The service industry can be a drag but it can also be an adventure, especially when your customers are all fellow restaurant and bar workers. That’s even more true when nobody warns you about Mitch.
Denver-based bartender Morgan Roos (@morganroos96) made a whole round of discoveries when she picked up a weeknight bar shift at her new job. Roos was expecting a lively night, but what she experienced was a dive bar night for the books.
Roos recorded the story of her epic industry night shift back in March of 2022, and it racked up a staggering 10.8 million views. The TikTok was reposted on Jan. 7 by the aggregator account Bartender World (@bartender.world.18) and has already picked up another 1.6 million views and counting.
“If you’ve ever worked in [the service industry] you know that industry people are f***ing insane,” she tells her viewers. Roos says when she arrived for her shift at 7pm things were relatively calm, but that all changed when the other neighborhood bars and restaurants closed around 11.
That’s when a customer approached her to change a $10 bill into singles.
“Then two guys at the end of the bar, they go ‘Wait a minute, you’re gonna let Mitch play the internet jukebox?’ and I looked down, and I went ‘What do you mean by that, why? Why?’”
She had never dealt with Mitch before, she says.
“That guy Mitch … goes ‘Can you guys believe you can play the entire Nickelback album for four credits?’” she recalls.
This is the kind of behavior that causes most bars to install kill switches for their jukeboxes.
Unfortunately, Roos had no way to fast-forward through the onslaught of Nickelback tunes.
“Dude, I don’t have a f***ing remote! I can’t change this!” she told the bar.
“Buckle in. We got an hour and a half of this. I played the whole album and I got six credits left,” Mitch replied.
“Two of his friends come from the bar, put him in a choke hold immediately,” she continues. Having no bouncer, or any other employee to help her, Roos wondered whether to intervene or if that was even possible.
“I was like, “Are you gonna kill him?’ He’s like, ‘Naw, just put him to sleep.”
Before she could respond to Mitch being rendered unconscious she was called away to deal with a pair of customers practicing knife throwing in the back of the bar.
Just another Monday night.
“I f***ing love this god***n bar,” she concludes.
@bartender.world.18 Another Dive Bar storytime with ya girl 🤘🏼🤠🤘🏼 #storytime #serviceindustry #bartender #divebar #denver #fyp #unhinged ♬ original sound – Bartender World
Roos’ account drew plenty of comments from her viewers with many recalling their own epic nights behind (or in front of) the bar of their own favorite watering holes.
“This. IS. Bartending,” Vanessa Franco (@vanessafranco929) wrote.
“I’m sorry Nickelback in a dive bar on industry nights it just doesn’t get better than that. Nickelback, drops of jupiter, biggie, simple man. These were some great nights,” another viewer added.
Another viewer admired Mitch’s accomplishments, writing, “Wait…. Mitch got to take a Power Nap while listening to Nickleback??? Sounds like he was living his best.”
But it was Drewskiii (@droozclooz) who addressed the elephant in the room. “Why does everyone hate on Nickelback so much?”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Roos via email for further comment.
