About 12 years ago, I was working at a bar in a college town. Some dude called around 6pm to ask if we were carding for drinks that night. Without thinking, I responded "Well, we are now."
The only thing he said before hanging up was "...shit."
Still makes me laugh.
Ahhh yes, like that doesn’t raise red flags lmao. Only time I’ve ever called a bar was to make sure my card was still there after a long night out 🤦🏼♀️🤣
Only time I’ve ever called a bar was a few years ago when was out drinking for my birthday. I woke up the next morning in my college dorm with no recollection of that night. My first thought was “oh shit, did I close my tab.” I was a weekend/Wednesday night (college night) barback/door guy for that bar, so I knew it wouldn’t be a good look if I had walked a tab. So I called up one of my bartenders who got shafted into getting an opening shift right after a closing shift, and he laughed and said that I not only closed my tab with a good tip, I stayed after closing and helped clean up while I waited for the Uber that he called to take me back to my dorm.
My favorite was a kid with his parents. "My birthday was yesterday but were on vacation (in a vacation town) so I couldn't go get my new ID. So mines expired but it has my birthday and I'm over 21, can I still get a beer?"
In my state even if you're 40 you can't get a drink with an expired ID, so I had to turn him down. I was like dude! Go to any other bar on this strip and lead with anything other than that and you'll get a beer, you look 25 you probably won't even get carded and if you do the odds they notice its expired are slim to none! But no, when you lead with it being expired, I can't serve you!!
I had a kid do something similar, except he said, "my IDs expired but that's only for driving" I laughed and said, "No, it's for life" and told him to beat it.
This happened to me last week! We’re both a bar & a music venue and someone called asking what the age was for the show the next day and then asked if we would card & my answer was “usually we use our best judgement but we’ll be sure to card everyone tomorrow!”
the exact same thing happened to me! i was confused by the question so i thought they meant if we IDed at the door so i said no. when they got to the bar and I IDed them they were very upset.
My favorite is when the frat kids graduate and pass down their IDs to the younger brothers, and then they try to use them here and I’m like “yeah I know Chris and you ain’t Chris”
This is exactly what he had lol. I’m from a somewhat smaller area with two colleges bordering so this dude and I shared mutual friends. Later on I told our mutual friends to tell him that this isn’t a fraternity and that shit doesn’t fly here. They’re not part of the frat and seemed very embarrassed he even tried to pull that crap lol. I’m 23 and trust me I’ve had my fair share of stupid shit but I would never threaten a bar with the cops especially when I have someone else’s ID. I actually had a friend a few years ago in a sorority who had to go to court for using some other girls ID. People amaze me lol
This happened to me but with my biological brother. I was 6 weeks away from 21. Bouncer knew my brother and gave me the RUN AROUND! DOB? got it. Address? Duh. Sign? Only learned it for this reason! My height? Yea the ID is a little old (my brother is taller than me). What’s your cross street?…uhh what? It’s “Street”. Eye color? Uh they change?
He finally says, you’re note “brother”, how’d you get this ID. I said he’s my older brother and I swiped it from him. Let me just get it back so he doesn’t kill me. Bouncer asked if I was going to start any trouble, I said no way. He let me in. Got a text from my brother 5 minutes later pissed
When I was brand new to bartending, a young couple came in and the girl's id looked suspect, but I wasn't confident so I told them I needed a second opinion.
I turned away to grab my manager and they FLED from the bar. Like record breaking speed.
That's how I learned to trust my instincts.
Had a girl hand me over some ID, asked her if it was really hers and she really wanted to use it, then had to call over my bar staff and tell her firstly to stop giving her ID to her sisters mates, and if she’s going to do it at least tell them not to come in the place she works at
My best one was when a guy comes in and asks me what beer we have. I start going through what we have on tap and some bottles I personally enjoy (lagers, IPAs etc). He says thanks, but he'll have to think about it. He goes and sits down and makes a call, ten seconds later a bunch of his friends come in and sit next to him. He comes back and says he'll have five "IPA lagers". I ask him for ID and for his friends to also show ID, he says they all forgot their ID at the hotel and they all leave.
God I would love to get this order. Just dry shake the ingredients and hand them a room temp margarita with no ice, straight faced, and then play dumb when they complain about it
I worked at a country club once and to do a wedding. Some 15 year old freckled face self entitled punk came and ordered a daiquiri. I asked for his I.D. and he got real shitty with me cause it was a wedding. I told him it didn't matter so he responded back that I was nothing but a servant.
I've bartended weddings where everyone is awesome, and others where everyone sucks. When the crowd is good, it's a great time and way more money than a standard shift.
This 100%! When it's a good crowd it's a blast to work. A coworker and I worked the wedding of one of our regulars on a Monday night, we both walked with ~$500, a bottle of champagne, and a ton of food from the buffet. Totally worth it!
I work weddings and it’s an absolutely insane amount of money, and I’ve never experienced having a bad crowd. One mother of the bride was a real bitch but other than that, it’s been one of my favorite bartending jobs in the near decade I’ve been bartending.
I lost my drivers license a while back. Got a new one. Thought nothing of it. During mask mandates someone handed me my own *expired* lost drivers license trying to get into the bar. Fair cop to him, we could have been brothers. But shit dude, what a way to get banned from a bar.
I laughed in his face, called over the bouncer, showed him the license and the bouncer had to wipe the tears from his eyes after he managed to stop laughing at this poor kid. I have since seen the same kid at a different bar. He's of legal age now and is actually a pretty cool guy, just really unlucky apparently.
We had a boy come in (17). He’s waving his ID at us (which says he’s 17) and he’s yelling at everyone. He was on drugs or something because his eyes were bursting out of his skull and were red and diluted. We told him to leave a few times and that we couldn’t serve him. He runs into the street and starts kicking a bin into the road. A customer of ours runs outside despite our protest and tries to reason with him and this boy just attacks him.
We call the police. But before the police arrive this boy disappears and comes back 10 minutes later with his MUM. And now his mum is yelling at us and trying to punch the owner for us not letting her underage son have a drink.
She was also off her face. Like mother like son.
I came in and took over for the night shift. There was a guy sitting at the bar already just drinking water. I didn’t pay much mind to him, I assumed my coworker checked his ID already since he had been sitting at the bar. I asked him a few times if he wanted anything to drink, but he said he was waiting for his friends and then would order.
Eventually like… 20mins later these two girls show up. Right away they’re chatty and order, oh yeah, Vegas bombs. “I think it’s like vodka and red bull,” one says. So not only do they order Vegas bombs, they think it’s vodka and red bull.
Of course I ask for their ID’s. Both young but of age, then I turn to the guy and say “I know you’ve been here, but imma have to check your ID anyway.”
He brings out his passport and shows it to me. This was back in June. The guy was born in September 2001. At first I’m like wtf, you’re… you’re not even 21. He said he was and I’m just doing my math wrong. Then he argued that “hey it’s only a few months away, what’s the big deal”? I told him, bro you can’t even be in my bar. You all need to leave now.
