Business is booming for the pair as they travel the world, mukbanging dumplings, pies and burritos.
Their latest viral video from Sept. 5, however, isn't about what they ate, but rather their receipt. And it has Dallas in a tizzy.
"We went to dinner here tonight in Dallas — and I'm not going to say the name of it, the food was exceptional — but when we got the bill, normally I don't look at bills. I'm just like, yep, sounds good. Here's my card. I know that sounds ignorant, but whatever. We got the bill and in my head I knew that we only got $150 worth of food, which, the food was great. So how did we get to $530?" she asks.
The first item in question was a spicy skinny margarita made with Lalo Blanco, a premium tequila brand, which was $14, but the receipt had a $3 prep fee on the receipt, so a $17 total, which is par.
She asked what the fee was for, and the server said "Oh, it's the shaking of the margarita."
"That's fine, right? Just put $17, don't put prep," she says.
That was just the tip of this margarita 'berg. She goes on to explain that a margarita with Fortaleza Blanco (another premium brand) was $32.
"OK, great. It's fine. Some drinks are $32," she says. "The prep for that specific one was $13; $13 to shake the margarita.
"Then another gal got a Casa Dragones Blanco. $28, that's fine, right? OK. Her prep was $15 and she got a double, which was $22. So, 22 plus 15, [equals] 53. Plus a double 75. A $75 drink."
OK, that doesn't add up exactly, so maybe what she meant was $22 plus $15 is $37, which doubled is $74. We're not here to bicker about margarita math. The point is that these charges are ridiculous. It's got us counting the days until Applebee's Dollaritas are back (Oct. 1).
"All this to say, what the F?" she says. "This place charges to shake your margarita."
One thing she never mentions though, is the restaurant. She also blacks out her receipt so the name isn't shown.
Many in Dallas (and beyond) are trying to figure that out. There are about 4,000 comments on Instagram. The TikTok video has 3.2 million views and 22K comments, the top one being "Does Ticketmaster own this restaurant?!"
At least half of those comments have the same demand: Name the restaurant. But Blondes Who Eat ain't saying. (We reached out through several channels and didn't hear back.)
But the internet is going to internet. Theories run amok. Hours have been spent pouring over menus of pricey Mexican restaurants in Dallas, looking for these exact drinks (there aren't any). D Magazine put out an all call. A Reddit thread dives into it. Everyone in this city wants to know who is charging a $13 shake fee.
The leading contender in the comments is newcomer Mar y Sol on McKinney Avenue near Knox Street, a Lombardi Family Concepts restaurant. The reasons vary, but some point to another influencer who posted photos with Blondes Who Eat at Mar y Sol about the same time of this video. Two tequilas named in the video, Fortaleza and Lalo, are both served at Mar y Sol.
But, here's the thing: if a restaurant was charging a "shake fee" for drinks, reviews would be lit up. Mar y Sol's reviews are standard: Most love it, and some don't. But none mentioned any "fees" until after this video was posted. Case in point: on Sept. 6, Yelp reviewer Garmina from Fremont, California, asked "Why is place charging you 100's just to SHAKE your drinks???"
The Restaurant Weighs In, Sort Of
Mar y Sol responded to the hoopla on its Instagram with a photo of a bartender shaking a drink and a caption that reads, "No extra fees were charged in the shaking of this cocktail 😉." Which isn't necessarily an outright denial of the entire ordeal. We reached out to Mar y Sol to find out if it was the restaurant the video. Carly Garcia, director of marketing for Lombardi Family Concepts said, "No comment."
When asked about "shake fees," she denied there was such a thing — naturally because who would ever have an actual shake fee? (Don't answer that unless you have a receipt.) When asked more specifically about "any fees charged to drinks that aren't listed on the menu," Garcia said, "No comment."
Las Palmas was also mentioned in comments. When asked, they quickly responded that it's not them.
On Friday night we headed out to Mar y Sol to see for ourselves. We ordered a Lalo Blanco spicy skinny margarita (and tacos, for good measure). The bill was $14 for the drink with a $3 "margherita" [sp] fee added, for $17 total, which tracks with Blondes Who Eat's bill.
A couple days later another reporter from our investigations team headed out for dinner and drinks. Desiree Guitierrez ordered regular drinks this time, no premium tequilas, and no extra fees were added.
A Reddit user grabbed a photo of the bill from the video and so we (this is almost embarrassing) took a similar photo of the receipt. And guess what, the two line up pretty well. If you squint and tilt your head, they could be the same.
Perhaps this settles the great margarita shake up of Dallas of 2024. With a Cowboys win and Dak locked in for four more years, we hope the city can sleep well tonight.
