Tom Selleck Tips Waiter Over $2,000 In New York Restaurant

Dec 01, 2021 by apost team

Donnie Wahlberg shared Tom Selleck's heartwarming act of kindness towards Elio's Restaurant servers in New York City back in December 2020. The "Blue Bloods" co-stars are on a mission to spread generosity down to the very last days of 2020, and Selleck's whopping $2,020 tip was his way of participating in Wahlberg's '2020 Tip Challenge' to bring some joy this year.

As the year 2020 was coming to a close, Wahlberg and Selleck, two of Hollywood's favorite actors, had decided to challenge each other to pay it forward to food service workers. Wahlberg decided to publicize the fact that fellow actor Selleck left a $2,020 tip on a $204.68 by posting a tweet on Wednesday, December 23rd. The tweet read:

"I found out that my TV Dad Tom Selleck has generously accepted the #2020TipChallenge at Elios Upper East Side! Love ya dad."

While talking to PEOPLE, the "New Kids on the Block" singer turned star said that Tom Selleck dined at Elio's Italian restaurant in New York City back in November. According to The New York Times, the restaurant has a reputation for attracting A-listers and elites for decades. Selleck had managed to keep the generous act to himself for weeks until his co-star spilled the details. Wahlberg told PEOPLE:

"We've done three [Blue Bloods] dinner scenes since he did it and he never told me."

Read on to know more about how Selleck's generosity has made a difference, and how this challenge spread over the year 2020 to get more celebrities involved in the cause. 

In his note to the restaurant staff, Tom Selleck — who plays Wahlberg's police commissioner father Frank Regan on the CBS drama "Blue Bloods" — gave a small shout-out to TV son Wahlberg. He attributed Wahlberg as the inspiration for the large tip and generosity towards the restaurant staff. Selleck wrote:

"For Elios, I am honoring my friend Donnie Wahlberg's 'Tip Challenge' with my sincere hope for a better 2020. Thank you all."

For Tom Selleck, doing good deeds without recognition is nothing out of the ordinary. In April 2020, Selleck told PEOPLE:

“I’m a fairly private person. And I’ve always treasured the balance between work and time with my family. It’s always about them. My relationships and my ranch keep me sane."

When Selleck talks about his ranch, he means the one that he and his daughter, 32-year-old Hannah, run together. Hannah Margaret Selleck is the daughter and only child of Tom Selleck and Jillie Joan Mack and took up professional horseback riding instead of acting. The ranch has been an ideal escape from Hollywood for Tom. He had gone from working 90 hours a week, to doing a movie every break, to leaving it all behind to start a family with his wife Jillie Joan Mack.

“I quit Magnum (P.I.) to have a family,” he said to PEOPLE in 2012. “It took a long time to get off the train, but I try very hard to have balance, and this ranch has helped me do that.”

After lots of refreshing time in California on the horse ranch, Selleck has turned back to focusing on his acting career, filming "Blue Bloods" in bustling New York City. 

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"Blue Bloods" is a drama series about a multi-generational family of cops that first aired on CBS back in 2010. Selleck's role as Frank Reagan shows him as both the head of the police department and the head of the Reagan family. The family man is characterized as a leader that makes very diplomatic decisions in both his professional and personal life, but his son Danny, played by Donnie Wahlberg, is quite the opposite.

Wahlberg's character Danny is less of a play-by-the-rules cop and more of a not-by-the-book, unconventional type, as he solves crime as the seasoned detective of the team. His character is an Iraq war veteran, but also a family man like Selleck's character. The difference in working styles serves to increase the generational tension, as Frank Reagan's father was also the head of the police department, and Danny's new way of investigation puts pressure on the law enforcement legacy of the family in the show. 

Selleck and Wahlberg have been playing these roles for a decade now, so it's no surprise that they have taken the father-son dynamic a bit off-screen in a playful manner. Aside from referring to Selleck as 'dad' in his tweet about the restaurant tip, Wahlberg has nothing but praise for Selleck in interviews. In an interview with Pop Culture in February of 2020, Wahlberg raved about Selleck as he said:

"He's already come up with 500 ideas himself a week before you even sit down with him. That's how devoted [Tom Selleck] is to his work...his whole mission is to serve the story and the script."

In an interview with Parade, Selleck gave his insight into the show:

"Here’s what I think is so good about this show. No. 1, we’re a character-driven show. No. 2, we’re a family show. Family in the broader sense of family, it’s not The Waltons. The biggest jeopardy in our show, I’m convinced after 10 years, is anything that threatens the relationships in this family. That’s where the real drama and tension is. So, if you drew a theme around the show, and you could, it’s really about family in the broader sense, and threats to the status quo of that family.”

"Blue Bloods" is now in its 10th season, and it seems like the perfect coincidence that Selleck – who plays the show's family-dinner-loving father — would leave the incredible tip to his dinner servers at Elio's. 

The “2020 Tip Challenge” that Selleck refers to in his letter is not a new trend. According to ABC News, the challenge can be traced back to January 2020 in Michigan when a single mother tipped a server at Thunder Bay River Restaurant a $2,020 tip on a $23 bill. Wahlberg and his wife — "The Masked Singer" host Jenny McCarthy — marked their start with the challenge in their own hometown of St. Charles, Illinois by giving a $2,020 tip to an IHOP server. Wahlberg repeated the whopping tip again when he left a $2,020 tip on a $35.27 bill for his server at Marshland restaurant in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The tipping trend became a phenomenon in which many celebrities decided to take part. Only a couple of days after Wahlberg and his wife left their tip, James Corden, Harry Styles, and Adele gave their own $2,020 tip on a bill after dining together in the Caribbean, according to The Sun.

What do you think about the $2,020 tip challenge? We're happy food service workers are getting such amazing tips! Let us know of other celebrities that you love who have done the challenge and be sure to spread this joyful story to your friends and family!