To a certain downtown bar, you used to be one of my favourite spots to stop by on a Saturday night, but as of this Saturday you have dropped to the bottom of my list. When I went to go in this evening, I was second pieced (naturally) which is fine by me. But the fact that you wouldn’t take debit or student ID as a second piece is absolute bogus. I had three pieces on me that night and that wasn’t good enough to get me into your (dirty) bar. The bouncer suggested that next time perhaps I bring my passport with me as valid ID. Your right genius bouncer, bringing my passport downtown while I’m drunk seems like a great idea—just to get into your (dirty and stupid) club. You sure know how to ruin a great night. —All I Wanted to Do Was Dance
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2011.
I can only assume this is Rejections. Yeah, the two pieces of ID thing is ridiculous. A friend of mine came to visit from Quebec and he couldn’t get in even with his passport and license.
Funny thing, Ive been in halifax for just over a month now and every time ive ordered an alcoholic beverage at any bar or restaurant ive never been asked for I.d. and i am only 20 years old. The only time ive been asked to provide photo id is at the liquor store.
Why should the bouncer accept your debit card as ID? It isn’t a secondary proof of your age. He’s trying to prove your age, not your stupid name.
you could have gone to oasis… I was there Friday night and holy drucking funk faced batman. It’s like they were letting anyone in.
I was fairly sober… which was almost scary because of how utterly hammered, trashed nearly everyone was.
Was your first piece of photo id government authorized (driver’s license, etc?). If not get one of these:
http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/paal/rmv/paal27…
Also if the club is so dirty why the fuck are you going there? Dumbass.
Send some of the fresh frosh to my house for a piss-up on a Saturday night…….go team go!
If they’re not going to let you in with 3 pieces of ID or, in JDP21’s friend’s case, with a passport, (really? it’s good enough to get you into other countries but not good enough to get you into a bar?),than they just don’t want you in. Plain and simple. To them, I would say a great big FUCK YOU, leave and never darken their doorstep again. There are plenty of other places to go in this city that would LOVE to have your business without having to cater to the whim of some shithole dance club trying to pass itself off as being “exclusive”…pfffft. what a joke lol
AHAHAHAHAHAHA
A debit card as valid ID?
ROFLZ.
My 30 year old cousin got bounced out of a club in halifax because she only had ontario ID and apparently it’s easy to make your own ontario id? or something…. The only ID they said they’d take was her NS birth certificate (which isn’t photo ID).
I dunno, bars in halifax are really picky with out of province ID. Meanwhile, I had absolutely no issue with my NS id in either Quebec or Ontario.
So it was the Cats Ass when you could get in but dirty and stupid when you couldn’t, sounds like you need to grow a little
You don’t understand a thing about the rules and regulations of having a liquor licence, so before you start bitching and whining that your debit card didn’t get you into a bar, you need to learn a couple things.
You need to accept the fact that just because you’re 19, you don’t have the right to enter any bar you want. They are private establishments and you can be denied access for any reason, or no reason. And there’s no way to fight that. Getting into a bar is a privilege, not a right.
You also need to learn what is valid ID and what isn’t. News flash: Student ID, and debit cards are NOT valid pieces of ID. The police don’t accept them as valid pieces, the liquor enforcement officers don’t accept them as valid ID and neither do most bars. That’s not to say they WON’T accept them as a second piece, but they’re not wrong if they don’t accept it.
The doorman was right, your passport would work. I understand your point of view however in not wanting to bring it downtown, so instead go get an Identification Card at the DMV (it’s different than a Drivers Licence). Or vice versa if you don’t have a licence.
The main thing you need to understand is why you got denied. You know you’re 19, your friends know you’re 19, so why can’t you get in?! The doorman doesn’t know you’re 19. And you may not see them, but the Liquor Enforcement Officers go to most clubs/bars on busy nights and randomly ID people within the bar. And they definitely don’t know if you’re really 19 or not. I’ve had to deny my best friends because they forgot their ID’s at home. I know they’re 19+, but it doesn’t matter, the liquor inspectors don’t. And if an underager is caught, it will result in either a written warning, a hefty fine, or the bar losing it’s liquor licence.
Now tell me, what’s a club without a liquor licence? At the end of the day, if there’s any doubt that you might be underage, why would the bar risk losing thousands and thousands of dollars just so you can come in and have a good time?
You also probably don’t realize how many people (mostly girls, which I assume you are), try to get in underage. And you know what they usually provide as backup ID? Student IDs and debit cards. Why? Because who cares if you lose a Student ID or a debit card? Just go get another one. No one’s gonna lend someone a passport.
This doorman seemed to be doing his job perfectly and you just don’t understand it.
So now you know why you didn’t get in, maybe next time instead of taking the easy way out and trying to bitch out a doorman just doing his job, you’ll look at yourself and realize you fucked up. Not him.
aside from this particular bar, and well…bars in general, i once only had to give my health card as ID at the NSLC b/c i forgotten my drivers licence in another pair of pants. i was shocked, but mind you, im 32, i was only buying a few coolers, i clearly looked like i was up to no good. haha.
when i still had my ontario DL, i was only told once at one establishment that i may have problems using it for ID in the future. I used it for 4 years as ID without issue. *shrug*
Why is it that most places just ask for one piece and some of them ask for more than one?
