A woman who slurped down four dozen oysters at an Atlanta seafood restaurant and recorded the whole meal for TikTok has sparked new debates about dating etiquette — but the eatery’s general manager says it was just business as usual.
In the video, which has circulated widely on X (formerly Twitter) and appeared on the massively popular Instagram account the Shade Room, TikTok user @equanaaa documents her visit to Fontaine’s Oyster House, which she claims serves “the best fucking oysters in Atlanta.” She explains that she’s meeting a man who had been trying to take her out for some time, and, once seated, proceeds to order the Tuesday special: a dozen oysters for $15. Then she gets another round. And another. And another. The whole time, we’re treated to closeup shots of @equanaaa dressing the oysters with lemon juice and tabasco sauce, then knocking them back. At some point, her companion decides he’s had enough and flees the scene, leaving her to pay the check.
The clip has prompted an almost giddy disbelief across social media, with viewers commenting on the amount of food, the choice to document the shellfish feast and whether @equanaaa left an appropriate tip. “I’m sorry but 48 oysters as an appetizer got me screaming,” reads one of the top comments on the TikTok. (The oysters were followed by a potato dish and crab cakes.) An X user wrote rap lyrics describing the incident: “Took her to the seafood spot, shit was straight, then she started murdering oysters, first 48.” And while some observers said they, too, would abandon a date over this order, one person joked, “Can’t have 4 drinks, can’t have 48 oysters, what can a lady have around here?????”
While there was no shortage of opinions on the prospect of demolishing four full platters of oysters in front of a person who isn’t eating at all, Fontaine’s general manager Kelcey Flanagan, who was working that night, tells Rolling Stone it’s almost typical for Atlanta. “This is nothing new for us,” she says. “It was just quite funny.”
Flanagan says @equanaas’s gauntlet of seafood didn’t exactly break any records for Fontaine’s. “I’ve had two ladies order six dozen [oysters] each,” she says. “That’s not even the cherry on top — they were drinking white Russians. I didn’t know how to personally feel about that. I was just like, this is insane to me, but okay.” She’s also seen competitive eaters come in on special nights: “Like I had this one guy that was in an oyster-eating competition order 15 dozen,” she says.
“I will say, it had been a minute since I had a single female eat that many,” Flanagan adds. “But then, you know, she was eating crackers and things like that. But yeah, she put it away. It’s pretty impressive.”
Flanagan also cleared up a few questions raised by @equanaas’s TikTok. First, she denied any charge that the video had been staged. “No, this happens all the time,” she says of customers walking out on dates that go awry. “People already think its guerrilla marketing and it’s just like, it’s just Atlanta. You can’t make it up.” As to why the table never gets cleared, Flanagan explains that @equanaaa asked her server to keep the empty plates so she could stack them for the video. Perhaps the strangest revelation, however, is that the woman’s date came back after she had paid the tab. “I don’t know what was said,” Flanagan says. “But he popped back in and then they left.” (Reached via her Instagram account, @equanaaa did not reply to a request for comment on this.)
Overall, Flanagan found @equanaaa to be a “real pleasant” patron and took no issue with her tip, around which there has been some confusion — she left $15 on her card and another $11 in cash, amounting to a 14 percent gratuity. “People have been roasting this poor girl,” Flanagan says, for not tipping 20 percent. “You know, it comes out in the wash. Some people tip great, some people, it’s regular, but she was nice. I just hope she’s not getting too much flak.” Besides, the TikTok may well have boosted business for Fontaine’s. “Today we sold more [oysters] than we have been on a Thursday afternoon,” Flanagan says. “It’s also Pride in Atlanta this weekend, too. So we were kind of already expecting that influx. But yeah, definitely some interest has been expressed because of that video.”
And exactly what kind of oysters will you enjoy if you visit? Flanagan says that @equanaaa was raving over a batch harvested from the James River in Virginia, but the restaurant also has house oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, Blue Points from Connecticut and a rotating specialty from a wide range of sources.
“She had she had a good time, and, you know, it was just another Tuesday,” Flanagan says of her now-viral customer. “We all had a laugh about it. We didn’t think it would go this crazy, especially being from Atlanta. You watch it and you realize how Atlanta-esque it is. I think a lot of people that maybe aren’t from here saw a little taste of it.”
Or a big taste, you might say.