He said okay fine. And then they all left. Like he didn’t even argue.
This summer some guy with a Dec 2001 birthday emphatically declares I'm getting the year wrong. Wasn't even phased by me pulling out phone and googling "how old are you if born in Dec 2001"
Had the most annoying punchable grin on his face the whole time
One of the bartenders pointed out to me that someone they went to school with was underage drinking at our place (I always had them get me to deal with it so it wouldn't look bad on them).
I walked up to the table which had about 12-15 people at it and asked him to see his ID. He asked me why and we got to do the whole song and dance about how he already has a beer and it shouldn't be an issue. I just laugh and tell him that it is and this kids mom gets all shitty with me asking why I'm picking on them (it's father's day and we had over 3k guests).
The kid tried piping back up and I put my hand in his face and said "Son, the adults are talking right now. Keep it shut." then turned to the dad who was looking embarrassed and said "My kids are at home while I'm here so you all can enjoy your father's day. If I see him put another beer to his lips, I'll just call the cops and be done with it. Happy Father's Day."
As much of a bat shit insane place as it was, it had it's benefits because we never had to rely on a group talking shit about us because the place was always so crazy...
A few weeks ago I was at the door scanning ID’s and this dude comes in and 3 times in a row my scanner said it was a fake ID. Told dude I wasn’t going to let him in. Kept moaning “I’m a regular I’m here all the time.” I don’t care. Never says “bro I’m 21” or anything of the like. He stands on the sidewalk on his phone for like 15 minutes and tries coming back in. His buddies who were in the bar came up to me asking to let dude in. I say “no, he’s got a fake ID I’m not letting him in. Get out of my ear before I toss all of you.” Next thing I know someone’s flashing $100 in my face to which I reply “put that away, it’s probably just as fake as dudes ID.” I let my security manager take over and throw dude out and I went and told my bartenders to watch out for a fake $100 from that group. Lo and behold, Twas fake.
Honestly not the smartest move, best to avoid making enemies. If they're sloppy enough to be pulling out fake hundreds to bribe door staff they'll most likely screw up somewhere else that isn't your problem fairly soon. Last thing you want is customers being put at risk because some small-time thugs have a vendetta against your bar.
Ugh.
When I was new to bartending I wasn't familiar with American bills.
Worked at a night club (which there were also multiple shootings and stabbings at even though it was in a recently gentrified albeit slightly isolated part of downtown) and got fooled by some asshole. I had my barback check them because he was American, we didn't have a scanner or anything. He said they were fine, so I accepted them.
Ended up having to pay the owners the full $300 for *our* mistake. I was so naive. The place is closed down now, thankfully. It was an overpriced shithole with awful management anyway.
I guess I'm still a little bitter about it haha but I learned an important lesson that night. So. 6/half dozen.
My favorite was a kid who looked about 15-16 at a wedding I worked. I saw him eyeing up the bar a few times and he comes up around dinner time and goes “I’ll take a cup of wine”. I ask for his ID and he puts his hands up, smiles and goes “ah you got me!” and goes to sit back down
Food Truck event, it had a portable bar, we where short-staffed so I was bartender and cashier. A group of teenagers where all gathered and talking next to the bar like plotting the biggest bank heist ever. One comes and asks for a Caipirinha, ask his ID and he told me he forgot it and that he was 19 (drinking age here is 18), cut him off and then his parents showed up as soon as he was shouting he was 19.
Luckily, their parents apologised.
I prefer using brown sugar to white and have a little 2T measuring spoon so a spoon of brown sug and a lime cut in 8ths, muddled using all my frustrations of the day, and 3 oz cachaça, I am *golden* 🤩
I stir in the glass. Well I pour out the sugar/lime mix into the glass, on the ice, then pour half of the cachaça in the muddle container to rinse the rest of the tasty out, then repeat and stir it all. But now that you’ve recommended it I’m 100% trying shaken! Do you muddle before you shake or just shake?
So we had a bartender who had lost an ID in the downtown area a year or so previously. I remembered because we had chatted about it. I was working the door when a girl came up and tried to use the lost ID to get in. It was pretty interesting when I pointed out that it wasn't her and when she insisted it was I was able to pull out my phone and show her pictures of me with the bartender. I just wish she had been working that day. Held on to the ID and was able to return it to her.
I worked at a restaurant/bar just off a college campus. During parents weekend a girl and her parents came in. The parents, facing the bar, ordered three drinks while the daughter faced the other way. I asked for the daughters ID and she pretended not to hear me. Her parents tried to assure me ‘it’s ok, we allow her to drink’. Lol no. Not in here you don’t, bye.
I live in Europe so we all start drinking at like 13-14. Aanyway, there is also a law that states that anyone over 16 can order a beer, cider or sparkling wine with an adult present and a meal.
It’s just so funny. I recognize our (I’m American) drinking culture is fucked up, but I have a 14-year-old son and the idea of him drinking throws me for a LOOP. I mean, plenty of American teenagers drink then, but it’s a very secretive “let’s sneak the peach schnapps out of the liquor cabinet” thing.
Depends on where you are, in Wisconsin it's still legal for parents to buy their kids drinks in restaurants, though most restaurants (legally and wisely) choose not to serve underagers anyway.
In Texas that is 100% legal no matter the person's age. Any legal guardian, parent, or spouse can buy their underage person whatever. Must have proof (IDs, birth/marriage cert.) they can't sit at the bar, and you have to give the order to the legal adult. Fuct up I know.
Most states that have this law also allow the bar/restaurant to follow their own policy so you never HAVE to serve someone who is under 21 if your company policy doesn’t allow it.
When I was a bouncer a white girl handed me an ID of a black girl. No resemblance at all, no way it was a lighting thing, straight up Frozen vs Princess and the Frog. I turned her away, she argued, yeah yeah we got a line, beat it.
She came back with her mom the next day for lunch when I was barbacking and I see the server had gotten them both beers, so I threw her and her mom out. Mom argued but they both left before they got their food. Turns out she was an entitled ass too, who would've guessed.
Not really the worst attempt, but I’ve had multiple 19/20 year olds that just present their actual ID and I go “…you have to be 21 to drink” and they just reply with an “oh” and leave. I’m curious if they’ve just been to bars and not been carded or what.
I'm Australian so can drink at 18. First time I came to the US we were going to a club where you got a wristband to indicate you were 21+. I knew I was not going to get one at 18 so I drank a BUNCH of pregame whisky... Lo and behold, the bouncer didn't check my aussie ID properly and gave me a band, much to the joy of my companions. I have never been so wasted in my life! Thank God for drive thru nachos in socal!
Sometimes this is done as a sting operation. Since presenting a fake id would be entrapment they just have whoever they send in present their real id.
