Stop Asking Your Bartender to Surprise You

“Surprise me!” No one knows exactly what compels someone to utter those two words when ordering a meal or drinks, somehow placing the onus on the bartender or server rather than themselves, but it happens often enough to require exploration. Perhaps there are several delicious-sounding cocktails on a bar’s menu and they can’t make up their mind. Or maybe they’re being a little flirtatious (much to everyone else’s dismay). Or maybe they’re just indecisive and genuinely need someone else to decide for them.

In situations like these, it might seem like asking a bartender to surprise you is the best course of action. The request might seem simple enough, but more often than not, it tells the bartender nothing regarding what kinds of drinks you like. Not only will this possibly result in a barrage of questions, but you could also wind up with a cocktail you have no interest in drinking. To find out more about how to order when you don’t know what to order, we chatted with Kyle Sheridan, beverage director at NYC’s Jean’s.

“On the nights I bartend at Jean’s, I get a request for a surprise at least once a night,” he says. “And honestly there are different levels to how annoying it can be because sometimes it’s not annoying at all.”

A dead giveaway that your “surprise me” request will annoy your bartender? How crowded the bar is. As Sheridan explains, on slow nights it can actually be quite exciting when a guest asks to be surprised, as it provides bartenders with the opportunity to experiment and get creative outside the confines of their cocktail menus. Given that there aren’t as many patrons requiring their attention, bartenders typically have more time to dedicate to each individual, and they’re usually more willing to tailor drinks to personal tastes using the ingredients on the back bar.

On the flip side, however, your bartender may not be as willing to accommodate these types of requests during busy services on Friday or Saturday nights. “It can be frustrating when you’re completely in the weeds and you’ve got 10 people looking at you,” Sheridan says. “Then you come up to one person and they say, ‘Oh, I don’t know, what would you like to make me?’ Or ‘Can you just surprise me?’ Then I have to ask so many questions just to get some semblance of an idea of what this person wants.”

What’s your favorite spirit? Do you want something sweet or something sour? Do you like tart? What about smoke? Do you like your drinks served up or on the rocks? All of these are questions you can expect to receive from your bartender if you simply ask to be surprised, and they are questions that eat away at valuable time — especially when bars are slammed.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t ask for a surprise drink next time you belly up to your favorite bar. It just means you need to have a few points of direction for your bartender to follow. In Sheridan’s view, if customers come wanting a surprise but offer a few things they like or don’t like, the ordering experience will be much smoother and much less frustrating for the person behind the stick. It also increases the likelihood that you’ll end up sipping a cocktail you love.

“If a guest came in and said something along the lines of, ‘I don’t know what I want but I know I like this spirit and I like citrus,’ that helps me out tremendously,” he explains. “It saves me the time of asking five or six questions and that’s time I could instead use to already have a drink ready for them.”

*Image retrieved from dglimages via stock.adobe.com

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