hey read this one from the Raleigh News and Observer. Not too good of tippers after pulling in 5 million bucks at the show....
33 buck tip on $277 tab and it was delivered...... I hope someone sends them an autograph photo or a couple of shirts.
Restaurant cooks up 'cue for U2
RALEIGH Debbie Holt was ready to close Cooper's BBQ for the day when she got a call. From U2.
Well, from U2's private jet services coordinator, a man she knows only as Maurice.
Holt, who co-owns the landmark Raleigh barbecue joint with her husband, Randy, was shocked early Saturday evening when she got a call from Maurice, requesting enough food for 25 people: barbecue, pork rinds, five fried chickens, pig skins, ribs, cole slaw, hush puppies.
The band was 30 minutes away from landing at RDU and then dashing to its performance at Carter-Finley Stadium, but could she please have the food ready for them at 10:50 p.m. sharp, just before the band's scheduled departure?
Why, yes, Holt said calmly.
The band had heard all about Cooper's, Maurice said, and they were hoping to get some of what they'd heard was the nation's best barbecue before they left town. Would she take a credit card?
Nope. Cooper's doesn't take credit cards, Holt said. The cost of the order would be $276.77, including a $50 delivery fee.
Maurice said he'd check to see if there was enough cash on the plane and call her back. A few minutes later, he called back, still airborne, and said the food mission was a go. He hung up, and Holt screamed.
"I had to be a grown-up on the phone, but I haven't been grown up since," she said.
Holt and her husband scrambled to cook everything fresh and fried to perfection. Randy Holt and cook Chess Smith heated the chopped, Eastern-style barbecue and made sure the hush puppies were properly greased.
"We close at 6 every day," said Holt, who once managed the restaurant for an owner who bought it from the founder of the place, the late Clyde Cooper. "But when U2 calls you, you do what you have to do, honey."
They threw in fresh banana pudding for good measure.
Debbie Holt and her 14-year-old daughter, Ashley, took their van to the private lot at RDU where U2's jet was waiting.
"I screamed like a little girl," she said.
The pair was escorted by eight security guards into the back of the jet, near ovens and kitchen space. They worked in the tight confines of the jet while the band was roaring through the final moments of their stadium show.
Debbie Holt was still holding on to a pan when guitarist Dave "The Edge" Evans appeared, fresh from the show, standing six inches in front of her. He was the only band member they met.
"He said, 'Hi, how are you? Did you bring me food?' I lost it when I saw him," she said. "If I would've known he would move that close, I would've kissed him."
The Edge and staff members tore into the pork skins and loved the banana pudding, said Holt, who has co-owned the restaurant with her husband since the summer of 2008.
This isn't the only time Cooper's, which opened on New Year's Day in 1938, has seen celebrity attention. The Rolling Stones, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett and the Allman Brothers have visited the restaurant, Debbie Holt said. Just last week, Clay Aiken dropped by for a bite, she said.
Holt and her daughter left the jet after about 20 minutes. Maurice handed them $300. Not much of a tip.
"But U2 is something else, honey," Debbie Holt said. "I don't care, and I've been a crazy woman ever since. I'd much rather serve them than go to the concert