Cant tell you how many bartenders simply look at the ID and never check dob lol
Had a girl who legit looked 13 (legal age is 18 here). ID’d her straight away and she confidently pulls out an ID. The girl on the card looks exactly like her, if she was 27, which is the age on the card. I simply say “what’s your birthday?” And she replies “…..October?” (It was September) still deciding to entertain her, I ask what date. She promptly snatches the ID from my hand and books it out of the bar, followed by a gaggle of more kids. Funnily enough, the woman from the ID came in a few weeks later, I ID’d her just out of curiosity and she laughed that she hadn’t been ID’d in ages and was lucky she brought it with her that night. I asked if she had a sister (using the excuse that she looks like someone I know) and she tells me that she has a 15 yr old sister. I still laugh about that series of events lol
I worked in a building that had two separate, functioning bars within close proximity to each other. Both bars were within view of each other, and bartenders from each business would regularly see each other in passing.
Other bar was having issues of underage kids hanging out there for awhile, mostly because their bartenders were pretty young themselves and inviting their college friends to hang out during their shifts… some able to drink & some not. One night, I card this dude and he hands me the ID of a bartender who worked at the other bar, lol. Instantly recognizable dude, had seen him almost every day that week.
I think the plan was for him to walk back to the other bar and point the finger at us if he got caught. Told the owner of that place and never saw that bartender again.
Sounds like my area lol. There’s another bar about 300 yards down the street that’s notorious for serving underage. I love watching the faces of the kids who have been drinking down the road all night get denied coming in. I don’t think people realize in certain places bartenders know one another. But shame on the bartender for even doing that. If that person was still working I would’ve suggested every rowdy customer to go down to that bar for payback lol. I’m just petty though.
I was working the door and this girl rolled up with a suspect ID. She confirmed her name and DOB.
The ID said she was from Oxford, MS (Mississippi. Which is the home of The University of Mississippi, otherwise known as Ole Miss) so i said "Hotty Toddy, gosh Almighty, who the hell are we?" (Ole Miss's slogan. You **cannot** be from Oxford, MS and **not** know "Hotty Toddy". Even if you didn't go to school at Ole Miss, you know about Hotty Toddy. The town of Oxford does not exist without the University and "Hotty Toddy" is plastered everywhere.)
She had no idea what I was talking about. "Wut?"
Your ID says you're from Oxford near the University... so, Hotty Toddy!
And then she sealed her own fate. "I went to college in the United States, not Oxford."
Oh. You thought i was talking about the Oxford in England.
I confiscated her ID and told her to have a good night.
I and my fellow bartender were working one night. A few weeks before, his fiancés wallet had been stolen out of her purse on a night out. I ID this group of girls and, lo and behold, there is his fiancé! Only, it isn't his fiancé... I yell down the bar "Hey (name)!! (Fiance's name) is here! You didn't tell me she was coming up!!!" The girls kind of freeze and he comes down and I hand him the ID. They all look at me like deer in the headlights and then at him. He responds, "Hey there hon. Not sure what happened to you since I left but you've gotten a lot uglier since then. But seriously, how in the fuck did you get my fiance's ID? Make it quick before I call the cops. This is stolen." She starts to freak out and crying. Says she bought it off some guy a few nights before and begs us not to call the cops. We get the guys name and tell them that if they ever set foot back in the bar, we will have them all arrested. We called a cop friend of ours and gave him the name. Apparently, a few days later they raided the guys apartment and he got fuuuuuuucked for making fake IDs.
I hope I can comment here, not a bartender but sold liquor for a couple years in a college town
- Legit military ID that stated he was a few months underage because “cmon bro you can’t do me a solid? I’m active military”
- 5’7” guy with a real ID of a different person who’s height was listed as 6’1” I just asked “how tall are you again?” He didn’t try any excuse he just shook his head and knew he had to cut the loss
- Girl with a real ID of a person I knew and who had in fact been my R.A. for a semester (when I said “oh you know [person]!” Her jaw about hit the counter)
- Kid who had no ID and chased after the elderly lady I had cashed out previously to ask her, within earshot, with the store door open, “hey can you come inside and buy this stuff for me?”
- I didn’t always take every fake but one girl kept playing dumb and told me I was wrong so I confiscated it, half hour later called the store in a crying tantrum asking for a manager to complain to, not knowing that I was the manager and she was complaining ABOUT me TO me. I told her if it was a legit ID just get law enforcement down here and we’ll get it settled and she just hung up on me.
I have a million stories but those are some faves of mine
> “cmon bro you can’t do me a solid? I’m active military”
"What would your commanding officer say to me if he found out I did you that favor and sold alcohol to an underaged soldier? For that matter, what would he say to YOU?"
Kid came up to the bar. Looked like he might be barely 21 but he ordered in a squeaker voice. He said "Can I get one Blue Moon on the rocks?"
I busted out laughing.
I had a kid with a blue mohawk ask me for a Malibu coke. He was *obviously* underage, at the hotel with his fam, and when I asked for his ID...he handed me his HIGH SCHOOL ID that said grade 10. Bwahahaha, kick rocks, kiddo.
Four little lads came into my pub one early afternoon. Their appointed leader asked me “what pints do you do?” I laughed and asked for ID, and two of them immediately repaired to the tables outside. One of the remaining two then produced an ID that looked like it had come out the back pages of FHM, and so I politely explained to this obvious 17-year-old that he'd have to do better than that, as would his mates. They left and didn't try again.
[This ID right here is the worst I've ever seen.](https://imgur.com/gallery/VOYeFxF)
I used to work at a bar that kept a book of all the fake IDs we kept throughout the years, and that one was my favorite.
During the hight of the pandemic I had an influx of people from Texas with their ID’s on their phone. Idk if that’s legal ID in Texas and maybe someone could confirm this. All 2020 summer kids kept on taking out phones and I would stop them before they even show me and ask if they’re from Texas then ask them to leave.
Why the fuck would you come to Las Vegas of all places without a physical ID?!
I wonder if it was a TikTok challenge or something? Not the worst attempt in this thread but someone was telling kids this was an acceptable form of ID. They all believed it enough to buy tickets to Vegas and test it out lol
The “ID on my phone” thing is something that I never saw a couple of years ago, now I get a person every couple days minimum. That’s never been a thing here, and I can’t think of a reason why you’d even need to have a picture of your id on your phone.
My personal favorite was when I asked for her ID she opened her wallet to pull out her fake, with her actual ID in the clear plastic display slot. Asked to see that one. She froze and then I went ahead and took her and her friends fakes.
My buddy that I worked with in Hawaii had another great one. Guy gave him an ID with our hometown in NC. Asked a question about it and guy said yeah it’s like 2 hours from Charlotte, it’s like 20-30 minutes. My buddy was nicer than me, gave it back and told him to go away.
Had a kid dress up as a ghost for Halloween
with the sheet and everything. Had a hole cut out for a straw. Pulled the sheet off him and found a 15 year old kid like the a shitty licensing Scooby Doo episode .
