DETROIT – When was the last time you paid more than $200 for breakfast?
An anonymous patron paid for breakfast for everyone at Detroit's Parks & Rec Diner on Saturday.
Everyone likes a free meal, and it's even better when you get done eating breakfast and when you try to pay, the server says, "Don't worry about it."
Somebody paid it forward Saturday for everybody inside the Parks & Rec Diner.
The diner tries serving up great omelets, and on Saturday, when the restaurant was packed and the servers were busy, a couple sat down at a table. But one man stood out.
"We don't know him," Lisa Carleton, of Parks & Rec Diner, said. "We'd never seen before, and he's kind of just like this great stranger who popped in and had such a good time, he wanted to share the experience."
When the bill came in, the man shocked the server with his request.
"Very unusual," Carleton said. "There were about seven tables in the restaurant, and we brought him over all their tabs, and he paid for everybody's and then quietly left the building."
People often pay if forward at a coffee shop, but it's not often that someone covers the tab for an entire restaurant.
"Nobody knew he did it until they asked for their checks and we said, 'I'm sorry, a gentleman took care of it for you,'" Carleton said.
The man didn't want any attention, but his actions are getting it anyway.
"People can still do nice things just at the spur of the moment," Carleton said.
Besides footing the more than $200 bill, the man also gave a gracious tip to all of the servers.
The restaurant posted this on their Facebook page:
"On February 11 a really amazing thing happened at P&R.
We hosted a special person who, after completing a breakfast, secretly bought a morning meal for everyone in the Diner. Our remaining guests were surprised to discover that their bills had been paid when they asked for their tabs.
The guest, requesting to remain anonymous, had paid for their meals, included gratuity for our server, and then just slipped out the door.
We are touched by the generosity of strangers and love the "Pay it Forward" spirit making Detroit a unique place.
Thank you so much to the anonymous guest who made so many other people have an even more fantastic Saturday morning, but also made all of the staff at P&R over the moon."
More on Parks & Rec: Located in the Grand Army of the Republic Building, Parks and Rec Diner is an homage to the hay-day of the building’s 40 years as a City of Detroit Parks and Recreation Department.