College Being

During this past weekend, I was taking my cousin from the Bahamas out on the town to see beautiful Miami, but we ran into some sneaky two-for-one “deals”. Saturday, we went to Chilli’s. Not the best place for a vegan like me, but the house salad was huge. We each ordered the mango mojitos recommended by the waiter (mojitos are my favorite, besides beer of course), who I’ll give props to, was super-nice. The waiter brings four mojitos…? It was the two-for-one special.

“Could you just have given us two drinks and charged us for one?”

At first taste the mojitos taste delicious, but where is the kickback that I usually get after drinking any type of alcoholic beverage? We ask the waiter if there is even alcohol in the drinks.

“Of course there is. I saw the bartender put it in myself.”

“Okay, I’ll take your word for it,” I say.

Well after drinking my two mojitos and enjoying some music at Cocowalk, I drive my cousin and the other people that came out with us home, completely sober might I add.

The next day, yesterday, we went out to famous Ocean Drive on South Beach. We walk around for a bit, but then find a nice bar having a two-for-one happy hour special. Inside only, the sign reads in small print. “Great,” I say, “it is super-hot out here!”

We sit at the bar and talk to the nice Haitian bartender while ordering our drinks. Man, mojitos aren’t two-for-one here so I order a tequila sour and my cousin orders a tequila sunrise. My sister, who came out with us orders water because she is underage. Well, at least in Miami she’s allowed to sit at the bar…

I watch as the bar tender puts in what she says is 6 to 7 shots of tequila into each of our drinks. Holy crap! This time I could definitely feel it.

We talk some more, my cousin gets hit on by some Latino guy, and we are all just pretty much enjoying ourselves and chatting with the petite Haitian. Then, the bartender allows us to order a mojito and a caipirinha, a famous Brazilian drink. Also at the end of the night she only charges us for one drink.

Final thoughts and conclusion: We went to Chilli’s and got four tiny sugar waters no alcohol for about $20. We went to a bar and made friends with the bartender and got four huge drinks with a ton of alcohol for the same price (including tip). Conclusion: Don’t listen to two-for-one specials. The bars/resturants need to be making money from them anyways. What you will end up happening is you will get a drink with no alcohol or a drink that costs twice as much as it should so you are in fact paying for two drinks. Just be friendly, tip well, and you will get drinks for free.

Also, you could always do what Nick from College Being says, “Just order beer.”

Make sure to watch out for other bartender scams.