Meaghan Dorman, proprietor of the New York City cocktail bars Raines Law Room and Dear Irving, understands that people might not know what they want to order when they approach the bar. But she is baffled by where they are turning for inspiration.
“All I want for Christmas is for people to stop asking ChatGPT what to order,” she wrote in an Instagram story this past December.
“Ask me!” she pleaded. “It’s my whole reason for being!”
As artificial intelligence continues to infiltrate online life, bar pros are reporting that guests, particularly those under 30 years old, are using these tools for direction about what to order—bypassing menus, as well as bartenders and other drink professionals.
Dorman has observed guests taking photos of the menu to feed into ChatGPT, or picking up their phones to ask aloud, “I’m at Dear Irving, what should I drink?” (Short answer: Hope you’re in the mood for an excellent Gibson, a martini-style drink garnished with a cocktail onion.)
“You have a human right in front of you, who would be glad to talk to you about the drinks, and where you are in your night,” Dorman says. “It’s so frustrating.”
It has always been slightly intimidating to order drinks at a hip, high-end bar: guests want to avoid asking foolish questions, and feel overwhelmed by bible-like menus. But it’s never been so convenient—or habit-forming—to seek guidance from our phones.
‘I Don’t Want to Feel like a Machine’
The bottom line is that the robots in your phones are making bartenders sad.
“When I was working at Superbueno, it happened multiple times,” says Michael Aredes, NYC bartender and founder of queer-/Latin-focused pop-up Noche Traviesa. “People would sit at the bar, asking ChatGPT what the bar was known for, and what they should order, based on their taste in the past.”
The bot usually suggested whichever drinks were the top sellers at the moment. Typically, guests followed the advice.
“The thing that struck me was there was no want or need to ask me, or to give me the opportunity to ask about what they wanted or liked,” Aredes recalls. “I didn’t want to feel like I was a figurative machine just making a drink.”
But the longer-term implications felt even more depressing: “It was disappointing to see someone give up control of their destiny to artificial intelligence.”
Even though bars and restaurants are still valued as places where people go to be with other people, pros worry that the act of consulting AI chatbots instead of a human signals a longer-term trend.
“It makes me feel like we’re losing human connection—and that’s what bars are so great at,” Dorman says.
That connection is also essential for building long-term business. “We’re always looking to build regulars,” Dorman says. “How do you do that? Through service and connection. It’s more difficult if people aren’t willing to engage with us in the same way.”
When AI Gets It Wrong
This phenomenon is by no means limited to bars. Guests are bypassing the in-person experts at wineries and breweries. At fine-dining restaurants, sommeliers are exasperated by guests who decline service in favor of AI, or take AI advice that steers toward options they wouldn’t usually order. Sometimes these chatbots hallucinate bottles that don’t exist.
For example, at JBell Wine Company’s Louisville, Kentucky-based tasting room, sommelier Andrea Meriwether was flummoxed by a guest’s AI-driven request for a “super-dry French rosé,” although the tasting room doesn’t sell French wine, and a quick conversation revealed the guest disliked wines with high acidity. Instead, Meriweather steered her toward a “more juicy and lush” Washington state rosé.
“That potentially could have been a bad customer experience for us,” Meriwether says. “What happens if, without speaking to a professional, you depend on a bot and get something you don’t like? Who will take the heat of that bad Yelp review: the AI or the establishment?”
When AI Gets It Right
But it’s not all doom and gloom: for some, AI provides a new way to interact with drinks.
At Asado Life in St. Augustine, Florida, lead bartender Kelley Fitzsimonds describes a regular who owns a tech solutions firm and typically opted for neat spirits, until AI came around.
“One day he says, let’s see what ChatGPT comes up with for a mezcal cocktail.” The end result: mezcal espadin, Aperol, and coconut cream. “It was great,” Fitzsimonds says. “He drinks it all the time.”
Yet, that successful drink is an exception, he notes. “In my experience, when AI gives you specs, it needs a little tweaking. AI can’t taste things. It goes off what it scans, millions of published recipes.”
While it might be fun to play with AI once in a while, pros are hoping you won’t use it every time you order a drink.
“What you eat and drink is such a personal choice,” Dorman says. “I don’t understand outsourcing that. And it’s such a point of pleasure. Don’t you want to be in charge of that?”
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Published: March 26, 2026