--- title: Man Tips Waitress 36 Dollars for Hot Dog in Honor of Deceased Brother description: Man gives waitress a 36 dollar tip for hot dogs even though the bill was only 30 dollars because his brother would have turned 36 that day canonical: https://time.com/3742398/man-tips-waitress-36-dollars-in-honor-of-deceased-brother/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-12T16:37:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:33.100Z og:title: The Reason This Man Gave a $36 Tip for Hot Dogs Is Surprisingly Touching og:description: Man gives waitress a 36 dollar tip for hot dogs even though the bill was only 30 dollars because his brother would have turned 36 that day og:url: https://time.com/3742398/man-tips-waitress-36-dollars-in-honor-of-deceased-brother/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Reason This Man Gave a $36 Tip for Hot Dogs Is Surprisingly Touching twitter:description: Man gives waitress a 36 dollar tip for hot dogs even though the bill was only 30 dollars because his brother would have turned 36 that day twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Reason This Man Gave a $36 Tip for Hot Dogs Is Surprisingly Touching > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=0856babe-28e6-4acc-8589-c157e01e38e3&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: History of the Hot Dog [Watch (HLS stream): History of the Hot Dog](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FsYX58r5.m3u8) (1:07)  _Published 2014-07-03. The history of tubular meat goes way back._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Mar 12, 2015 4:37 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Mar 12, 2015 4:37 PM UTC A Tennessee waitress is overwhelmed with gratitude after a customer left her an especially generous tip. ABC’s Good Morning America [reports](https://gma.yahoo.com/tennessee-waitress-receives-tip-brought-tears-her-eyes-204416898--abc-news-Recipes.html) that an unidentified customer at Mac’s Grub Shak in Spring Hill left a $36 tip for waitress Claire Hudson, 25, even thought the bill only came out to about $30\. She told the network that he left a note on the receipt saying his brother would have turned 36 that day, and “Every year I go eat his favorite meal (hot dogs) and tip the waitress his age. Happy B-day Wes.” Hudson posted the story on the social networks Reddit and Imgur before bed, and when she woke up, it had been viewed more than a million times. The restaurant wants to find the mystery patron so they can find out what toppings Wes liked on his hot dog and name one after him. ## Transcript There's nothing more American than eating a hot dog on the 4th of July, but the tradition of tubular meat goes way back. It's Coney Island's caviar! One of the earliest mentions of the sausage is in Homer's odyssey where heroes held competitions to get the best dog. The modern hotdog's origins are contentious, with both Frankfurt and Vienna claiming to be the originators. Regardless, these tasty dogs made their way from the Old World to the New with German immigrants, as did their tradition of eating the little sausages on bread. [ MUSIC ] In the late 1800s, German immigrants sold hot dogs out of push carts in big cities. But in 1893, a simultaneous double whammy of the popularity of sausage at the Chicago's World's Fair and baseball park vendors made hot dogs a national food. Hot dog [ INAUDIBLE ] dog. Nowadays, American's eat about 20 billion hot dogs a year or about 70 per person. Unless your in Nathans Hotdog eating contest and decide to eat 70 in just ten minutes. Why don't you try a juicy, good hot dog. 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