A man had such an unusual experience at a Massachusetts restaurant regarding onion rings. He hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it.
TikToker Dana Beers (@dana_beers) says in a TikTok that’s accrued over 524,000 views that he was dining around lunchtime at a Cape Cod restaurant with his family.
Beers says his family wanted to order onion rings after being inspired by another patron who was snacking on “phenomenal”-looking ones at the bar. However, their desires came to a screeching halt when they tried to order onion rings with their server.
“‘You have to go inside to order onion rings,’” Beers recalls the waitress telling the family, who was sitting outside. “‘You cannot have them on this outside patio.’”
Things get a bit more strange
Eventually, Beers says he went inside to order some for his family.
“I got to the inside bar. I say, ‘Hey can I get some onion rings?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, but you have to eat them in the bar. Inside.’ I said, ‘OK. I can’t bring them out there? I saw a couple of people with onion rings,’” he recalls telling the worker, referring to other patrons who were eating onion rings outside.
Despite this request, Beers said the restaurant employee was staunchly opposed to anyone eating onion rings outside the bar area. “‘You have to eat the onion rings inside,’” she reportedly said.
Returning to his table to relay this strange interaction, Beers’ party sees someone else with an order of onion rings sitting on the outside patio.
At this point, the TikToker says that he and his family have become obsessed with the idea of eating onion rings outside. So Beers says he offered the customer $10 for the onion rings.
The gracious customer decided to just give the untouched plate of onion rings to Beers, Beers recalls.
Beers accomplished his mission. He says he then brought the onion rings back to his table for him and his family to enjoy. And it seems like all of the fuss was worth it. He says they were delicious.
However, the restaurant’s server wasn’t happy when she saw the family with the onion rings.
“She’s like, ‘Where did you get those?’ And in the background, I could see three or four people behind the bar, bartenders, whispering to each other, pointing at us, clearly talking about how we had onion rings at our table now. So we absolutely plow through the onion rings. They were fantastic, and eventually, we have to pay. And finally, I had to ask the waitress, I said, ‘Why can’t we eat onion rings out here?’” he says.
The reasoning?
Beers says she told them there’s only one worker in the kitchen who knows how to properly make onion rings at the restaurant. And if folks on the patio are eating them, that increases their visibility.
With more visibility comes more onion ring orders. And that means that the person making the onion rings is going to get overwhelmed.
While Beers acquiesces that this answer could make sense, he is clearly unhappy with it. “My gut is telling me there’s something going on with the onion ring. … There’s a conspiracy. At this one restaurant on Cape Cod, I’m not gonna say it, but there’s something deep going on, and I don’t know what it is. But I need to find out,” he says.
At the end of his clip, he asks others if they, too, have had strange encounters involving onion rings at a restaurant in Cape Cod.
@dana_beers #capecod #conspiracy #onionrings ♬ original sound – Dana Beers
Viewers are perplexed about the onion ring dilemma
People were confused at the notion that only one worker knows how to make the snack.
“This is the most insane story I’ve heard. What do you mean only one person knows how to make them. It’s not a difficult process,” one questioned.
“Is it not possible to train another employee to be able to assist in the preparation of these forbidden onion rings?” another questioned.
Other folks had similarly strange food-barring encounters. “One time Chipotle told me i wasn’t allowed to order chips bc they were only for online orders but they were literally sitting right there in front of me and I’m still not over it 2 years later,” one shared.
“I was once told we couldn’t have pancakes because and I quote ‘the cook is in the way of the pancakes’ I still til this day don’t know what that meant,” another said.
It made sense to others, though
Some TikTokers who responded to Beers’ video said that the “conspiracy,” however, isn’t that deep.
People in Cape Cod might be really into onion rings.
“Rented a house on the Cape for the summer. My roommate had a job cutting nothing but onions for onion rings, eight hours a day. He literally couldn’t cut them fast enough to keep up,” one said.
Someone else penned, “Ok . So . I work at a place where we hand dip onion rings . As soon as I make some and they go out everyone else sees them and I get like 8 orders. It makes sense to me.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Barnstable County local government via Instagram direct message and to Beers via TikTok comment for further information.
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