A generous customer calling himself the “COVID Bandit” left a $1,400 tip on a $20 tab Wednesday at the Notchtop Bakery & Cafe in Estes Park.

Notchtop owner Nailya Khametvalieva said it was only the customer’s second visit to the cafe, but he told his server Gloria that he had worked in the restaurant industry before and knew how difficult it can be.

The customer asked how many people were working at the cafe and then instructed the tip to be split evenly among them all.

“COVID Sucks!” the customer, identified only as David, wrote on the receipt. “$200 for each employee today!”

Khametvalieva posted a photo of the receipt on Facebook, thanking the customer for his generosity. The post garnered dozens of comments from customers of the cafe.

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“Good to see there are great hearted people in the world still,” Donna Flavin wrote.

“(I) can’t think of a more deserving group,” Pati Miller wrote.

Khametvalieva said COVID-19 restrictions have taken a toll on her cafe and on all restaurant businesses in the state. Notchtop, which first opened in 1993, only reopened for indoor dining on Dec. 23.

Since posting about the generous tip on Facebook, Khametvalieva said at least eight different customers have left $100 tips at Notchtop.

“We need some good energy like that, especially with the circumstances restaurants are going through,” Khametvalieva told 9NEWS. “It makes us feel like we’re not alone here.”