An Arkansas waitress says she was fired after guests left a $4,400 tip: report

• An Arkansas server told KNWA that she was fired after a 40-person party left a $4,400 tip.
• She was reportedly told she was fired because she told a guest she had to split the tip with staff.
• One guest told KNWA he asked for a gratuity refund and gave the cash to the waitress outside.

A waitress in Arkansas told Nexstar’s KNWA on Thursday that she was fired after guests left her and another server a collective tip of $4,400.

Ryan Brandt told KNWA that she and another waitress were in charge of serving a group of more than 40 people at the Oven and Tap restaurant in Bentonville, where Brandt says she’s worked for three and a half years.

Each person in the group left a $100 tip at the end of the service, amounting to a collective $4,400 for the waitresses, Brandt told KNWA.

Brandt told KNWA that the restaurant also asked her to pool her tip with other colleagues — a practice that never happened while she had worked at Oven and Tap, she said.

“I would be taking home 20%,” Brandt told KNWA.

Grant Wise, who was part of the 40-person party, told KNWA that he only wanted to tip the servers who waited on his table, not the others too. Wise requested a refund of the cash and gave it to Brandt outside of the restaurant, he told KNWA.

Brandt told the outlet that she was terminated from her job after accepting the cash, saying “it was devastating.”

According to Brandt, Oven and Tap told her that she was fired because she disclosed information to Wise about splitting the tips between her other coworkers, violating the restaurant’s policy, KNWA reported.

Oven and Tap didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, which was made outside of US operating hours.

According to KNWA, Oven and Tap declined to discuss the reason for Brandt’s departure.

“After dining, this large group of guests requested that their gratuity be given to two particular servers,” Oven and Tap told KNWA. “We fully honored their request. Out of respect for our highly valued team members, we do not discuss the details surrounding the termination of an employee.”