Woman shocked after receiving bill for ‘1890’ cocktail she assumed cost less than £20
Rachael Davis
Featured Image Credit: SolStock/Getty Images
If you’re partial to a cocktail, you’ll know they typically come with a premium price tag.
With multiple ingredients and a degree of craft required on the bartender’s end, it’s no wonder they’re usually more expensive than the average pint.
However, seasoned cocktailers will know that ‘happy hour’ is where it’s at if you want to rack up a queue of tasty beverages on the cheap.
It’s not always plain sailing, unfortunately, as one TikToker found out when she received a bill that she expected to come in at less than £20.
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The woman in question, Lynsey or @lynsey_36 as she’s known on TikTok, was on a city break in London for New Year’s Eve 2022 when she mistakenly ordered the cocktail.
She said in the TikTok video that she ‘always [drinks] champagne’ but she thought she’d push the boat out with something a little different.
Despite the bartender whipping out a ‘30-year-old Cognac’ and a book for her to sign, it never occurred to her than the ‘1890’ listed on the menu referred to the price.
When the bill came, she was in for a real shock.
"So when I discovered the cocktail I had ordered was £2,000, I showed my husband the receipt and he was furious at me,” the Belfast native said in a follow-up video.
"So he left the bar. Left me on my own to deal with it. And I said to the young guy behind the bar, 'Look I’m so sorry, I had no idea it was £1,890'."
She explained that there was a space on the menu between ‘18’ and ‘90’, leading her to believe the price was £18.90. While she admitted it was ‘definitely [her] mistake’, she noted that the other drinks on the menu were in the region of £20.
Panicking, she explained the mistake to the bartender, who was new to the job, that she had made a mistake and shouldn’t pay the bill.
Luckily for Lynsey, the manager came over and was ‘so discreet and so wonderful’ as they reassured her they would ‘sort it out’.
She was advised to enjoy the rest of her stay, but she said that, as this was on the first of five nights, she was racked with anxiety over being asked to pay the bill later on.
She avoided the bar for a while before finally plucking up the courage to go back, and she was greeted warmly by the manager.
Relief soon soured as the manager told her the bartender who had served her had been let go.
"So I burst into tears,” she said. "I was so terribly, terribly upset. I said, 'Look it’s not worth the guy’s job. I will pay the £2,000. I’m so, so, so sorry. It wasn’t his fault'."
The manager likely had a shot of panic of their own: it was in fact a bad joke.
They explained that they hadn’t been sacked but had instead been sent for additional training as Lynsey wasn’t the first customer to have made the mistake.
You’d think the answer would be to make the menu a bit clearer, of course, but hopefully the additional training has put a stop to the surprise bills.
The moral of the story is to be very careful when you order a cocktail as you could get stung by a beefier price than you were hoping for.
And if the bartender pulls out a Cognac that’s old enough to have seen Nirvana’s last show, alarm bells ought to start ringing.