Waitress fails to recognize Katy Perry at cafe. Then, the pop star's response took everyone by surprise

Two years ago, popstar and actor Katy Perry proved herself to be a grounded and generous tipper as she surprised a server at an Australian cafe who didn't recognize her. Perry, who was shooting a film, visited the Port Douglas cafe with Orlando Bloom. To her surprise, the server attending to them didn't recognize her at all and even made them wait for a table, as per 7 News. 

Here's what happened

The waitress, Indianna Paull, shared her experience of serving the global star with the Australian morning show “Sunrise”. In the interview, she described that Perry was wearing sunglasses and a hat when she arrived at the restaurant.

She said that Perry was holding her daughter Daisy Dove in her arms as she asked the waitress for a table. Paull, who didn't recognize her at all, initially asked Perry to wait as she had no empty tables in hand.

“She handled it like any normal person would, I suppose. She was really nice the whole time and she handled it like a champ,” she in the interview. She explained that she didn't recognize Perry partly because she was very relaxed and chill about the situation. 

Paull then said that she was approached by the star again, who was checking if a free space had opened up. Since she insisted, Paull sat the star in a part of the cafe that isn't normally used.

The server added that she made a fool of herself at the time by telling Perry, "For future reference, we don’t usually seat people at this table.” However, Perry was still gracious about it as she said to the waitress that she would be "extra kind."

Moments later, reality hit Paull like a train when her manager alerted her that she was serving one of the world’s biggest stars in the world. “I just went red and went limp at the knees,” she told the hosts David Koch and Natalie Barr.

She then went up to Perry's table and apologized for not recognizing the star. “I don’t know why, I just felt shocked that I had acted like she was a casual Joe Blow!" she added. 

She explained that in hindsight Perry was persistent for the table as there were people running around her taking photos. "I was so oblivious, running around like a headless chook, I had no idea," the server said.

Despite Paull's initial non-star-like treatment, Perry left her a very generous tip. While the server didn't reveal the exact amount, she said it was way more than the "usual $2" that the servers got from the tip bucket.

The server said Perry even had a conversation with her after asking her name. Before leaving the pop star gave the server a hug and she was "really nice to everyone" the Paull recalled. 

Paull had earlier claimed in a video on TikTok that Perry “argued” with her at first, as per news.com.au. However, in the interview with Sunrise, Paull said that it wasn't accurate and the story was blown out of proportion by the other media outlets.

This article originally appeared on 7.27.24.