Yahoo Food's Trend of the Year: Generosity
There were plenty of trends to choose from this year, good, bad, and benign. All of a sudden, everyone was talking about spatchcocking. Spicy honey was a thing. Several prominent restaurateurs and chefs chose not to renew their leases because of high rents. Some even abolished tipping.
Speaking of gratuities, that brings us to our Trend of the Year: generosity. People were nice in 2014. In a year filled with so much violence, strife, and bad news, we thought a little tenderness was worth celebrating.
Photo: Tips for Jesus
The most intriguing example of the trend is a phenomenon that goes by the name Tips for Jesus. An unidentified man has been eating his way around the country and leaving gratuities ranging from $100 to $10,000 on his bill. He’s stopped at both chains such as IHOP and world-class establishments such as the Nomad in New York, and he usually stamps or scrawls “Tips for Jesus” on the paper receipt. (You can follow his exploits—and see the receipts—on Instagram.)
Photo: Tips for Jesus
Many believe the campaign is the work of Jack Selby, a former PayPal executive, but now others are tipping in Jesus’s name too. Whatever higher power is invoked, a few lucky servers around the country clearly have had their prayers answered.
Photo: Getty Images
Some celebrities continue to tip well, too. Ellen DeGeneres famously ordered some pizzas as she was hosting the Academy Awards earlier this year, then later invited the delivery guy stop by The Ellen Show and gave him a $1,000 gratuity.
Photo: The Ellen Show
Gary and Roxann Tackett of Quitman, Arkansas, took it one step further and gave Cracker Barrel waitress Cindy Grady a new car. The Tacketts couldn’t help but notice Grady’s not-so-hot wheels, with a cracked windshield and plastic sheets for side windows, not to mention all the dents from deer run-ins, and they wanted to help her out. “It restored my faith in humanity,” Grady told CNN. “There are good people in this world that are watching, that care, you know? And you may not even know them.”
Photo: Tampa Bay Times
A Starbucks in St. Petersburg, Florida, experienced the country’s longest pay-it-forward line for coffee, with more than 750 customers participating over two days. It started when one woman bought a drink for the person in the car behind her, and continued until blogger Peter Schorsch bought a venti mocha Frappuccino and purposefully refused to pay for the next person’s order. He felt guilt, not generosity, was at play.
There’s actually a tradition that began in Naples years ago called caffee sospeso, or suspended coffee. A guest would pay for two coffees, his or her own plus a second for a less fortunate soul. The barista would be in charge of keeping track and offer the free coffee to someone in need. The custom is experiencing a resurgence across Europe, according to National Public Radio’s Sylvia Poggioli. There’s even a website called Coffeesharing that tracks the suspended coffee movement and what coffee shops participate.
So here’s a tip from Yahoo Food: A little generosity never hurts.
We’re wrapping up 2014:
