkers a dime. He was a Marine in the reserves. After getting stiffed so many times he boiled over one day at her. She had left and was on the sidewalk. He said mam, obviously you need this more than I do, and used his middle finger and thumb to kind of flick the dime. It hit the lady in the forehead. She came in and complained, he was fired on the spot in front of her. But, our manager was an Army vet and hired him back the next day. His name was Chase. Will never forget it. I bet I had a few thousand single moms who'd come in, order 1 meal, ask for additional plates to chinze out that one meal. Then run your ass off for free chips, salsa, and tortillas. All the free stuff. Then they'd leave you a quarter or nothing. I'd be back in the kitchen cussing up a storm saying shit like "why don't your dumbasses just go to McDonald's". Waiters we made like $2.00 an hour so the tips were our wages.

We should all be happy that some people will do the right thing regardless of provocations.

What a cheapskate she probably wouldn't have left a tip regardless of what happened.Their Pizza is very good I've had it a few times.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
the two twat feminists

The proper expression is "the two feminist twats."

It reminds me of the start of Reservoir Dogs.
I abhor people who don’t tip. Unless the service is absolutely rude or incomprehensible, leave a few bucks. Most places don’t pay minimum wage and the tips make up the difference.
Also, take a look around and see if the restaurant is understaffed? If that’s the case, it’s an issue with management, not the wait staff.

Anyways, what a bitch for stiffing him over the photo comment.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
the two twat feminists

The proper expression is "the two feminist twats."

Although a two-twat feminist would be something to see. Also a great name for a rock band, a-la Dave Barry....

quote:

left a $424,000 cashier’s check at Patsy’s Pizzeria

oh, you meant this:




from the OP link

When I saw that she intentionally didn't tip for a reason not related to the service I have to admit that this did seem like karma to me. I'm glad the paper shamed her for stiffing this nice young man. How the hell is it the waiters fault for what's on the walls. And what the hell was he supposed to say?

$424k is a downpayment?

I wouldn't have cashed the check but it might've gone into the trash...

From the sale of an apartment (not building)…

Welcome to Manhattan.