What a Weird Night!

The summer is just plugging along and The Tyger and I are having the time of our lives with all of our TV watching, sweating by the pool, and beer guzzling nights. Both of us have to admit that we are truly reliving our 20's again as if we were back in the dorms. The crazy drama we get into and all the trouble associated with it can be compared to that of a tornado. It strikes down causing chaos and destruction for a brief moment then disappears as quickly as it appeared. However, although we do have these wild and insane nights, we do occasionally have our off days. This night was one of them.

Trivia night seems to be something that's really popular here in Atlanta. Personally, I've never heard of Trivia night until I came here but I think it's because I don't get out much. I'm not sure how the whole thing works exactly but I'll try to explain how I understand it to be. So, the a bar usually has a DJ who asks different trivia questions related to all subjects such as sports, movies, people, etc. For each question your team answers correctly you receive points. At the end, the top three teams who have the most points receives a discount on their beer tab based on the amount of points you've accumulated. It's actually pretty fun and it even gets to be more exciting when you're drunk and can't even answer your own name! But hey, anything for a discount on beer, right?

The Tyger's friends had invited us out to this sports bar called Benchwarmers for Trivia night. We had all gone there once before and it seemed to be an ok place to hang out. The Tyger and I were the first to arrive so we decided to sit at the bar, order a beer, and wait for the rest of the crew to show up. The bartender takes our order, gives us our beer, and 5 minutes later everyone arrives. We grab a table in the back and get set up for trivia.

Just then, the waitress comes by asking everyone for their ID's. One of the people in our group forgot his wallet at home and therefore he wasn't able to present it. The waitress tells him, "I'm sorry but I can't serve you without ID. It's our policy to check ALL ID's and we can't serve you if you don't have one." They began discussing it to where she kept repeating the "must check all ID" policy before serving. That's when I stepped in and told her the bartender up front didn't ask for The Tyger's nor my ID when we ordered our beer. She started to throw some attitude and kept on repeating their policy and that it was her job blah, blah, blah. I said to her, "Well if that's your policy then everyone here should really be enforcing it because we weren't checked before being served." She walked off in a huff.

About 10 minutes later, this older woman who looked like the owner came by to "chat" with us. She went on to explain their "strict" policy about checking ID before serving and how they would get in trouble if some official walked in, yada, yada, yada. Again, I spoke up and said, "I understand your policy but if it's really THAT strict then there needs to be consistency in it because my friend and I weren't checked." She didn't say anything. It was like she had a ball stuck in her throat and couldn't speak. She KNEW they had fucked up! In the end, she let our friend stay and got him a beer but the waitress never came by again. In fact, we got no service at all for the rest of the night. When we paid our bill, they wouldn't even bring us our change! The Tyger had to go up and ask for it to which they were like, "Oh yeah, sorry, forgot." Like we would really leave them a $10 tip after all that BS!

We couldn't get over the lousy service and attitudes of the sports bar. I mean, I'm not against their policy and I completely understand that it was part of their job to ask for ID. I have no problem with that. What bothered me was the inconsistency of it all. If you're going to enforce your policies then DO IT! Enforce them!!! None of this checking some people but not others then blaming the customer. Whatever.

As you can tell, this night didn't sit well with us. Not only were my eyes burning from all the cigarette smoke lingering in the air but The Tyger was also parched and cranky from only having one beer. Let me tell you, you don't want to see The Tyger when she doesn't get her beer! It's not a pretty sight!

We drove back to the apartment both feeling odd from the night we had just experienced. The Tyger had made a comment about how she has never been treated so poorly as a customer. We vowed never to go back again and stick with what we know, like The 5th Earl Market. We always have a good experience at "The Earl" and are always treated as if we are special customers. We decided to go there this week to make up for the crappy night we had. At least we know the people there will be nice to us and treat us well!