New Orleans Bartender Who Received $2,000 Tip From Post Malone Is Finally Getting Her Money From Square: “Next Beer’s On Me”

Good on them for making it right.

Earlier this week, payment processing company Square faced heavy criticism for withholding a tip from a hardworking New Orleans bartender who had served a special guest during the Super Bowl festivities.

Heather Foster, a bartender at legendary New Orleans music venue Howlin’ Wolf, received a visit from Post Malone while he was in town celebrating the Super Bowl. And as he’s done many times before, Posty rewarded the bartender with quite the generous tip – $2,000 on a $25 tab.

I think the real story here is that Post Malone only had a $25 bar tab.

But anyway, as Foster went to cash out the gift from Posty, she found out that payment processing company Square would only allow her to keep $200 of the tip – because according to the employee, Square claimed that the tip was too high.

Foster shared a photo of the receipt with the $2,000 tip from Posty, which caught the eye of members of the New Orleans city council and investigative reporter Cassie Shirm from local news station WDSU.

Dear @square please provide this @Howlinwolfnola employee with the tip she was given! @PostMalone pic.twitter.com/NahOPTaf7Y

— Helena Moreno (@HelenaMorenoLA) February 10, 2025

Shirm emailed Square to ask them what was up, and the company responded that they were looking into the issue:

Square tells me they are looking into the issue. pic.twitter.com/pmIgP2ikJl

— Cassie Schirm (@Cassiewdsu) February 11, 2025

And luckily, the story has a happy ending.

Foster confirmed that after going back and forth with Square, the company would indeed be paying out the entire $2,000 tip.

The bartender said that Posty dined in the venue while he was in town, ordering a couple of Bud Lights (naturally), as well as their jambalaya and gator balls. And she said she was overwhelmed when she saw the tip he had left for her, even going outside to thank him for his generosity and snapping a picture with the superstar.

But despite the happy ending, Howlin’ Wolf owner Howie Kaplan told WDSU in New Orleans that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place – and might have had a different ending if somebody with Post Malone’s name recognition wasn’t involved:

“We were lucky that we were able to get contact with their management…and get approval from Post Malone’s people. And once we had that, we were already battling with Square, saying, ‘Hey, this is legitimate.’

We understand there are safeguards in place so people don’t hit the wrong number but even going through, the first time they hung up on me.”

Kaplan said that after the story began to go viral, Square eventually reached back out wanting to resolve the situation. But he says that without Post Malone being involved, and the negative press that Square was getting, he might still be fighting for his employees:

“I think it most definitely is a different outcome, the fact that this is some who has a tremendous amount of name recognition and power through social media, and we all know that’s the reason why they called us as quickly as they did.

And I’m grateful that they called us an hour after that…but it shouldn’t have to be that way. And that’s the conversation we’re having with Square.”

Square issued a statement on the incident, saying they’ve made changes to prevent these situations from happening in the future:

“While our systems initially limited the max tip in this scenario, we’ve corrected this and ensured they’ve received the full $2000 tip given. Some sellers are subject to tip limits to protect them from fraud and other bad activity – but great local businesses like The Howlin’ Wolf shouldn’t be among those, and we’ve ensured they won’t run into similar issues with generous patrons going forward.”

And Foster would, no doubt, be happy to serve Posty again if he decides to come back to Howlin’ Wolf again – and has an offer of her own for him if he does:

“Next beer’s on me, man.”

As long as it’s Bud Light I have a feeling he’ll take you up on that.

Glad everything finally got figured out with @Square and Heather at @Howlinwolfnola got the amazing, generous tip @PostMalone left her during #SuperBowl @AubryKWDSU with more in this @wdsu report. pic.twitter.com/goRR1xaBTf

— Fletcher Mackel (@FletcherWDSU) February 11, 2025