Feeling Unsafe on a First Date? Order the Angel Shot

The dating game has drastically changed within the past decade. In years past, single adults would hope to run into a heartthrob at their favorite coffee shop or hit it off with someone at the bar to score a date. Saying “yes” to a date without meeting someone in person first was completely unheard of. Thanks to the emergence of dating apps like Bumble and Tinder, all it takes is a quick DM to spark a connection and the chance at a romantic evening. However, it has also ushered in the potential for dangerous situations.

The new model of dating puts a lot of faith in an online profile, so what happens if your judgment of the person is wrong, and the date takes a turn for the worse? Restaurants across the country have come up with a method to intervene on potentially dangerous dates that I believe every restaurant should implement. All you have to do is order the Angel Shot.

USA Today reported that "an increasing number of bars and restaurants are posting signs in women's bathrooms that advise women to ask for "Angel Shots" at the bar to flee uncomfortable or unsafe dates." This secret code was modeled after the idea from the Lincolnshire Rape Crisis support center in the U.K., where they hang posters telling women to "Ask for Angela" at the bar if they felt unsafe on a date.

Get our free mobile app

One Facebook user shared a poster that hangs in the women’s bathroom at Barrett's Alehouse in Fall River that reads, “Date gone wrong? Feeling unsafe? Let us know. Go to the bar and order an Angel Shot.”

The poster describes three ways to order the shot with each way implying different scenarios. An Angel Shot “neat” means they will have a bouncer escort you to your car. An Angel Shot “with ice” means they will escort the person in question out. An Angel Shot “with lime” means they will call the police.

The restaurant promises discretion, saying, “Your safety matters to us.”

"I have never seen it until I started working here," said Mark Costa, manager of Barrett's Alehouse. "One of our locations is near Bridgewater State University, so having something like this available for those students, it's an awesome thing to have."

In his two years of management at Barrett's, the Angel Shot has been ordered once. Thankfully, it's not more often, but without that policy in place, that one customer may have had a scary situation on their hands.

Let’s give a round of applause for the restaurants that clearly understand the modern dating scene and put an effort into creating a safe environment for customers. I, for one, hope to see the Angel Shot policy gain popularity in more SouthCoast restaurants like Barrett's Alehouse.