A Bartender Shared Why You Should Never Order A 'Surprise Me' Drink & It Can Go So Badly
"Those are words you never say to a bartender lol."
Bartenders on TikTok are roasting customers who order "surprise me" drinks at the bar, after one bartender really captured the problem with the whole practise.
Influencer Benji Spears, who works at the well-known gay bar Micky's West Hollywood in Los Angeles, recently tore into "surprise me" orders on TikTok, and his video skit about it has piled up over 5 million views and a bunch of comments.
In the video, Spears can be seen asking a woman for her order and then getting a "Surprise me!" response. He then cracks open a can of pineapple juice, whips up a drink and hands it across the bar.
"Um, is that pineapple?" the woman asks.
"It is, yup."
"I'm deathly allergic," she says.
"You're allergic to pineapple," Spears repeats.
"Ya," she says.
The bartender then dumps the drink out and rips into the woman for being so careless with her order.
"I don't get why you people are like 'surprise me, make something new,' like, let's start with a base," he says. Spears then promises to give her his "favorite drink," which turns out to be a basic, plain old beer.
"There you go babe. Next!"
@benjispears When they say “surprise me” 😅 #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #serverlife #bartender #trend #trending
The video inspired a flood of comments from other self-proclaimed bartenders, including many who shared their own frustration with "surprise me" drinks and how they typically react to that order.
"As a bartender if u say surprise me u get a vodka cran," reads the top comment.
"Those are words you never say to a bartender lol," wrote another.
"Half of y'all clearly haven't been a bartender," said someone else. "'Surprising' people is what gets drinks wasted and pisses people off when it's not what they want."
Someone else declared that if he was a bartender, beer would be his "surprise me" drink every time.
Some people in the comments said they typically share their allergies before placing an order like this, while others criticized Spears for his "angry" energy.
However, many defended him for being sick of careless customers.
"All these peeps have never worked a day in the restaurant business," Spears wrote in a reply.
Pineapple is just one of many potential allergens you can run into at a bar if you're not careful. Nuts, fish, shellfish, eggs and milk are used in various cocktails, so if you're sensitive to something, don't sign up for a nasty surprise!