CINCINNATI — While year-end bonuses are customary in some industries, those working in restaurants and bars don’t usually expect it. One restaurant made sure to thank its employees for working through such an unpredictable year. 

​It’s been a year of uncertainty for those in the restaurant business, And it’s no different for the waiters and servers at Louvino in the OTR district. But their new owners wanted to give their employees a special surprise at the end of the year.

Sunday brunch at Louvino is full of cocktails and good food, but for the servers behind the masks, they know it’s different than usual. 

“A lot of unknowns," Ashley Sferra, the assistant manager, said. "A lot of what are we going to do next? What can we plan for? What can we prepare for?”

And after closing for months, many waiters worried about how to make ends meet.

“At first, it was nice," Joe Wourms, a server, said. "It was like, 'Oooo this is a nice vacation, this will be done soon and we’ll get back to it.' But after awhile, bills still add up.”

The worries also came for each other.

“I worry about our staff and how they’re going to get to their next day," Sferra said. "I know I’ve been almost relatively fortunate. But I do wonder what if unemployment runs out? What happens if that check doesn’t clear?”

To add to constant change in the restaurant industry, Louvino was recently bought by new owners bringing another level of uncertainty. But what those new owners did right out of the gate shocked all of its employees. They split all profits the day after Christmas to all of it’s hourly staff members. 

“I mean a huge thank you," Wourms said. "I mean this is incredible. Because no one has to do that, and especially when they’re new owners. Usually they want to dip their feet in the water, figure stuff out, see how everything works. But they just came right in and our first big thing is we’re going to help you guys.”

Multiple waiters said it helped them pay their rent and cover holiday expenses

“My staff, they were saying, 'I’ve never gotten a check this big,'" Sferra recalled. 

Some of the restaurant’s employees have been there since the day it opened, and said it was an unexpected dose of kindness in a year where it was needed the most.

“I’d never seen anything like that," Wourms said. "Any job I’d ever worked before it’s kind of been show up, do your job, make money and leave. So it was exciting, it was incredible.”

In a time of year when waiters and bartenders expect to see more business, it gave employees relief.

“Typically, during the holidays it’s a busy season, it’s when we expect to make a lot of cash flow at that time," Sferra said. "And with this not being the same, obviously a very, very different holiday season, I think it meant a lot to me, it meant a lot to our staff to have that little boost.”