Spring Break’s hottest shot: Bartender serves drink along with a slap to the face, makes $6K nightly
This takes punch-drunk to a new level.
Spring Breakers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida are cramming into a local bar for shots and slaps — but it’s not a bar fight.
Bartender Aiyana Callas, 26, serves her signature “Hurricane Shots” at Backyard Fort Lauderdale for $30 every night of the popular party season.
The specialty shot is a full performance. Spring Break revelers take a shot from a glass held in Callas’ mouth before getting a pitcher of water poured on their head and a slap to the face.
She insists participants give their consent before being slapped, and she makes sure not to hit them hard.
“I am 100% a performer at best and I’m really good at making it look like I’m slapping them as hard as I can. But I am absolutely not slapping them as hard as I can,” Callas told Axios.
Prices vary depending on the alcohol and the intensity of the routine.
She estimates that she sells about 150 to 200 shots a night.
The bartender didn’t invent the “Hurricane Shot” but the fit server has put her own spin on the experience with her acrobatic moves and wrestling-style theatrics as her alter-ego “Hurricane Aiyana.”
Callas serves the shots at Backyard Fort Lauderdale as a freelancer buying the alcohol from the bar as part of her own entertainment company through which she also accepts bookings for private parties.
She began serving the slap shots last year and quickly became a hit as college students excitedly paid for an Instagrammable moment and a story to tell the next day on the beach.
“They think it’s entertaining, they think it’s funny, they think that it’s an experience,” Callas said. “It’s really just all in good fun.”
But “Hurricane Aiyana” only comes through town for the two months of the Spring Break season.
Last spring break, she worked 45 days in a row from 8 pm to 5 am and racked up about $6,000 a night.
Business in Fort Lauderdale has been booming as loud as the club music as the city of Miami continues its annual attempt to crack down on the Spring Break party scene.
