This Long Beach man chooses to pay it forward, anonymously

“Paying it forward,” a concept that captured moviegoers’ imagination with the release of the 2000 film starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment, is the act of doing a good deed for someone, in the hope that it will be passed on to others, not necessarily in the same form and with no expectation of anything in return. One Long Beach man has spent the past few years doing just that, anonymously paying for people’s meals, hoping to share some happiness that can be passed on.

The man, who declined to be identified, has been a Long Beach resident for 11 years, is a mental health professional, and is a frequent customer at Diner By the Sea, on East Park Avenue. The diner is a popular place, so, the man decided, why not treat some of his fellow customers to breakfast, lunch or dinner?

“The answer is, why not?” he said. “Why not pay it forward? Why not demonstrate random acts of kindness? Why not bring good energy into different places?”

By his own estimate, he has treated more than 50 Diner By the Sea diners, without knowing who they are. Over the years, he has left the choice of whom to treat to his friend Katerina Langis, the diner’s owner, reasoning that she would have a better sense than he would of who would benefit most.

So, each week he pays for someone’s meal, leaving the money with Langis, who decides who the lucky recipient(s) will be.

“He told me I can choose,” Langis said. “So, I figured, if someone’s having a bad day, this will make their day better.”

She said she has seen a wide variety of reactions from people to the news that their meal is paid for: surprise, disbelief, shock, happiness. But there is always one additional response: gratitude.

One of the recipients was Alex Davis, who’s originally from Franklin Square but moved to South Carolina about five years ago. When she was growing up, Davis recalled, she frequently visited the diner to grab a milkshake, and when she came back to Long Beach to visit earlier this month, she stopped in again.

“I ordered a burger and fries, and I got a milkshake, of course,” she recounted. “I was then told the bill was actually taken care of by someone as a random act of kindness, and to pay it forward. I’ve been feeling like the world is just so dark, and it was just a reminder that people do have kindness in them. It makes you see that good in the world does exist.”

Danny Kramer, of Long Beach, has had a tough time recently, dealing with some family struggles. He has gotten to know Langis, and comes to the diner frequently to eat and decompress. A week or so before Christmas, he came in, and admitted to Langis that he didn’t have enough money to eat. She told him to sit down anyway, and that his meal would be taken care of.

There have been many other similar stories, but one in particular that Langis remembers was when two young friends came into the diner, hoping to get a quick, inexpensive meal. They were looking at the menu and asking her about the prices, because, they said, they didn’t have enough money for everything they wanted.

Soon Langis made her way back up to their table, bringing all the food they had been asking about. They were excited, of course, but also panicked, because they thought they had accidentally ordered much more food than they could afford. But Langis explained that they were the beneficiaries of the kindness of a stranger.

“It was really cute,” she recalled. “Things like that. Like, I can tell a million stories. It’s just really sweet.”

There’s a concept in Judaism, known as “tikkun olam,” which translates to “repairing the world.” Long Beach’s anonymous meal-buyer said that he follows that philosophy, with the hope of healing and help others.

“It’s to heal the world, to pay it forward, to just really do nice things,” he said. “I’m conscious that I’m going to just try to put out good energy wherever I am. This is a little bit more than that — it’s spreading the wealth a little bit.”

Not long ago, Langis told him that someone he treated at Diner By the Sea was so blown away by the random kindness that she was going to go to Starbucks afterward to treat someone else to a coffee. She was inspired to pay it forward.