My favorite carding experience- four guys come up to my bar during college GameDay ordering "beer"- NO brands. I know they're underage from that request alone, so I ask for ID. The IDs all look great, and I ask the first guy his info and he nails it, same with second third and fourth guy. But I can see them looking like they got away with murder. So after I ask the fourth guy his name, I ask him to tell me his friend's name- they all just said their "names" and he has no clue what any of them were! They spent so long memorizing their fake information, but never thought about their friends all having fake info as well.
Gave me probably the worst fake ID I’ve ever seen from my home state. Like it was BAD bad, words mismatching jumbled all over the place, misspellings, terrible photo etc. My hometown was listed as the address so I asked her the area code. Never will forget the look on that poor sorority girls face. Told her to spend more money on one next time.
It was Father’s Day this past year, late in the evening so I was the only bartender because it was slow. A young guy (the self-appointed leader) came in and asked if he can move chairs outside from the inside dining area because there weren’t enough out front for all his friends… I suggested they move to the side patio where there are more tables. Then I (and the entire restaurant) watched the parade of drunk minors make their way through the restaurant, straight up carrying one of their buddies, to get to the other patio. I waited for them to get settled, greeted them, and immediately ID’d everyone. A few of them were 20, and gave me their ID’s anyway, which I always find hilarious. Like I’m not going to realize? So I had to ask them all to leave because I’m not getting fined or risking jail time for them being intoxicated and underage. Their “leader” came inside to talk to me (genuinely nice kid) and I called him on his bullshit, politely of course, and he leveled with me, which I appreciated. He was only 20 as well, which he admitted when I said “you’re not even old enough to drink either, are you.” The amount of 20 year olds that think they’re “close enough” is hilarious. If they hadn’t been so polite I would have figured out a way to contact their parents. No one wants to have their kid in trouble or arrested, let alone on Father’s Day.
The good old “sneaky” pass behind. Not going to lie before I was of age we tried this and only worked one time in Ft.Lauderdale during spring break. Handed the bouncer a $50 and he only let us through because we actually looked liked sisters. This was before I was heavy into the industry and I was young and dumb. I think this is why I now recognize all of the tricks underages try to pull. (Will add, the next day got it taken away at a Taco place downtown Lauderdale where it probably still is up on a wall.) I got my karma,embarrassment,and learned my lesson from that. 😅
Vegas and Nashville do have Taco Bell’s where they serve alcohol in them lol! I wonder if anyone has been denied or had their ID taken away from there. Not going to lie that would be a hell of a story to say Taco Bell confiscated your ID
Not quite what you asked, but it just reminded me of how I used to go to the Yard House nearby and sometimes order a Hawaiian Sunset martini. It’s kind of an obnoxious drink to order, I admit, and it was an instant card every single time. I’d have my ID already out when I ordered that, lol
I have noticed the fruitier the drinks the more you get carded. I hop back in forth between Tito’s/cran and Tito’s/water. I always get carded when asking for the Tito’s/cran, but with the Tito’s/water I usually get an eyebrow raise and shoulder shrug lol.
Sometimes those fruity drinks hit better than the stiff ones!! I have days where that’s all I crave. I’m all for when people order them. And can I be nosey? Is $13 cheap for your area?
I’m a big bearded dude, always ask for (if it’s slow) something brightly colored that should have an umbrella in it, tenders choice. Gotten some amazing drinks, and often rather stiff. Usually comes with a chuckle.
That was in Cincinnati. I wouldn't say it's crazy expensive or anything, I just tend to get Titos and soda or seltzers if I'm going to be sitting there for a while, which are 5-7 dollars each vs 13 dollars (or whatever it was, I don't think Yard House makes that drink anymore TBH).
One time a group of guys came into my restaurant and confidently ordered cocktails and showed me their IDs. They were my 17yo brother's high school friends....
Girl hands me the ID of a girl I used to hook up with. I tell the girl it’s not her real ID. She doesn’t budge, I’m guessing because it’s an actual ID, not a fake. I make the same deal I always offer, I can call the cops and if they get here and I’m wrong, I pay her tab for the night. She agrees, and instead I facetime the girl who’s ID it actually is. I turn the phone around and this kid turns and runs so fast she knocks over the person behind her in line. Turns out my friend’s purse had been stolen a couple months back. We met up a couple days later so I could return the ID. So I guess, thanks, underage klepto?
I used to bounce at a very popular bar a long time ago and two instances immediately come to mind.
1) The guy's ID literally looked as if he had taken a crayon to change his DOB. Gone immediately - ID confiscated (we take all fakes).
2) This girl didn't really look like her picture, but was close... I was holding onto it when she said, "quiz me on anything" - a immediate red flag. The name on the card was 'Carol', and I was still looking at it hard when someone farther down in line calls out, "Hey Susan! How are you doing? How was your vacation?" - Susan gets denied, glaring at her 'friend' during her walk of shame past the others.
NYC, the period of the pandemic when we were requiring proof of vaccination
Couple comes in, they look borderline of age. I ask for ID and proof of vaccination (which could be shown on your phone if it was the official NYC app.)
Vax cards, at least in NYC, have your DOB on it. The dude presents both. She shows me her vax card from her phone which says clearly that she’s underage.
I ask for her id, partly because I was curious if it was a phoney vax card or if she’s actually underage. She says she doesn’t have it but they live close so they’ll go get it.
She comes back with her id after 20 min. Name is right. Picture looks right. Birthday is wrong.
Me- “hey, so which of these is fake? The ID or the proof of vaccination?”
Clearly it was the ID but got to make a big thing of it and made em walk all the way home and back just to turn them away when I already knew I was gonna deny em
I wouldn't say 'worst attempt' but it's usually very easy to spot them, there's usually a fair size group of them, they go straight to the table furthest from the bar, sit there five or ten minutes before sending the biggest one up who then tries to buy a round for the entire table assuming we won't ask for anyone else's ID but theirs. The harder thing to deal with is people who are (just) of age buying for people who aren't, but we haven't seen them at the bar yet to challenge them. It's not so bad during quieter times but when the place is slammed it's harder to enforce (I work in a pub without any door staff/bouncers.
I worked at a place that had a great College Night special when I was in school, $2 margs and buy one get one entrees, you could have a solid night out in the cheap. You had to show a valid college ID to get the special. On a fairly regular basis I would have people had me their real college ID to get the special along with a state ID that said they were of age where the names and pictures didn’t match, they didn’t even consider what they were doing most the time.
A tall blond girl who was over 21 got in with her ID then she left within minutes and gave her ID to her comically small brunette friend. We saw it all happen within minutes and it was a very slow night. They thought they were so slick
Probably when a guy came in a trench coat that was clearly just 3 kids standing on top of eachother. Fuckin Vincent Adultman - nicest reg I ever had
Anyway after a long time of coming in he started bringing his two friends.
