It’s no secret that a lot of self-proclaimed booze enthusiasts who swear they can tell the difference between various brands usually can’t. This is something that a bottle service girl named Grace (@shakespearesidechick) knows all too well after working at her job long enough.
Grace says the customer she came across insulted her ability to do her job, prompting her to get revenge at the best possible moment of the evening.
She detailed her experience in a series of viral TikToks that talked about the eventful Los Angeles night in the bar where she works.
In her “storytime,” Grace says she was asked by her boss if she wanted to go home for the night. She took the opportunity to do so, but after she clocked out and got into her car, she says her boss requested she come back as there were customers who needed service.
She agreed and when she arrived inside to greet the guests, she started putting on the bottle service worker charm, asking them what they were celebrating and being accommodating to the couple.
Grace says that on her way in, the hostess she worked with informed her that the table wanted a bottle of Grey Goose vodka, and when she went to confirm with the table, one of the men responded that this wasn’t necessarily the case.
“I don’t know, what would you recommend?” she says the man told him.
She says she responded that “it depends” on what they were in the mood to drink, and asked if he was looking for Vodka. He replied that it didn’t necessarily have to be vodka but that he was ultimately interested in what she would pick.
Grace says when she suggested they look at the menu so they could take a look at the pricing, the man replied that he “didn’t need to look at pricing” as money was not an issue, and for Grace to pick something out.
The TikToker says this was a proposition she gladly accepted as the majority of her job was sales. She then suggested Don Julio, telling the customer it’s “our most luxury tequila that we have.”
That didn’t sit well with the customer. “And then he’s like, ‘No that’s not going to work. Just a tip for you sweetie, don’t recommend Don Julio to rich people because it really makes you sound low-class. It’s a crappy tequila,'” Grace recalls the customer telling her.
Staying the course of her sales pitch, she continued asking what they would like to drink.
“Well, I like Fortaleza so let’s just start out with three Fortaleza waters and then we’ll decide on the bottle,” she says the customer told her.
The three drinks were complimentary because he ended up getting bottle service at the table, Grace explains. The problem, however, was that the type of Fortaleza he asked for, Fortaleza Blanco, was no longer available after she checked behind the bar to get his order started. So, she says she ended up using Don Julio Blanco for the drinks.
“He takes a big sip, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s so much better than Don Julio.’ And I’m just looking at…guys like, uh-hunh!” she says, smiling.
@shakespearesidechick bottle service storytime … it got so much worse after that 😭 #bottlegirl #bottleservice #bottleservicegirl #storytime #nightlife ♬ original sound – grace
After they decided on a bottle of Grey Goose, Grace says the man invited her “to party,” but she ultimately declined the invitation.
In a follow-up video, she says that while she was determined to “schmooze” to get a good tip from the customer, she ended up having to navigate assumptions about where she lived, remarks from the customer about her body and how he couldn’t stop staring at her, and other blunt remarks she found rude. As she continued to talk to the man, his flashy behavior and reference to substance abuse began to make more sense: as it turned out, the guy was a drug dealer, she says.
Grace says that at this point in the evening, some women came off the dance floor to sit down with the men at their table.
After she grabs the guy’s card to pay for the drinks, she tries ringing it up and it declines.
“I have the perfect opportunity to walk up and be like, ‘Hey, I want to close you out the card that you gave me, it didn’t go through. Do you have another card or should I try that one again? ‘”
She says the guy looked shocked at Grace’s lack of discretion, especially since he was with the other girls.
“Normally, when people are nice to me, I don’t walk up and say ‘your card declined.’ I say, ‘Can you check if you have a text from the bank?’ But this guy was really getting on my nerves so I was like, ‘Hey that card didn’t go through.'”
She says that he went and messed around on his phone for a bit and requested that she try the card again and that the transaction went through. Before he left, she told him that since he’s loaded, he should attempt getting an American Express card because she’s never had a problem going through on the first try.
@shakespearesidechick Replying to @Kyphi Boyd my nightmare customer during bottle service part two #bottlegirl #bottleservice #bottleservicegirl #storytime #nightlife ♬ original sound – grace
Viewers said that they, too, liked to deal with liquor snobs who pretend to possess esoteric taste-testing knowledge of brands.
“I use to do this on purpose all the time just to hear them say ‘yes, this is better.’ …..and all servers do this to these types,” one wrote. “We die laughing.”
“They can never tell the difference,” another commenter echoed.
One of the TikTokers wanted to know what size tip she received at the end of the night after having to deal with someone who thinks so highly of themselves.
“How much was the tip?” they asked. “Hoping it was worth dealing with that!”
According to Grace, she earned $130 for her efforts. Not bad for a few hours work, especially if she was getting tips from other customers as well.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Grace via email.