A Long Beach waitress got the best tip of her life yesterday, taking home a $21 million lottery prize.
“I just started shaking,” Patricia Eisel, 40, who works tables at Long Beach’s American and Irish bar The Saloon, said about seeing her six numbers match up with the Jan. 5 lotto.
Hours after receiving her jackpot check, Eisel jumped on a plane to her native Ireland yesterday, to visit her mother on a pre-planned trip that will now be a lavish vacation.
She bought her ticket at the Sand Castle Wines and Liquor on Long Beach’s Beach Street, and she claimed her prize in Garden City on Jan. 18.
She opted for the lump sum, collecting a payment of $11,975,334.
Eisel was one of eight New Yorkers to take home prize money yesterday, including winners from Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan. Ricardo Gonzalez, 19, a Mineola construction worker and full-time student, won $1 million.
Eisel moved to New York from Ireland in 1995, and she plans to use the money to plant roots — she can now finally buy a home.
“I know they’ll be thrilled when I tell them we’ll also buy a family dog to run around the yard with them,” she said of her three children.
