Like just about every other business, the Souk Mediterranean Kitchen and Bar, owned by Moussa Salloukh, has seen better days before COVID-19 reared its ugly head.

People like eating out. That’s no secret. Grab some friends, walk into the place and order what you want. All that stress disappears with each bite you take of your food. There’s no denying that we all miss that.

And you better believe the restaurants miss us too.

I don’t think you need me to tell you how hard the food and dining business has been hit by the pandemic. As great as restaurants are, they’re hot-spots for viral exposure and transmission. Can’t risk a deadly disease all for a few bites of roast chicken and a salad platter.

The Souk Mediterranean Kitchen, like countless other food places, isn’t some million-dollar restaurant chain like KFC or Wendy’s.

They can’t just deal with significant financial losses like those bigger players can.

“The restaurant was a tribute to my mother and everything was going great until March, when we were forced to shut down.” – Salloukh told CNN

Hundreds of thousands of restaurants have had to close due to the pandemic, and Salloukh’s restaurant barely made it through. Even then, their business had nearly slowed to a halt, and things weren’t looking good.

Unbeknownst to them, a single paying customer would make things just a bit easier.

On December 12, this mystery customer walked in to Souk Mediterranean Kitchen, ordered a meal and let the staff know how grateful he was for their service. So they did the natural thing and tipped the staff. How does $5,600 sound?

Indeed, whoever this was (they asked to remain anonymous), they really didn’t want to leave this restaurant the way it was when they entered. Split it among the whole staff was the customer’s instructions, and that they did.

Every member of the staff received $200 in tips, more than enough to get Christmas gifts for a loved one. All thanks to a stranger who didn’t even want to be named. Maybe that customer was Santa in disguise?

Moussa Salloukh was in tears when he spoke to CNN about the story.

“Your restaurant staff becomes your family and everyone cares about each other. I’ve been staying out of the kitchen to give employees hours to get through and put gifts under the tree for their kids, so this was so huge for us.”

A lot has been shown through this pandemic. In particular, how the most common and lowest-paid of people are what society depends on. We’ve been neglecting the service workers too much, and hopefully things will start to change once this is over.

This person really put the “secret” in Secret Santa, huh?

Knowing that every staff member of Salloukh’s kitchen received this kind of a gift for Christmas, during a pandemic no less, really hits that sore spot.

It’s never a bad time to be kind to your service workers. They work hours and hours each day, all to make sure you’re comfortable. You don’t need to give them a thousand-dollar tip like this person did. Just treat them with kindness and tip them what you can, it’ll go a long way.

Stories like this one are best shared around, so think of someone who’d like to read this too, and give the article a share!

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: [Souk Mediterranean on Facebook, ABC World News Now, Tyler Paley on Facebook, CNN]