A busy bartender turned to TikTok to reveal his trick to get drunk customers to stop drinking more alcohol. Now, his trick has sparked a furious debate on social media after people claimed he should not be tricking anyone, let alone paying customers who simply want to drink themselves into a stupor. The bartender, Benji Spears, based in the United States, showed the camera how he secretly cuts off his drunk customers after he thinks they have had too much to drink during the night.
Spears pours the drink so it looks like he is pouring alcohol into the beverage even when he is not. The bartender’s TikTok video has been viewed more than 7.5 million times and counting. In the video, he sets down a glass filled with ice as he pours soda water into the beverage and then tilts a bottle of alcohol on its side but does not pour the liquid into the glass.
Spears shouts at the paying customer, “Yeah, you’re good, babe; I’ve got you.” He then pretends to pour alcohol into the glass but really holds back the liquid courage and only gives the customer a soft drink instead.
The bartender has a lot of followers on the Chinese-created social media app. More than 1.5 million people follow him for his videos in which he shares his life as a busy bartender.
In the video, Benji Spears swirls the glass of soda and then adds a slice of lime before telling the paying customer that a “strong one is coming right up.”
He uploaded the viral video along with a caption that stated, “When your drunk bestie is insisting on another drink, but you know they have to work in the morning.”
On TikTok, many people were divided about whether or not Spears’s trick was a good one or a bad one. Some people gave the bartender “kudos” for his efforts to protect the drunk patron. Other people felt that he cheated the customer out of a drink.
“As someone who always asks for one drink too many… you are doing the Lord’s work out there!” one person wrote in the TikTok comments.
Another added: “All bartenders need to do this!! Kudos to you!!”
A third person who shared a comment wrote, “I’d feel so safe at your bar.”
While the bartender Spears impressed some viewers on TikTok, there were a ton of other people who felt that he cheated the paying customer out of the beverage they wanted to drink.
“Remind me never to go to this bar,” wrote one furious TikTok user.
Another user of social media wrote: “I don’t care how many drinks or beers I had, I would pick up on this immediately.”
Another person shared a playful comment that was rather tongue-in-cheek, writing: “Don’t ever do me like that. Give me extra.”
Do you think this bartender did a service, or should he be canceled for not serving alcohol to a drunk customer?