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Most restaurant workers brace themselves when the phone rings after a customer gets their food.

This server expected one of those calls after a busy dinner rush, especially since customer complaints usually end up with someone asking for a manager.

Earlier that evening, though, the staff had gone out of their way to brighten one customer’s day after he left a simple request in the notes of his delivery order.

So when another server handed over the phone and said a customer wanted to speak to a manager, she assumed the worst.

But she soon realized the call was nothing like what she expected.

Read on to see what the man said to her.

The Phone Call

I know we all have had those phone calls. The ones from customers after they get take-out and something was messed up.

They can range from the upset woman, who got the chicken when it was supposed to be steak, who just wants it to be comped the next time she comes in to the raging man who found 1 onion in his taco and is planning to drive to the store to scream at the manager and wants everyone fired. It’s always a little nerve-wracking when you deal with these phone calls.

The procedure for my store when getting one of these phone calls is to get a manager immediately, but I feel like I can deal with these customers better than my managers. And my managers all know this, so I am allowed to take these calls.

When she saw the man’s special request, she jumped into action.

It was a busy Thursday evening, because we have a burrito special, so the store was slammed.

We also have Uber Eats which means we have Uber drivers coming in and out getting takeout orders. If you know anything about Uber Eats, they can sometimes write comments to specify certain things that they want done.

After we slowed down a little bit, we got an Uber order, and in the comments the man said, “Could you please add napkins and draw a smiley face on something to make me a little happy tonight?”

Of course, after I showed all of the servers, we all freaked out and decided we would write him so many notes just to brighten up his evening. We ended up making over 50 notes including jokes, drawings, little stories. (and an extra side of queso) I felt really nice to be able to do something for someone.

Then, the call came in.

So, as I was getting ready to clock out, one of the other servers came and got me and said there’s a man on the phone who wants to speak to a manager about something, but they’re all busy, so can you take this?

Of course, I’m like, “Oh geez, I do not want to be dealing with this right before I leave,” but I reluctantly agree and ask him how I can help.

He proceeds to tell me that he was the one who placed the Uber order, and after receiving all of the notes, he just wanted to call and say thank you.

He started to cry on the phone, and I didn’t know what to say, so I just told him that we loved serving him and we hope to continue to do so.

It turns out, the man was a regular.

He told me that he wishes he was able to come into the restaurant but hasn’t been able to leave his house in years. His little splurge every week was ordering takeout from our store. I started to tear up and asked him to hold on for a minute.

I got all of the servers and put him on speakerphone. I said, “Hello from Chain Mexican Restaurant. We all just wanted to say have a great night!”

All the girls got the cue and started saying, “Have a good night! Enjoy your burrito! We can’t wait to do this next week!”

I took the phone off speakerphone after everyone had said something. I told him that he was now not only a valued customer but a friend. I thanked him again and hung up. Now I’m sitting in my car crying, thinking about this stranger, and I hope we helped him.

Wow! There really aren’t words for this. That was such a kind gesture.

Let’s check out if the story got Reddit readers all in their feels too.

The story made this reader cry.

What an interesting point.

Here’s someone who also goes out of their way for others.

The whole thing restored this person’s confidence in society.

This is such a sweet story.

It was really nice to see a group of servers take a few extra minutes out of a busy shift just to make a complete stranger smile.

They had no idea what he was going through, but their kindness clearly meant more than they ever could’ve imagined.

Hopefully that phone call turned into a tradition. It would be nice to think they kept adding little notes to his order every week because sometimes the smallest gestures end up making the biggest difference in someone’s life.