New Kids on the Block star Donnie Wahlberg left a $2,000 tip at Waffle House after being treated 'like a king'

Waffle House is known for its delicious food - and low prices. So, when a celebrity leaves a $2,000 tip, it's a big deal. 

Early Thursday morning, Donnie Wahlberg, a founding member of New Kids on the Block and a current star of "Blue Bloods," posted a photo on Facebook that showed a Waffle House receipt with a $2,000 tip. 

"My mom waited tables, and my dad tended bars - for years," Wahlberg wrote in the Facebook post. "So, when I walk into a Waffle House, and the staff treats me like a king, you better believe I treat them like queens!" 

The photo of the receipt showed that he had ordered $82.60 of food. 

According to one commenter, Donnie also gave the Waffle House workers backstage passes and front-row tickets for the upcoming New Kids on the Block concert in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The post quickly went viral, with more than 52,000 reactions as of Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Wahlberg's fans have flooded the comments, sharing their own experiences with the boy band star. 

"He was raised right! Back in the early days of NKOTB, I wrote a letter to Donnie. A few weeks later, I received a hand written reply... from Alma," Wahlberg's mother, one commenter wrote. "I knew back then that a mom who cares that much about her son to answer his fan mail by hand, was one amazing mom and was raising good men. This post warms my heart and proves what I suspected back in 1989." 

Wahlberg has some experience of his own in the restaurant industry. He and his brothers, Paul and Mark, founded Boston-based gourmet burger chain Wahlburgers in 2011.