For most bartenders, their job is part pouring drinks, part people-watching. The best bartenders can “read the room” and meet their customers’ needs even before being called upon.
But one bartender said her attempt to help out was met with outright hostility.
‘I didn’t know water was for … children’
Content creator Gabriella Masseran (@gabriellamasseran) shares a story about a customer who turned down a glass of water. Her video has more than 39,000 views.
Masseran says a group of men came into her bar the night before and ordered “old-fashioned … Pacificos, and all around.” They stayed for about two hours, and then one of them came up and asked for “six more Pacificos.”
Considering the men had been drinking for a while, Masseran says she offered him some glasses of water for the table.
“I always offer waters,” Masseran explains. “If I’m at a bar for … two hours drinking, please give me a … water.”
Unfortunately, the man did not take her offer well.
“He goes, ‘No, I’m [an] … adult,’ and turns around,” Masseran says. “I didn’t know water was for … children. Excuse the … out of me. I’m trying to help with your hangover tomorrow because you’ve had … four Old Fashioneds and some beers and some change.”
Masseran says she did not know how to react. She says her customers usually accept water without thinking much of it. Even the man’s friend wasn’t on the same page as him.
“His friend was like, ‘I want one,’” Masseran says. “Yeah, I’ll get your … friend one. Now you don’t get water.”
Do bartenders have to offer water?
While there don’t appear to be any specific laws requiring bars to hand out water, offering some is fairly standard. In California, servers have to wait for customers to ask for water rather than offering it.
TIPS, an alcohol server training program, wrote in 2025 that servers can slow service by bringing a patron water and asking whether they want food. It advised servers to remain calm and polite. It also warned servers that patrons with a high tolerance may show fewer outward signs of intoxication.
Under Colorado law, it is illegal “to sell, serve, give away, dispose of, exchange, or deliver, or permit the sale, serving, giving, or procuring of, any [alcoholic] beverage to a visibly intoxicated person or to a known habitual drunkard.”
TIPS listed stumbling, swaying, slowed reactions, and impaired thinking among the signs of visible drunkenness, and it advised judging each patron individually rather than relying on a fixed drink count.
Moreover, Masseran says she was partially offering water to help with the men’s impending hangovers. However, this solution might not be an effective one. A Newsweek article from 2015 reported on “new research [suggesting] that chugging water won’t assuage your hangover … [Unfortunately] for some, the only way to prevent a hangover is abstaining from alcohol altogether.”
@gabriellamasseran
Subplot News reached out to Masseran via email.
