Restaurateur who posted McCoy tip hears from the crowd

Sitting in a corner booth at PYT as the lunch-crowd hum blended with the thump of some '80s dance tune, Tommy Up laughed and clicked to refresh his e-mail.

"You rock!" read the latest, No. 2,105.

"Proud of you," went another.

Then, this flattery: "Everybody needs a boss like you."

A pastor from Delaware passed along his approval. So did a cabdriver from Illinois. Alexander Grover sent "encouragement from Boston."

"The response has been insane," Up said, talking about his decision Monday to post on Facebook a photo of a receipt that showed Eagles running back LeSean McCoy tipped 20 cents on a $61 lunch.

$61.56, to be exact - 0.03 percent.

"Two dimes from an insulting multimillionaire," as Up characterized the tip in a follow-up post Tuesday.

By that time, things had blown up.

"We were on ESPN twice yesterday," he said, hitting refresh again.

Six more.

"You rule," read the first.

By Wednesday, the actor Charlie Sheen had hopped into the fray, pledging $1,000 to the waiter over Twitter, adding the hashtag "#noJudgement."

But Up himself has been judged plenty on social media.

"Tacky," "tasteless," "a cowardly publicity stunt,""business suicide," the posts read.

Others pointed to service flaws at his Northern Liberties burger joint. Up's prospective franchise partners have fielded a few angry e-mails.

McCoy has remained tight-lipped, dismissing the media firestorm as "bull-."

Up was wading through e-mails because, on Facebook, he said he'd be happy to hear from anyone who had an opinion about his posting McCoy's tip.

"You wanted to embarrass McCoy and it's backfiring on you," wrote a man identified as Ed Norton.

"Unprofessional at best," opined a woman.

While reveling in the support, Up did seem a bit shaken by what he sparked. He explained what happened this way:

McCoy and three friends took a booth by the window around 2:30 p.m. Monday. Business was slow - just three tables outside and three people at the bar. Up arrived after McCoy's group was seated, and he didn't know immediately who they were.

There were problems, he concedes. The waiter forgot an appetizer. McCoy ordered a lobster crab cake burger, no bun, no tomato. Up said the 5-foot-11, 208-pound back recoiled at the mayo-based sauce.

"Do you think I eat that?" Up recalled McCoy as saying.

The waiter was nervous but attentive, Up said.

At one point, a manager held up a laptop to the table so the party could watch the coverage of the video showing Ray Rice attacking his fiance.

At another point, Up said, some loud, off-color remarks about women came from the table, causing his co-owner, Sarah Brown, to move from the next booth.

In his missive, Up said the party verbally abused his staff.

Some on social media have attacked Up for not confronting the table then.

"They were large men who did not look like they wanted a confrontation - and I am not a fighter," said Up, 43, a compact, bald, and bearded man in jeans shorts and brightly colored striped socks.

Besides, he said, everybody seemed to leave happy.

Then he saw the waiter, Rob Knelly, looking dejected.

"It p- me off," Up said. "That tip would stand out if a nobody left it."

He wavered about posting the receipt, he said, fearing bad publicity could threaten expansion plans and dredge up old Internet complaints about service.

"I was fully prepared to receive the snowballs and batteries," he said.

Brown, usually the more cautious of the partners, had given him an encouraging nod, he said. And he had thought of his mother, who worked as a cocktail waitress in Atlantic City, and her stories of getting stiffed by celebrities.

He posted, then deleted, then reposted.

"I would do it again," he said.

In the restaurant Wednesday, opinions were split.

Scott Morgan, sitting at the bar in his 49ers jersey, was all for it. So was waitress Amy D'Aulerio, who said she has been getting better tips since the controversy.

A customer named Dana, who had just finished a business lunch at a back table, saw it differently.

"He is being just as petty as LeSean," she said of Up.

For his part, Up kept hitting refresh.

"I have to answer all these people."