Lavish tip blamed on drink

Melanie's boss says the bank will not honour the tip...

An Englishman who tipped a Chicago waitress $10,000 has blamed his extravagance on having one drink too many.

"I had too many drinks and I was severely jet-lagged," said David Nicholas, 35, who shares a home in Putney, London, with his wife, Mairi, and their 10-month-old baby.

Confusion has been caused and I apologise for that

David Nicholas

Mr Nicholas's bank refused to honour the credit card transaction after the computer software engineer rounded up a $9 bill for three cocktails to $10,000 (£6,600) at Chicago's Leg Room nightclub on Monday.

Cocktail waitress Melanie Uczen, 23, said the Briton made his extraordinary offer after she told him how she needed money for graduate school.

Mr Nicholas told The Mirror newspaper that his offer was probably a genuine one made in a haze of alcohol but he could not remember anything about it.

... but it will be OK, because the bar will give her the tip

"I am an extremely generous person and I may well have signed a big tip," he said.

"I'm that sort of person. But I'm afraid that amount is not something I can pay.

"As for the waitress I really can't remember anything about her. I know the bar but that's about it. Confusion has been caused and I apologise for that."

Melanie Uczen realised she was out of luck when Mr Nicholas' London bank refused to honour the transaction, saying that he had gone over the spending limit on his credit card.

Ambition

Ms Uczen recalled that Mr Nicholas was a "well-dressed, good-looking" man with a British accent who worked as a doctor or in the medical field and was travelling on business.

She told him and his two male companions about her ambition to take a postgraduate course in psychology and he responded with the tip and the advice to go back and study.

Although she turned down his offer to go out to breakfast, he told her she was a "wonderful" waitress and deserving of the tip.

"I got a good tip for good service," she said.

David Nicholas ran up a $9 tab at The Leg Room

Prior to Mr Leonard's disclosure that he could not honour his huge tip, the Chicago bar's owners said they would pay up but only after trying to contact him in England.

"The manager made a copy of his passport and he signed a sheet saying 'I agree to tip Melanie, etc.,'" said Lauri DeGiacomo of Ala Carte Entertainment, owner of the Leg Room.

Ms Uczen said of the encounter with her English customer: "He was a nice guy. I've never been on TV before, which is a wonderful opportunity."

There are reports that her new-found fame has prompted an offer to appear in Playboy magazine.