diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/throttle.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/throttle.rs
index ce4fa49ac8..220458757d 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/throttle.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/throttle.rs
@@ -112,7 +112,11 @@ where
                 bucket_width,
             },
             state: Mutex::new(LeakyBucketState::new(end)),
-            queue: fair.then(Notify::new),
+            queue: fair.then(|| {
+                let queue = Notify::new();
+                queue.notify_one();
+                queue
+            }),
         };
 
         Inner {