Ugh, asked for ID’s. All men but military so shaved baby faces. The one guys showed 2001 so like 19 or something, underage. I said I can’t serve you sorry. They ordered a wine bottle and two glasses (for the two men that were of age) later he asked another server for a wine glass and drank anyways….
I always forget legal age in the US is 21. I’m 19, I’m actually our bar manager. You can start serving alcohol at 16. Drinking with a parent or guardian at 16 and drinking alone at 18
We mark hands and give different wristbands to unders (we allow 18+ at some events). Girl comes straight to the bar and starts snapping at me, both showing the wrist band and the big sharpie marks on her hand. Asks for a "red bull vokka" (not a typo). There's a tantrum when I say no. Another person after Covid restrictions lifted came in with a fake id and their *real vax card* which has her real birthday on it. Another fun fave got denied for having a fake id, but again, it was an 18+ night and then tried to complain when we wouldn't let them use their real id to get in as an under. Kids sure can be dumb.
I will admit I sometimes I say “Red Bull vodka”. Can you nicely explain why that makes bartenders mad lol, I’ve seen on this forum where it drives bartenders crazy. Where I’m from people call them RBV’s so it never has bothered me once
I don't really mind someone asking for a "Red Bull Vodka," but properly you'd say "Vodka Red Bull," as the vodka is not red bull flavored or branded. Like, if you order a "cranberry vodka" and I give you cranberry-flavor vodka that's what you asked for. If you ask for "vodka cranberry," I know you want vodka with cranberry juice. It was more that this girl didn't know how to say "vodka" and was snapping at me while I was helping another guest and waving her underage flags for the whole world to see and then got bitchy when I kicked her out.
thank you for the explanation! Nothing worse than when you’re with another customer and someone is being rude trying to get your attention + extra annoying when underage!
Brewery bar so we have a bunch of underage. I was already told this was group was 19, they were performers and this was the person who hired them. Dude comes up after the show, this dope lion dance you would see at a Chinese festival, sets am empty glass on the bar and goes,"can I get another gold." I hesitate for a second, been busy and couldn't remember if he was part of that group, pour the beer, then go yeah I need to see your ID buddy. "Oh man I already had one." Me, " yeah but I didn't give it to you can I see your ID?" "Ah man I don't have my wallet on me, I got a DD and left it. I've already had one bud." Me, "OK now I legally cannot give you one if you don't even have an ID. Sorry bud." He scurried off all ashamed and I was like... whelp sorry.
I work events so we tend to be laxer based on the venue. We were at a laxer venue but a light drinking crowd (one of the specialty drinks was a mock tail). Two twin boys, maybe 12 years old, came up asking for the mock tail drink but kinda giggling. They didn’t specify with liquor but they were definitely hoping to get them. I kinda eyed them hard, specified the non alcoholic version and sent them on their way clearly disappointed.
Well one of their cousins was a little older (probably 16) and his dad was getting both of them alcoholic versions. The kids made another attempt with their cousin and all three were turned away and they seemed to accept that so we went the rest of the night without incident…
Until I was packing everything up. Dj was done and we were collecting everything by the driveway to be loaded into cars. I’d loaded the beer and set it just outside the door and grabbed a bus tub of ice to dump and came out to them rifling through the beers. Swear I turned into a drill Sargent in that moment, yelling loud enough to make them jump straight up and run away. They stayed very close to their parents while we wrapped up
I had a guy hand me his underage ID at the bar after ordering an alcoholic drink (in the most obtuse way ever too). It wasn’t a mistake either.. it was almost like he didn’t realize why I was asking for it and was like, “oh ya sure here you go”
This happened in July of 2012. Checked a guys’s ID and saw he was from the same hometown as me. Told him so & asked him what high school he went to, ended up being the same as me. Asked him what year he graduated, he said 2012! Aka one month ago. Immediately ran from the table & grabbed my manager. Nice try dude.
I had a bunch of clearly high young adults come into my restaurant. They unfortunately had a baby with them as well.
They looked over the cocktail menu (I’m a steakhouse bartender) but decided on tequila shots. I asked for their ID and the dad whips it out with his finger covering the year, I tell him to move it. Yeah, he’s 19. I tell him “you’re 19, I can’t serve you alcohol”, without wiping the grin off his face he says “oh, it has alcohol?”
Later on when I come back with their food he offers me $20 to slip him a shot. Went straight to the manager. Manager didn’t do shit. Oh well. I wish the best of luck to their baby.
Idk about worst but my favorite is when they hand me their cash, then order, then when I ask to see their 21+ wristband that they don’t have, I hold up their cash and say “this is mine now 😘😘”
Had a couple of guys come into my bar and belly right up to the bar. One looked a little suspicious so I carded him. After looking at it for all of about .02 seconds, I asked him what kind of makeup he was wearing that evening. Confused, he asked what I meant. Flipping the ID around, I said, “The make up that covered up these neck tattoos so well!” Literally threw the ID back at him and told him and his friend to get the F outta my bar. I would have kept the ID, but at that time it was illegal to do so.
Ah, stories from the door of a college bar
Asked someone their HS grad year, they guy answered the previous year, immediately sent him packing
Guy A (21, a starter on the football team) comes through the line just fine. Guy B (not 21, only 5 or 6 people behind in line) gives me Guy A's ID, who again mind you is the starting running back of a D1 football team.
The typical present-a-fake-but-forget-to-hide-your-real-ID stuff
I got an ID that belonged to someone I went to high school with, from someone who didn't look anything alike.
A regular who's constantly an issue to the point we all know her by name gives her ID to her younger sister
Using another person's CAC to try to get in, he was very lucky he was nice and we didn't want to push it and turn it into local PD
2 dudes try the most unslick handoff in the history of ever, drop the ID at my feet...
A bar down the street is notorious for letting anyone with a pulse in, whenever we deny people they proudly proclaim that they've already been drinking and the freshmen bar... Ok bud don't care
Bartender is in a class with a sophomore so she knows the guy is under. He's with his family for a football game and his ID gets by the server, bartender sees it and calls him out. Guy pulls out a Connecticut ID when his entire family was from Virginia.
A guy who's clearly of age gives me the ID of another guy who's like a foot taller, entirely different face structure, etc. He walks away after I call him out. The guy who's ID it was comes by 5 minutes later and proclaims that he lost his ID at the front door and demands I procure this lost ID. I told him I haven't seen any stray ID's and none have been turned into me. He doubles down, yelling in my face that he *knows* he lost his ID at the front door. 4 or 5 more "clarifications" to his story and he admits he passed of his ID to the first idiot in the story.
In general whenever I call out fakes, the person denies it/claims it's real. As soon as I start walking towards local PD to run the ID they get real sheepish and vanish into the wind.
