Applebee's Employee Reveals Their $1 Margaritas Are Mostly Water

We all long to visit a magical place where the margaritas flow are as cheap and plentiful as water. With America’s favorite lower-middlebrow casual dining chain Applebee’s dedicating the month of October to $1 margaritas, it looks like that dream had finally been fulfilled. But as with most promising things in life, a recent Snapchat post from an Applebee’s bartender showed that this offer was more than meets the eye.

According to an Instagram post shared by The Bitchy Waiter, a blog dedicated to exposing the secrets of the service industry, the special October “Dollaritas” are a watered-down version of your standard ‘Bees marg. Literally. If the idea of drinking a Mexican cocktail prepared in a bucket doesn’t already deter you, you should know that the mixology process involves one gallon of tequila (probably not the top-shelf stuff), one gallon of margarita mix, and three gallons of tap water.

Given that the brains behind the Bitchy Waiter already thinks Applebees’ standard-price margarita “tasted like sour mix and Splenda blended with ice and a tequila-flavored Now and Later,” you probably weren’t going to drink a $1 margarita for the taste. But with a drink that’s three parts water to one part tequila, it’ll take you *at least* a few bucks to get a decent buzz going. As the anonymous Applebees whistleblower bluntly puts it, “If 'the dollarita is your life,' you're an animal who can't taste things."

This is far from the first instance of a restaurant worker airing their employer’s dirty laundry. There are plenty of Reddit threads where fast food and fast-casual employees spill their secrets, and it seems like many restaurants are rife with less-than-fresh dishes and other unspeakable horrors. Just know that if a deal at a struggling casual dining chain looks too good to be true, it probably is.