That Drink Menu “For Ladies” Was A Joke, You Guys
It’s the age-old story of the Clinton Hill restaurant who attempts a weak joke and then the Internet freaks out. Wait, what?
DNAinfo scooped the story on Los Pollitos III’s new bar menu, which categorized the drinks into a few categories, including “For Kids (No Alcohol),” “For Ladies (Light Alcohol),” “For Every One (Alcohol),” and “For Men (Extra Alcohol).” Under the ladies’ section was, as expected, items like wine, Kahlua & cream, and—ugh—Alizé. To be fair, however, there were similarly fruity, typically girly drinks labeled for men, like Blue Agave and a Tequila Cadilac.
Anyway, the whole thing was a joke, if certainly not a superb one. Los Pollitos III’s manager Marcos Merino said, “The idea was to make people laugh. People get excited about the menu and have fun with it,” adding, “Anyone can order anything.”
This, of course, didn’t stop local blogs and even a few national sites from picking it up and freaking out. “One Clinton Hill Mexican joint thinks ladies need to pace themselves with their own watered-down drink menu, featuring less potent beverages. Is this 1903?” asked Gothamist, while Jezebel’s article leads with “Can’t handle your booze, ladies? (Of course you can’t.) Then Brooklyn’s Los Politos III restaurant has a paternalistic hand on your back.”
Twitter, too, lasting bastion of the outraged, fed the fire:
Will NOT be going to Los pollitos III in #clintonhill #brooklyn #mexican #food #sexist #dontmesswithmymargs
— GRETE (@AllOfThePizza) June 4, 2014
http://twitter.com/kasbrika/status/474305034453147648
Let's just say that if I went to a place in Brooklyn that had a weak drinks menu for the ladies, I wouldn't be happy: http://t.co/RdPma9yH8y
— Sara Lang Gifford (@SaraLang) June 4, 2014
And yo, listen, as a card-carrying member of the Third-and-a-Half Wave Feminist Movement (I’m a blogger who writes about The Bachelorette, aren’t I?), I share the (usually good) instinct to criticize anything that feels even remotely gendered. But should our anger really be directed at one, tiny Clinton Hill Mexican restaurant, who, from the looks of it, probably can’t handle too much more bad press? I say, we would all be far better off closing our laptops and indulging in a very, very strong margarita. Hell, we women could use it.
Follow Rebecca Jennings on Twitter @rebexxxxa