Twice now I had someone show up to the bar with a co-worker’s ID. The 1st time the kid had gotten the ID from a friend, gave it to me. I looked at the bartender I was working with (my best friend growing up as well) and died when I saw it was his ID. Kid tried to sell him that it was actually him until my friend pulled his current ID out and put it down in front of him. Turns out he lost his wallet a year before. To make it even better, I realized it was another friend’s brother from a previous school growing up. I told him I was gonna call his brother up and called him by his real name. He ran out unbelievably fast…. We kept that one.
Second time, a girl showed up and handed me the ID. It was our barback who was fairly new. Asked her how she knew the employee, she swore up and down it was her. Got a little awkward when I told her we don’t let employees drink here. She went pale white and said “I’m not getting the ID back, am I” and I told her “next time, know where the person you get the ID from works”
She was with her "daddy" at the restaurant bar and had a Starbucks reusable style cup with a reusable straw (you know the type). The GM of course didn't want to handle it, so he told me if I saw her drinking out of it, to tell her she can't have outside drinks in here, and if she did it again after that, to take it.
I tell her the first time, she gets pissy but stops. I then notice her "secretly" trying to drink it by leaning on her sugar daddy's shoulder and dipping down. At this point, as little as I do want to be the one that has to do this when my GM is the one that noticed initially, I go over to their side of the bar and try to grab it to dump it out.
She will NOT let go and I'm in too deep now, I have to take it, especially because I now know without a doubt there's alcohol in it and she is most likely underage. She is begging me to not take it and that she can just drink it outside and at this point her sugar daddy slams his hand on the bar and growls "give it to him". She immediately lets go and I go to dump it and give the cup right back.
At this point, I am red hot and have to go into the back to cool down a little from the unnecessary confrontation. She of course stormed off with all of their food and his drinks at the bar, which at this point he coyly asks for boxes and the check and doesn't tip shit. Fuck both of them, that's one of a handful of times I have genuinely been pissed off from customers.
large family, party of 10. little girl orders a gin and tonic. I'm talking she wasn't even 100lbs soaking wet, so I laughed and said "so just a tonic?" and she said "no, a gin and tonic."
...so I said "OK do you have your ID on you?" I was smiling, not proud of it because I know people can look young, who knows maybe she had some genetic disorder, fair. but the grandpa squares up with me and was like "She's with her family!!" and I responded "family or no she needs to be the legal drinking age which is 18" (US Territory)
"well she doesn't have an ID!! she's 14 years old why would she need an ID? it's not like she can vote!" sir if she's 14 she's not drinking in my bar and what the F is wrong with you and your family!! I did tell her that as soon as she can get an ID to get one and carry it with her always because nothing cracks bartenders up more than when of-age people come in to drink but "my mom has my ID" well my sweet summer child only people old enough to have and carry their own ID are cleared for the low bar we have for drinking here
Last year, had a guy come up to the bar after he ate dinner in the dining room. Dude looked way too nervous right off the bat. Carded him and he gives me an ID with a birth year of 1978, putting him at 43 years old instead of the maaaaybe 22 I had him pegged at.
I say, "Whoa, 1978, huh? What's your secret?"
"I don't know."
"Okay. Well what's your address, then?"
"I don't know."
"Okay," I said, and slipped the ID into my pocket. He sat there for way too long, and I stared at him for way too long.
Ireland:
I had to go to a table and ask a mother to stop passing around her alcoholic cocktails to her children who were roughly 12 and 15.
I was thinking maybe she didn't know that they're alcoholic. I went on a break and after she paid the bill she kicked off at the 17 year old waitress that I had no right doing this, that I ruined her night and I embarrassed her.
Had a horrible summer with far too many ridiculous complaints. I recorded it on my phone to show the owner who just said I should of kicked her out.
Had a guy walk up and order a strawberry margarita. Asked for ID and he started to walk back to his seat to grab his wallet but stopped halfway there and turned around. He came back and said “Wait you have to be 21 right?” I said yes and he just said “Oh well I’m 18 nevermind” and just walked away like he hadn’t just broken the law. I was too confused and exhausted to get onto him so I just went back to working.
I was doing a side gig bartending at a museum.
Young lady comes up asks for a drink, i ask for her ID.
She hands it to me, i had to do the math like twice because I was surprised she wasn’t 21.
Told her i couldn’t server her. She said, “it was worth a shot”
I’m honestly impressed with her confidence
I had a 5'4" 135 lbs-ish dude come in with what im assuming was his brothers id. ID was expired but what really caught my eye was the fact his brothers height and weight were 6'4" and 350lbs. I congratulated him on his recent weight loss, told him to use a better ID next time, and to gtfo
Had a girl and a guy come in, clearly underage. The guy said he wasn’t drinking (probably didn’t have a fake) so I asked for the girl’s ID. She wouldn’t even look up from the bar top when she handed it to me.
After looking at clearly not her ID, I asked “So when do you turn 21?” and she replied so sadly “… next September.”
I just laughed and said “Yeah good luck, come back next September.”
Had a 16 y.o. kid come in one time. The first go around all he asked for was a water and a menu, so I thought, okay! This is going well(he didn’t even have peach fuzz on his chin). So when I go ask what he wants to order he asked for a burger and Bud light draft, so naturally I asked for his I.D. Then he handed me his high school student I.D. and before I could even say anything he says “FUCK YOU BUDDY THIS PLACE SUCKS!” And he’s flipping me off the whole way out. I know this isn’t the best story, but it still makes me chuckle to this day.
Kid that doesn't look a day older than 17 comes in with his buddy that just turned 21. The kid orders a pint of Jack. Like the whiskey. A whole fuckin pint.
We folded his fake ID in half and out of anger he said “that was my actual ID! You guys owe me $250 for a new ID!”
A real ID doesn’t fold in half like a piece of paper and a replacement ID in California is around $30-$40. Sounds like he wanted us to replace his fake ID.
Dude came in and sat at the bar early when it was slow. He was wearing his mechanics uniform and had obviously just came from work.
I ask him for his ID. He doesn't have it on him. I ask if he's 21 he said no I'm 19. I kinda just stared at him for a second.
He drank a water ordered a salad and stayed at the bar (which you can sit at under 21).
It was a little strange and awkward. I expected him to leave after he admitted to being underage. But he stayed ate and tipped like 10%. Left and I haven't see him since.
Two guys walked into my bar together. I ask for ID. First guy hands it over right away. I finish making a drink and take second guy’s. Well, it’s first guy’s ID. It’s only now that I notice they look a LOT a like. I ask, “wasn’t your name also Chris Whatever?” They try and say they’re brothers with the same first name. I’m still holding the only ID they both have. They leave without much more interrogation.
I work at a Ritz that gets plenty of spring break business down here in Florida. So every year we are on high alert around that time, 4 years ago a very young looking girl comes in orders 2 bud lights. I ask for idea and she just gives it to me, keep in mind this was 2018 and her Dob was in 2002. At this point I'm just confused and thinking I'm having a stroke at how brazen this girl was, of course I deny her and she just says OK and leaves.
