Valentine’s Day at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que was treated more like a day of appreciation for single people called “Eat, Drink and be Messy,” with drink specials like the “(Beer) Bucket of Love,” and the “Thirst Trap Margarita.” 

But Jason Ryan, marketing director for Dinosaur, felt the selection of drinks wouldn’t be complete without taking a jab at outspoken Syracuse critic, Pete Davidson. Dino introduced a vodka cranberry called “Thank You, Next” to go with the rest of their anti-love themed drinks, named for the celebratory breakup song of Davidson’s ex-fiancé, Ariana Grande.  

“We didn’t want to put too much effort into him by coming up with something custom,” Ryan said of making the drink a standard vodka cranberry. “It was kind of like ‘OK, this is how much it means to us. You’re the most basic thing. Move along.’” 

Davidson has made his disdain for Syracuse known loud and clear. He first criticized the city during a SiriusXM interview in September with Howard Stern. “Dude, I was shooting this movie out in Syracuse. Syracuse, you know, it’s trash. Worse than Staten Island. The nicest hotel in Syracuse is, like, a f*cking Ramada,” he said. 

The comedian and Saturday Night Live cast member wrapped up filming the movie “Big Time Adolescence” last summer with Liverpool-based production company American High, which was founded by “Wedding Ringer” co-writer Jeremy Garelick. American High did not respond to The Daily Orange’s multiple requests for comment for this story. 

The film premiered Jan. 28 at the Sundance Film Festival, where Davidson continued to publicly share his disdain for the city. He told Variety during a taped interview with the rest of the film’s cast that “the whole town of Syracuse blows.” Later, Davidson said “never again, Syracuse” while giving the middle finger. 

Davidson and others, including Grande, were seen at Syracuse staples like Funk ‘n Waffles, Wegmans, Armory Square and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, while Davidson was filming the movie.  

“Dinosaur wouldn’t be around without Syracuse. It’s who made us,” Ryan said.  

Dinosaur settled into its Willow Street location in Syracuse in 1988 and now has locations in seven additional cities. The cheekily-named drink was also meant to send the message that, “You can’t come out after our town after we tried to show you a good time,” Ryan said. 

Dino introduced the “Thank You, Next” drink on its Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages on Feb. 1, four days after the Variety interview came out. The tweet read, “In light of #PeteDavidson’s recent comments on @Variety regarding #Syracuse we added a sixth drink called, ‘Thank you, next’ just for you, Pete.”  

Susi Stein, managing partner for Dino, said the response on social media was strong and generally positive from local media and people in the community.  

“People started coming in and they were like ‘I don’t even care what the drink is. I just want it,’” Stein said.  

Melissa Nograsek, of Cicero, bartends at Dinosaur and said the vodka cranberry drink is popular without the name mocking Davidson, but that naming it “Thank You, Next” generated extra buzz. 

“I think they’re loving the name because either they love Pete or they hate Pete,” Nograsek said.  

Ryan, who also teaches a course about social media use for companies as an adjunct professor at Syracuse University, said it was fun to see online interaction with the posts. Dino’s tweet announcing the drink has about 90 retweets and more than 200 likes. A Syracuse.com article on the drink’s announcement collected more than 50 comments. 

“It was really funny to see people interact on Twitter and on Facebook and Instagram and see them being like ‘Yeah, this is our city, you can’t make fun of it,’” Ryan said. “The idea itself was extremely simple, but it was more or less to get people together and talk about it.” 

The Onondaga County District Attorney also fired back at Davidson over his comments to Variety in a video to CNYCentral. “I am going to ask Manlius police to look into the charges that were brought against Mr. Davidson and see if they can’t be reopened. And then we’ll see how much he really likes Syracuse,” said DA William Fitzpatrick, in the video published Jan. 29. 

Davidson was pulled over by Manlius police in August while driving with friend and fellow comedian Joey Gay Jr. in the passenger seat. Gay Jr. was subsequently charged with unlawful possession of marijuana, Syracuse.com reported. 

“Let’s be honest — they found out I was there and tried to arrest me the entire time,” Davidson said in the same January interview to Variety. 

“My reaction is not that serious as some people have let on,” Fitzpatrick said in an interview with The Daily Orange on Tuesday. “I can’t believe people are stupid enough to think I would actually reopen a speeding case, for crying out loud.” 

“I didn’t really know who Pete Davidson was. I don’t really care what he says,” Fitzpatrick added. 

Stein said she ultimately wasn’t surprised by Davidson’s comments. “Not because I think Syracuse is trash,” she said. “But just because of how he is and how people act when they think they’re above other people. But when he was here, he didn’t act like we were trash.” 

“We all have a lot of pride in our little city,” Stein said. “I think it was something everyone wanted to do but didn’t, so I’m glad that Dinosaur that had enough balls to make it happen.”

Published on February 19, 2019 at 9:02 pm

Contact Mary: mdcatalf@syr.edu | @mrycatalfamo