Couple donates stimulus checks to Cape Cod restaurant

EASTHAM, Mass. — When a customer picked up takeout at the Brickhouse Restaurant in Eastham on Jan. 28, she handed Amelia Kisna-Harvey an envelope.

“She said this is something for Cliff and I and when we get a moment to just open it together. I said thank you not knowing what it was,” she said.

Kisna-Harvey and her husband, Cliff, opened the restaurant three years ago. She said the woman and her husband are regular customers. Part of the handwritten note said, ‘We so much wish your family and business success. Please use this gift toward whatever you feel best.’

The Harvey’s said they were in shock.

“Unbelievable, we were extremely surprised. Extremely surprised, never imagined. This has never happened to us before,” they said.

Surprised and shocked because along with the note was money. A gift for the couple. “Once we opened it Amelia starting reading it and I started counting the cash, so I’m like, wow, that was amazing. It was all 20′s, so it was totally surprising,” Cliff said.

That loyal customer and her husband both donated their stimulus checks to the restaurant. $1,200. It couldn’t have come at a better time.

The Harvey’s estimate their business is down 35% to 40% due to the pandemic. On top of that, last year Kisna-Harvey’s sister, Carleesha, who lived in Florida, died of breast cancer, so she and her husband took in her sister’s five kids, on top of their own two children.

“I’d say with all this going on there’s still good people out there. You never know who is who. Treat everyone kind, treat them fair. Nobody is above each other because you never know who is going to be the one to help you,” Kisner-Harvey said.

The Harvey’s gave their staff a portion of the money and also donated some to a local food pantry. The customers who donated the money don’t want their identity known.

Cox Media Group