I was pulled over by a cop once for speeding and showed my Shoppers Optimum card for my driver’s lic.
Swear it’s true!
(bank card… Jesus. I hope you’re studying interior decorating or art history- something where noone gets hurt when you mess up in your job)
TommyJules902 – It can be for many reasons. A particular bar may have accidentally let in an underager and been caught, therefore getting a written warning that if it happens again there will be more severe consequences. So they may step up their security.
Or it can just be because the owners/managers of the bar want things done that way. Like I said in my previous post, all bars/clubs are private establishments and make whatever rules they wish. So each bar is probably going to be a little different.
To a bar, having a liquor licence is everything, and that licence can be taken away due to accessive amounts of underagers getting in. So this is obviously something no owner wants, so therefore it’s usually taken pretty seriously.
Thanks Truelies, I might have to go get an ID like I had before I got my license. They’re cheap. I just wish I didn’t have to bring all my ID to the bar with me so that if I lost it I could have a back up that I’d leave at home. I haven’t been asked for more than one piece in a long time though.
Wheeliep – pretty sure I’ve told this story before, but I’ll tell it again cuz it’s one of my favorites.
One time my friend got pulled over and started talkin to the cop. He made a joke about almost being charged for Arson.
The cop gets kind of indignant, says “what do you mean you ALMOST got charged with Arson, did you almost burn something down? Or were you trying to but something stopped you, or did you succeed and just not get caught? How can you almost get charged with arson?”
To which he replied..
“No, no, no, couple weeks ago I dragged a girl in the woods, beat her arse-in”
Cop looked at him for a sec, burst out laughing for a few minutes, uncontrollably, and told him to have a nice day.
Still cracks me up.
OB, there are plenty of bars downtown…just choose another for fuck’s sake. Maybe if you dress like a slut, the bouncer will let you in. lol.
Seb regular dodges paying cover by showing the bouncers how fast he can felch a honeydew melon.
OP I’m pretttty sure I know where you speak of. About 2 weeks ago a few of us went there and hadn’t heard of the at least 2 pieces of government issued ID thing. I usually take my driver’s license and student ID as the second piece and have never had issues. The bouncer was really nice about it. He said he was really sorry but last week they had gotten a pretty hefty fine for letting an underage person in. He said that he “liquor police” come in randomly and have been there for the past 3 nights and were here now. Thankfully it was only a 10 min walk back to my wallet so that I could grab my health card. When we came back we went to the front of the line (as instructed by him) and were let in cover free, with a VIP wrist band and a free drink.
I don’t think they WANT to turn away business OP, but rules are rules, and I understand why the rules are there. We weren’t mouthy about it and didn’t talk back, just kinda said ok and started to walk away when he told us to come back with proper ID and he’d see what he could do.
They’re only doing their jobs, and not all of them are bastards.
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Arse in
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Lollled!
yeah but o.p., if you don’t look it, it is the job of management to check you out. i have seen 13 year olds, that could pass for a hell of a lot older. when doug and the group used to play the clubs, i saw a lot of that. and almost got locked up because of one not old enough chick, she was 14, but looked 20+. you just never know sometimes. seems the girls are maturing a lot faster and better than the guys in the last few years. so yeah, i would have carded you too.
pfft.. even when i used a fake ID i was never carded twice. So maybe you just looked like a sketch?
Now that you’re a “grown up” the rules apply to you. Grow up and deal with it.
And a debit card is not a valid piece of ID unless you’re in a bank.
Funny thing about Passports: They’re only legal ID outside of your own coutry. All a passport does is say the person hold this booklet is a citizen of the courty this booklet was issued from, and their names is XXXXXXXXXXXX. Nothing more. So a Bouncer saying show me your pass port not only doesn’t beilieve your old enough doens’t believe you are from what ever country your are from (I presume Canada but I could be wrong)
Besides your government issued licensed what is valid ID then? I refuse to bring my passport as that is a MAJOR liability issue and my birth certificate is in the long form, and that is just stupid to bring downtown to get into a bar (not worth the trouble if you ask me!).
I have heard of a certain Pougue that is now requiring 3 pieces of ID and am wondering what this would include besides your drivers license that would be reasonable to expect a person to carry on them?
Also the bitch does not state the debit card is their first form of ID but the second form as maybe that is all they had (I know I bring as little as possible that way if I lose my wallet, I don’t lose everything) ?? Some people here seem to be commenting as if that was the only form of ID they had given as their first choice…
Where’s JJ Rossy’s when you need it, eh kid?
Ha! ^ So true…
I feel sorry for you kids. Back when we were under-agers we went to the original Gingers of Hollis Street and either just walk in the door or if there was someone watching we’d get a friend to open the back door. Meanwhile whoever was in there first would order a tray of draft. The LBR was just about as laid back. No fucks were given back then.
Jesus even as a teenager in the 90s, I never once got Id’d… kids do have it “rough” these days 🙂
It is weird but they sometimes do take things like health cards or debit cards as ID… I don’t know why. I needed two pieces of ID once and the only valid ID I had was my driver’s license but the bouncer said my health card was fine… I don’t know why though. OH and I was at some other bar and the waitress asked for my ID and I was starting to get it out and she was like, “No don’t bother with getting it out, just as long as you have it” I lawled rull good.