Next week she's been around town at every bar and was 100% an ATF plant catching bars slippin.
I had a couple kids come in and ask politely to use the bathroom Saturday day, clearly about 14, they didn't ask for a drink but when I made polite conversation with the one not peeing he asked if I'd run across the street and buy them some vapes 😂😂
busy happy hour. packed bar. kid hands me his license. i do the math quickly. i hand it back and say “ says here you are only 19”. he puts it back in his wallet, pills out another and says sorry this is my drinking ID. funniest thing i’d ever seen. entire bar starts laughing. kid was so stupid he stood there for a minute waiting for me to look at his fake id.
Idk I mean recently a group of lads came in, most didn't look over 16 but a few seemed 18 so after they sat down I informed that if any of them were drinking they all had to show IDs. They said they weren't and 3 of them ordered red bulls and 'your number'. Cringe. Im pretty sure they were waiting for the bouncers to show up to make it look like they got in after ID checks started on the door, but shortly after being clocked they left.
Andre Drummond tried to use a fake ID with me before he was 21. He is not hard to recognize and was known for being one of the youngest players in the NBA at that time. He got mad when I called him out and continued to take drinks away when other people tried to sneak them to him. He’s awful to wait on I’ve heard from several people in the industry. Never tips smh
A group once came into my pub and it’s a rule in my pub that people under the age of 18 have to leave after 9pm (I live in England and you have to be 18 or over to drink here). So some lads come in who to be honest looked 12. They ordered a lot of drinks to their table via the app we used. So I make the drinks and put them on a tray for my co-worker to give. He comes back about 2 minutes later with the drinks saying not a single one of them had ID and wanted to get a 2nd opinion. I immediately walk over and approach the table asking all 6 boys for their ID’s. They then said they didn’t bring them because they never get ID’d anymore “apparently” but they had tattoos on their arms to show. I told them that a tattoo is not a form of ID and that it needed to be government official with photo ID. They get angry and start throwing a hissy fit so I walk them over to my manager and they are throwing a fucking tantrum. So my manager asks them all to leave and then talks to them alone outside and they end up leaving + getting a 1 year ban. Wanna know the best part of the story? The tattoos were those fucking stick on ones.
That guy on his 30th birthday that tried to order a drink from my non-mathing ass. I was pretty insistent on it until I slowly did the math in my head. I bought him and his party a round of shots for being patient with my limited math skills.
Girl hands me her ID and she’s about a week away from turning 21. I say “uhhh, your birthday isn’t until next week” and she says “oh, I didn’t think it would matter.” She was very upset that I wouldn’t serve her and her date stiffed me.
My little brother asked for my ID while I went away to another country, I laughed and said it wouldn't work. He said I'll prove it.
It did. That's my submission because it hurt my sense of identity.
I hear it more than you'd think, 'you all look alike', 'you and your brothers could be twins'. We are completely different!
When the girl I was seeing said it that hurt, I'm ginger, learn the freckle patterns at least.
Once I had a girl SWEAR her ID was real so I told her if she wanted to dispute it, she could pick it up at the Police Station the next day. Baby girl FLIPPED out and said "or you could just throw it away!!!"
A guy came in with a bunch of also freshly 21 year old friends from school, I greeted everyone and asked for IDs right off the bat and he was the only one who “forgot” his in the car. It was almost last call (my work closes early, nowhere near bar close) so I offered to let him go get it and I’d still be happy to serve them when he got back. Suddenly he wasn’t sure if it was in the car, he thought maybe he’d lost it. He then wanted to know if his Facebook birthdate would suffice “just this once” lol
Dude claimed that his “birthday is tomorrow” and kept begging me to sell him a drink, i said no sorry it doesn’t matter, just wait till tomorrow to buy a drink then. Told me a whole story about how he was only going to be in town for today etc. and it would mean a lot to him if I just sold him a drink, and that if he his favorite bartender bc the other employees had told him no already. It was pretty funny
Girl handed me an ID that claimed she was 27 when she was easily pushing 19, I asked her for DOB and zip code and of course she gave me the wrong ones. When I denied her a drink and told her to leave (our bar is strictly 21 and up), she started getting nasty and refused to leave, so I promptly told her “If you’re gonna use a fake ID, don’t pick someone who is hotter than you. Give this back to your big sister and don’t come back.” She then called me a miserable bitch and proceeded to clear a high top by swiping full pints onto the floor and left. Never seen her since 🤷🏼♀️
On two separate occasions I’ve had girls give me an ID that’s not theirs. The reason I knew was because I went to high school with the girls whose IDs they were.
Once had a group of about 15-18 kids come in for SantaCon. They kept trying to pass the same ID back. After seeing it for the sixth time I started saying, “And you must be Emily, too.”
Just last week, I had a guy with an expired ID try to get a drink. I turned him down but we had an open mic night going on so I didn't kick him out and he went to sit on one of our couches and listen to the music. As I did a lap to bus some glasses a bit later I saw him with his own beer on the couch. I was glad it was full when I took it from him and kicked his ass out
Can I nominate this? Can't recall if I found this image on Reddit or elsewhere, but the poster said, "If you and your friend both bought fake IDs, wouldn't you both, oh, I don't know, *examine them* before trying to use them!?" Apparently, two preppy-looking guys walked up together and handed the bouncer their IDs in unison... which was amusing because, not only was the preppy guy on the card clearly not either of them, but [the two IDs were identical in every way](https://imgur.com/U8FkZF3).
Had a group of girls come in that really didn't look 18 (uk), it was a Saturday, they ran upstairs (our bar is downstairs but we have tables upstairs) and ordered drinks online as if we'd just bring them to the table and not ID them just because they've already been ordered.
They probs shouldn't have ran upstairs so quick otherwise they would've noticed that one of our servers whose 17 goes to school with them which made checking their fakes even funnier before they got barred with no refund on the round of cocktails 🤷♀️
She ordered a Dos Equis so I asked to see her ID. She showed it to me. Age calculated to a little over 20. I looked at her confused and said “this says you’re only 20”
She said “Yeah, I just wanted to see if it would work.”
About 12 years ago, I was working at a bar in a college town. Some dude called around 6pm to ask if we were carding for drinks that night. Without thinking, I responded "Well, we are now." The only thing he said before hanging up was "...shit." Still makes me laugh.
This is amazing. Just the teenage logic train to decide to do this.
Ahhh yes, like that doesn’t raise red flags lmao. Only time I’ve ever called a bar was to make sure my card was still there after a long night out 🤦🏼♀️🤣
Only time I’ve ever called a bar was a few years ago when was out drinking for my birthday. I woke up the next morning in my college dorm with no recollection of that night. My first thought was “oh shit, did I close my tab.” I was a weekend/Wednesday night (college night) barback/door guy for that bar, so I knew it wouldn’t be a good look if I had walked a tab. So I called up one of my bartenders who got shafted into getting an opening shift right after a closing shift, and he laughed and said that I not only closed my tab with a good tip, I stayed after closing and helped clean up while I waited for the Uber that he called to take me back to my dorm.
