'Don't Tip Immigrants:' Angry Note Left At NJ Restaurant

BORDENTOWN, NJ - A Burlington County restaurant owner is firing back at customers he says wrote that they “don’t tip immigrants” on a recent dinner bill.

Santiago Orosco, owner of the Under The Moon Cafe in Bordentown, said the customers left the message targeting one of his servers on the back of their bill after a recent visit. An image of the message is embedded below.

“I can only assume that they heard our American multi-lingual server speak Spanish to another employee. I am utterly shocked at this blatant ignorance,” Orosco wrote in a Facebook post about the incident.

He said that before this happened, the customers were excited about dining there. They complimented the ambiance and the recommendations that the server had made.

“At the end of service our server grabbed the check from the table, told the customers goodnight and thanked them as they were leaving,” Orosco wrote.

He said the server discovered the message at the end of the night, while reconciling sales receipts. Orosco, who has owned the cafe for 13 years, had a message of his own for the customers.

“Please do not come back,” he wrote. “PS: Your server, who helped create an excellent experience for you, who you discriminated against with written ignorance and no tip, is not an immigrant, she is of Spanish descent, born in America and is multi-lingual.”

The server, Lorena Bossi, is a second-generation American with Uruguayan roots. She told 6 ABC that if the couple did come back, she would treat them with the same service as the first time.

"I was speaking Spanish. I was thanking another employee for helping me because he didn't have to do that," she told the network in the interview, which can be seen below. "It was weird to have them transition from loving me as a person to having them all of a sudden say, 'Oh, she speaks Spanish. She must be an immigrant, let's leave."

The cafe saw an outpouring of support from Facebook followers.

"Santiago-this saddens me. Having worked with your father, knowing your mother, and having met you and your sister years ago and knowing what kind, loving, accepting and hard-working people you are makes me so sad and angry to see this happen at your establishment. And I have had the absolute pleasure dining at Under The Moon many times in previous years. Love will always prevail. And so will Under The Moon," one commenter wrote.

"I've never heard of you guys but now in direct response to this will be coming to show support and check out the food of course," wrote another.

"Santiago, I have been to your restaurant and it is fantastic!!! Keep up the good work," wrote another.

In his post, which had nearly 300 shares as of Monday morning, Orosco called Bordentown an “amazing community that has embraced me and my family as their own since April of 1991.”

“We are extremely proud to be part of the community,” Orosco wrote. “I am a very proud immigrant. I came to this wonderful country for a better future, which, with a lot of sacrifice, heartache, pain and sweat I have accomplished. My family has tirelessly worked to create a great life and I owe it to this country and all its opportunity (America has always been great!!!). Immigration and cultural blending are what created this special country; I truly believe that immigrants are key contributors to our society. Also, I am gay, at Under the Moon we accept all people but not ignorance.”

Video/image via YouTube.