‘What kind of business is this?!?’: Florida friends go to restaurant. Then they try to order soft-serve margaritas and a lemon drop
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Going out to eat can be hit-or-miss. Customers can have amazing experiences and witness unbeatable hospitality. Or they can run into the worst-case scenario and get stonewalled from ordering any food.
One woman is going viral for sharing her “zero out of ten” experience at a restaurant she never got to try. The reason why? The restaurant was out of multiple items she and her friends ordered despite seemingly serving other tables.
What happened at Con Amor?
Content creator Shanell (@spotlightshanell) posted a video of herself at Florida-based Mexican restaurant Con Amor. The video has more than 1.5 million views.
“We just came to Con Amor in Tampa,” Shanell said. “Y'all know they got those new soft-serve [margaritas]. We waited two hours.”
Shanell said that she and her group arrived at Con Amor at 7 p.m. But her group had to leave and come back later because the restaurant was too busy. After waiting for “a couple hours,” they came back to Con Amor for soft-serve margaritas. But they learned that the restaurant didn't have any left.
“They're not making any more, they ran out,” Shanell said, making air quotes with her fingers. Then she flipped the camera to show restaurant staff making two new soft-serve margaritas, saying, “Wait a [expletive] minute.”
Shanell stuttered repeatedly at the sight, apparently in disbelief at the situation.
“This is already a zero out of ten experience,” she said. “I'm aggravated.”
What made Shanell leave the restaurant?
Shanell and her friends wanted to eat at the restaurant. But they learned there were “no birria tacos either.” She also said that other members of her party made requests that staff refused.
“Bria asked them for a lemon drop,” Shanell said. “They said, ‘We don't do lemon drops because … we don't have that vodka.' She said, ‘Well, I get mine with tequila.' [The restaurant said], ‘No, we don't do lemon drops.'”
The restaurant reassured her and her group that they had “everything else.” Then Shanell's friend then tried to order something else on the menu.
“My friend ordered quesadillas,” Shanell said. “'We don't have those.' Like, y'all have nothing.”
Shanell said she and her friends did not feel welcome, so they left the establishment.
“Everything we asked for, it just gave like: 'We just want y'all to leave,'” Shanell said. “Yeah, we going to [LongHorn Steakhouse]. LongHorn never disappoints.”
@spotlightshanell Thats a NEGATIVE 5/10! No margs. No lemon drops. No birria tacos. No quesadillas. Alexa, play Whitney Houston- I Have NOTHING!!! Don't waste yall time coming here.
@Con Amor FL
How did Con Amor respond?
In the comment section of her video, Shanell shared a screenshot allegedly capturing an exchange she had with Con Amor via Instagram direct message. Shanell had shared an Instagram story criticizing Con Amor for its service. She tagged the restaurant in the story and wrote, “yall SUCK!”
Con Amor shared her content to its Instagram story. A representative from the business called Shanell's words “nasty.”
“We were out of quesadillas and the soft serve machine was on a wait. We don't do birria on the weekends,” they wrote. “Hope you grow up eventually and learn that small restaurants are doing everything they can and don't owe you anything you're not special.”
Shanell in turn shared that story to her profile. She asked the restaurant to “stop lying.”
“Imagine responding like this as a ‘business,'” she wrote. “Yall told us yall aren't doing them no more for THE NIGHT! It's all on video. Enjoy those reviews that's about to come yall way.”
In response to that story from Shanell, Con Amor's Instagram account sent her a direct message with laughing emojis.
“Awwww you didn't get what you want now you angyyyyy awwww poor babbyyyy,” a representative wrote.
When Shanell screenshotted and shared this whole back-and-forth to her TikTok comment section, she wrote, “What kind of business is this?!?” Her comment received more than 81,000 likes.
Was Con Amor discriminating against Shanell and her friends?
Commenters said that the way employees treated Shanell and her friends may have had a racial motive. One person simply called the business “racist.” They added, “We see how they are.”
“It's giving we don't service your kind,” one comment said. It received more than 34,000 likes.
The company privately denied allegations of racism, according to one of Shanell's posts. In one of the content creator's videos, she explained that Con Amor privately messaged individuals on Instagram about the situation. At least one person sent her the restaurant's response. A representative allegedly wrote it was “odd [Shanell] and her friends were recording.”
“She and her friends were rude to our staff on the way out… Then we were tagged and told we suck so yes we lost it,” they said. “We're not racist, the owners are both mixed and we have every race employed here happily. We don't take kindly to people being negative to us so we gave it right back. But that's some how unprofessional.”
In her response, Shanell discussed some of the restaurant's claims. In the caption of her post, she wrote, “Y'all are making it worse on yourselves. Nothing that y'all are saying is making sense at all.”
Buzz News reached out to Con Amor and Shanell via email for comment.
