Working at a café in LA, one is bound to find themselves, at one point or another, serving at least one celebrity. Meeting celebrities wasn’t new for me, having grown up in LA, but serving them was usually a memorable experience – and I was always curious to see whether or not they would tip well. The first time I served a celebrity, I was unaware of this fact. A coworker and I were working the opening shift, a rather slow weekday morning in Venice Beach, when at around 10am a couple sat down at one of the tables on the patio. I brought them a bottle of water and two glasses and asked if they knew how to order through the QR code, which could be confusing to some. They replied that they had been here before and knew how to order, but that they would prefer to order with me. While they ordered, the woman asked after one of my coworkers who had served her last time. After a bit of back and-forth to determine who it was, I told them that unfortunately he wasn’t working that day, but that I would let him know that they said hi.
I returned to the window to see that another coworker had arrived and was staring at the table I had just left. She was speechless, but managed to say in a hushed voice that the woman was Tyra Banks and the man was her husband. At that moment their food came out and she rushed to be the one to run it to the table. When she returned, she was mortified to tell me that she had “dropped a fork on Tyra Banks,” as she was starstruck and a huge fan.
At the end of their meal I was the one to close them out and they made sure to let me know that they had greatly enjoyed the food. As I asked if I could take their plates from the table, the man replied with, “As long as I can keep my wife,” and we all laughed. They left and I caught a glimpse of their tip on the POS; they had tipped well.
About the author:
Lila Victor is a graduating 3rd year majoring in French and minoring in Creative Writing. She is from LA, a pianist, and enjoys trying new recipes, perfecting old ones (for both baking and cooking), and working on her latté art.
