A billionaire Massachusetts car dealership magnate tipped a local waitress $5,000 in a move inspired by actor Donnie Wahlberg’s New Year’s Day gesture, according to new reports.
Ernie Boch Jr., a local celebrity of sorts, had finished dining at Seaglass Restaurant in Salisbury Saturday when he decided to leave the generous gratuity for waitress Jennifer Navaria, who posted a photo of the receipt to Facebook.
“Thank you Ernie Boch for your amazing generosity!” Navaria wrote. “You certainly made a job I really enjoy that much better.”
When Navaria first glanced at the receipt, she thought Boch had given a $50 tip for the $157.56 meal he shared with friends. But then she looked again.
“I was, like, ‘Oh, wait a minute,’ so then I looked down again and I saw it was four digits, then a decimal point,” Navaria told WCVB. “I said, ‘You made my night,’ but, really, he made my month.”
The restaurant was nearly empty, but Boch — who has a net worth of $1.1 billion, according to NBC Boston — and his pals were having such a good time that he remembered what Walhberg had done a month earlier.
The New Kids on the Block singer and “Blue Bloods” star surprised his waitress at an Illinois IHOP with a New Year-appropriate $2,020 tip on a $75.45 bill.
Wahlberg and his wife Jenny McCarthy tweeted a photo of their receipt, encouraging others to take part in the #2020tipchallenge.
“I had the tip challenge in the back of my mind and I thought, ‘this is perfect, she is amazing, it would be great,’” Boch told The Salem News. “It’s basically a challenge. I know Donnie and he knows me. In fact, my band opened for him at the House of Blues. I have such respect for the guy and when he did that, I thought, ‘That is the coolest thing.’ So I was right on it.”
Boch wrote, “Donnie, your move,” on the receipt he handed to Navaria.
“Who’s making the next move?” the car magnate told WCVB. “Who’s it going to be? Who’s going to help us out? It’s got to be more than me — I was more than Donnie…. Let’s keep it going!”
Navaria has asked her Facebook friends to help share the receipt photo with Wahlberg.
“I hear about this happening to other people and I knew about that challenge,” she told the station. “But who would have ever thought it would happen to you?”
