Chances are you’ve heard of an “angel shot”: a codeword that, when ordered at a bar, means a woman needs help getting out of an uncomfortable or unsafe situation. With the Angel Shot app, that discrete help is now just a tap away.
Stephen Brennan, the owner of Whiskey’s in Freeport, had the idea for the app when he realized the main obstacles preventing women from ordering angel shots: lack of awareness, discretion and ease. Perhaps she didn’t know what an angel shot was; maybe she was scared her harasser would know what “angel shot” is code for; or maybe the bar was simply too crowded to easily make her way to the bartender. The app solves all three problems at once.
“You’ll see a girl talking to a guy, and then he’d be there like an hour, and then after he leaves, she’s like, ‘Thank God, he left,'” Brennan told the Press. “I’m like, ‘Why didn’t you order an angel shot?’ And she wasn’t aware of it.”
“So okay, how can we build awareness?” he said. “How can we make this easier and get the word out there about it?”
Brennan’s answer was the Angel Shot app — a free app where people can check into the establishment they’re at and, if they’re faced with an uncomfortable or unsafe situation, they can order one of four variations of an angel shot: regular, which means they need mild assistance; neat, which means they’d like a staff member to escort them to their car or wait with them for their Uber; on the rocks, which means a staff member should call them a cab; or with lime, which means a staff member should call the police. The user can include additional notes for context.
Once the user “places their order,” the bar staff will all get an alert on their phones that includes the order details and the user’s profile, which includes their name and picture to make them easier to find in the bar. The app officially launched on Dec. 9 after a beta period. 50 establishments are signed up on it so far, and more than 30 have already seen their patrons use it to get out of uncomfortable situations.
“It’s going to revolutionize the way people go out,” said Alexandria Pierre, one of the Angels, or people who help connect people and establishments to the app. “You want to go out and have that safety.”
Angel Shot app aims to protect women from harassment
The app, while helpful for people of any age or gender, is a game-changer for young women, the demographic that most commonly experiences harassment or feels unsafe on a night out. Rachel Arato, the Head Angel, has been in the restaurant industry for years and said this tech solves the problems women face in bars all too frequently — men not taking “no” for an answer.
“Maybe we go out, and a group of guys, they’re drunk, and next thing you know: ‘Let me buy you a drink,'” Arato said. “[We say] ‘No, I’m ok, thank you though, have a good night,’ and we move somewhere else.”
However, as many women know, the pattern will generally continue throughout the night.
“Alright, I’ve had enough, I’ve told them no, I feel uncomfortable,” Arato said. “Let me call the bartender — but I don’t want to get up, because I don’t want them following me.”
In the past, a man refusing to leave a woman and her friends alone would leave said woman with very few options: either confront him more aggressively, or try to get the staff’s attention in front of the harasser. Neither option guarantees the harassment stops, and both risk escalation.
With the app, a woman can put an end to the uncomfortable situation straight from her phone, bypassing obstacles like a crowded bar. It also helps in other moments, like when a bar fight is about to break out. This technology finally allows for quick, proactive communication to prevent those unsafe situations from happening in the first place.
“It’s about just making sure that people feel safe and empowered and just free to have fun and go out,” Pierre said.
The app has users create a profile including their name and address, their picture, and the make and model of their car. It also lets users add as many emergency contacts as they’d like. Angel Shot makes Jimmy LaSalle, who cofounded and developed the app with his company Keen Insites, feel more at ease as the father of a 17-year-old girl.
“I tell my daughter I need to know three things: I need to know where you are, who you’re with, and what you do,” LaSalle said. “So that went into it a lot.”
“I wish I had this when I was younger, when I was in my college years,” Pierre said. “Now that I know that my younger sister, my younger siblings, they can go out and I can actually find out that they’re at a bar and they’re safe — it just makes it all the difference.”
Angel Shot is available to download on all app stores.
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