Everyday people go to restaurants for a very special day in their lives - their birthday. It's a common way to celebrate getting a little bit older. Stuff your face with delicious food while surrounded by people who love you. There is one thing that is guaranteed to happen when you go out for your birthday.
Let me set the scene for you. You're sitting at the table and suddenly you feel a presence of several people hovering behind you. It's all the waiters and servers at the restaurant holding a cake with a candle in it. That's when they all start singing "happy birthday." Some people hate it. Others love it.
It can be a little embarrassing, especially since the happy birthday song isn't necessarily a great song, but what if you had a professional singer singing happy birthday to you? Then it might be a little different. That's what happened at a Washington Olive Garden when one waiter showed his serious singing chops.
If the waiters singing happy birthday are your least favorite part of going out to eat on your birthday, then this Olive Garden in Kennewick, Washington might change your mind. This Olive Garden provides more than salad, breadsticks, and pasta. It also serves up some expert-level singing from one of their waiters, Alphonso Nichols. A recent video of the 31 year old waiter/singer went viral because it was so soulful and amazing.
Two seventeen year olds twins, Hannah and Ella Haddox, came to olive garden for their 17th birthday and were the lucky audience who got to witness Nichols' singing. Their mother, Amy Haddox, took the video which has now gone viral because of just how amazing Nichols' voice is. It is something they never expected when they walked into Olive Garden that night.
Amy Haddox is actually very familiar with singing the birthday song at Olive Garden. Her and her husband were servers at Olive Garden which is where they met. She recounts that whenever it was time to sing the birthday song, the servers would "flee like rats from a sinking ship" so they wouldn't have to sing. She told TODAY, "When they were like. 'He is going to sing,' I was like, 'You don't have to. We're still going to give you a good tip.'"
Amy Haddox and the rest of the restaurant patrons didn't expect much when Nichols came out to sing, but once he started, the entire restaurant was overtaken by stunned silence at just how amazing his voice was. Amy Haddox immediately knew she has to get her phone out because it was such an amazing moment.
Nichols has been the guy that always sings the birthday song at the Olive Garden for the past year. He told TODAY, "I wasn't noticing the reaction at first. But everyone was telling me the room would go silent and everyone would look over at me and watch and clap and then go back to eating." The other servers even help him with his tables so that he can sing the birthday song instead of him.
Nichols grew up singing in the church and has even gotten first place in singing competitions. He is planning on producing his own Christian music album which will come out next year. "I have an 8-year-old son and I want him to know you should never give up on chasing your goals and dreams. I always keep myself going for that as well and make sure I sing something every day. You never know!"
