Internet fame earns Kennewick’s singing waiter a chance to perform on national TV

A Kennewick waiter’s chance to shine on a national stage was not over yet.

Alphonso Nichols’ brought his singing talents to “Good Morning America” on Monday in a four-minute live broadcast from Olive Garden.

He was joined by fellow Olive Garden employees, and got the chance to perform his favorite Christmas song, “The First Noel.”

“The last month has been amazing,” he told the anchors of the ABC national morning show. “It’s been super busy at the restaurant. People are actually coming in and asking me to sing, ‘Happy Birthday’ to them. I end up singing it probably 30 times a night.”

Nichols’ rendition of the birthday song at the Kennewick Olive Garden to two West Richland teens reached more than 100,000 people when it was posted on The Bitchy Waiter Facebook page earlier this month.

Since then, it’s been shared on numerous online news outlets, making it to No. 6 on the Apple news app’s top trending stories.

He sang at Sterling’s Restaurant in Kennewick for about 10 years before moving to Los Angeles for 18 months. Then, he started working at Olive Garden when he returned to the Tri-Cities about a year ago.

Nichols made appearances in the Tri-Cities music scene for more than a decade. First, when he and other members of the group Blackhouse won the best of show at the 2005 Tri-Cities Talent Show.

He was signed to local label West Coast Records in 2017 when Lil Wayne came to Kennewick. This led to some other work including opening for three shows in Texas with Ja Rule and Ashanti.

He’s now recording songs for his third album — his first all-Christian music album.

This story was originally published December 23, 2019 at 5:10 PM.