A Boston philanthropist was feeling generous this week as he helped six local restaurants welcome the new year in a big way.
Ernie Boch Jr., a name familiar to many New Englanders, left $2,021 in cash as tips for the local restaurants, including Loretta's Last Call near Fenway Park, whose general manager, Myles Kopka, told WHDH his staff was extremely generous for the cash.
“She was shocked,” Kopka said of one of his servers. “She saw the signed copy of the receipt and it was whatever, and then she saw the envelope next to it and she was definitely shocked.”
Boch left the cash in envelops with his name written on them. He told WHDH he had the idea as service was slow in one restaurant and decided to make stops in multiple locations.
“It was so dead that I had this idea, why don’t I go into Boston and hit all these different bars and give some support,” Boch said.
Boch said he was sad to see how restaurants have struggled amid less demand and more restrictions brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He said he and a friend put together somewhat of a pub crawl in which they'd hit six locations in about three hours, enjoy service and leave generous tips.
“We didn’t do social on it, we didn’t do anything, we just wanted to go in, hit, and done,” Boch told WHDH.
Boch said he hopes his generous contributions will inspire others to take similar actions.
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