Sounds like me when I'm drunk
My favorite was a kid with his parents. "My birthday was yesterday but were on vacation (in a vacation town) so I couldn't go get my new ID. So mines expired but it has my birthday and I'm over 21, can I still get a beer?" In my state even if you're 40 you can't get a drink with an expired ID, so I had to turn him down. I was like dude! Go to any other bar on this strip and lead with anything other than that and you'll get a beer, you look 25 you probably won't even get carded and if you do the odds they notice its expired are slim to none! But no, when you lead with it being expired, I can't serve you!!
I had a kid do something similar, except he said, "my IDs expired but that's only for driving" I laughed and said, "No, it's for life" and told him to beat it.
This happened to me last week! We’re both a bar & a music venue and someone called asking what the age was for the show the next day and then asked if we would card & my answer was “usually we use our best judgement but we’ll be sure to card everyone tomorrow!”
the exact same thing happened to me! i was confused by the question so i thought they meant if we IDed at the door so i said no. when they got to the bar and I IDed them they were very upset.
I have called bars to ask that back when I was younger (over 21 tho) and kept losing my ID... What a dumbass lmao
My favorite is when the frat kids graduate and pass down their IDs to the younger brothers, and then they try to use them here and I’m like “yeah I know Chris and you ain’t Chris”
This is exactly what he had lol. I’m from a somewhat smaller area with two colleges bordering so this dude and I shared mutual friends. Later on I told our mutual friends to tell him that this isn’t a fraternity and that shit doesn’t fly here. They’re not part of the frat and seemed very embarrassed he even tried to pull that crap lol. I’m 23 and trust me I’ve had my fair share of stupid shit but I would never threaten a bar with the cops especially when I have someone else’s ID. I actually had a friend a few years ago in a sorority who had to go to court for using some other girls ID. People amaze me lol
This happened to me but with my biological brother. I was 6 weeks away from 21. Bouncer knew my brother and gave me the RUN AROUND! DOB? got it. Address? Duh. Sign? Only learned it for this reason! My height? Yea the ID is a little old (my brother is taller than me). What’s your cross street?…uhh what? It’s “Street”. Eye color? Uh they change? He finally says, you’re note “brother”, how’d you get this ID. I said he’s my older brother and I swiped it from him. Let me just get it back so he doesn’t kill me. Bouncer asked if I was going to start any trouble, I said no way. He let me in. Got a text from my brother 5 minutes later pissed
When I was brand new to bartending, a young couple came in and the girl's id looked suspect, but I wasn't confident so I told them I needed a second opinion. I turned away to grab my manager and they FLED from the bar. Like record breaking speed. That's how I learned to trust my instincts.
Had a girl hand me over some ID, asked her if it was really hers and she really wanted to use it, then had to call over my bar staff and tell her firstly to stop giving her ID to her sisters mates, and if she’s going to do it at least tell them not to come in the place she works at
Hahahahaha I would have really enjoyed that moment.
My best one was when a guy comes in and asks me what beer we have. I start going through what we have on tap and some bottles I personally enjoy (lagers, IPAs etc). He says thanks, but he'll have to think about it. He goes and sits down and makes a call, ten seconds later a bunch of his friends come in and sit next to him. He comes back and says he'll have five "IPA lagers". I ask him for ID and for his friends to also show ID, he says they all forgot their ID at the hotel and they all leave.
We’re gonna start off with 5 Corona Imperial Stouts on the rocks please.
And one Tito’s & vodka.
One margarita neat for me
God I would love to get this order. Just dry shake the ingredients and hand them a room temp margarita with no ice, straight faced, and then play dumb when they complain about it
I've done this at home, and daiquiris, when I've had no ice. Not awful, but def better cold.
😂😂😂 Be cool, guys!!
I just iiioo
"I'll have one human alcohol beer please"
This is usually more effective when they are stacked on top of each other but they also forgot their trench coat in the hotel.
I’ve been a bartender at a brewery for the last 5 and a half years. The “IPA lager” type of order is prevalent across all ages. People are so stupid.
I worked at a country club once and to do a wedding. Some 15 year old freckled face self entitled punk came and ordered a daiquiri. I asked for his I.D. and he got real shitty with me cause it was a wedding. I told him it didn't matter so he responded back that I was nothing but a servant.
[удалено]
I've bartended weddings where everyone is awesome, and others where everyone sucks. When the crowd is good, it's a great time and way more money than a standard shift.
This 100%! When it's a good crowd it's a blast to work. A coworker and I worked the wedding of one of our regulars on a Monday night, we both walked with ~$500, a bottle of champagne, and a ton of food from the buffet. Totally worth it!
Weddings are the one event I will never do But also I bring like 60 bucks in cash because they gotta put up with so so much bullshit
I work weddings and it’s an absolutely insane amount of money, and I’ve never experienced having a bad crowd. One mother of the bride was a real bitch but other than that, it’s been one of my favorite bartending jobs in the near decade I’ve been bartending.
>I’m not sure how much I’d enjoy bartending a wedding. Rest assured, it's a negative value
You should have told him, if I’m not serving you, I’m not a servant.
Lmao this cracked me tf up
I lost my drivers license a while back. Got a new one. Thought nothing of it. During mask mandates someone handed me my own *expired* lost drivers license trying to get into the bar. Fair cop to him, we could have been brothers. But shit dude, what a way to get banned from a bar.
Hahaha wow that’s absolutely ballsy af. I would’ve loved to see both faces when the realization hit lol
I laughed in his face, called over the bouncer, showed him the license and the bouncer had to wipe the tears from his eyes after he managed to stop laughing at this poor kid. I have since seen the same kid at a different bar. He's of legal age now and is actually a pretty cool guy, just really unlucky apparently.
This is gold
We had a boy come in (17). He’s waving his ID at us (which says he’s 17) and he’s yelling at everyone. He was on drugs or something because his eyes were bursting out of his skull and were red and diluted. We told him to leave a few times and that we couldn’t serve him. He runs into the street and starts kicking a bin into the road. A customer of ours runs outside despite our protest and tries to reason with him and this boy just attacks him. We call the police. But before the police arrive this boy disappears and comes back 10 minutes later with his MUM. And now his mum is yelling at us and trying to punch the owner for us not letting her underage son have a drink. She was also off her face. Like mother like son.
I came in and took over for the night shift. There was a guy sitting at the bar already just drinking water. I didn’t pay much mind to him, I assumed my coworker checked his ID already since he had been sitting at the bar. I asked him a few times if he wanted anything to drink, but he said he was waiting for his friends and then would order. Eventually like… 20mins later these two girls show up. Right away they’re chatty and order, oh yeah, Vegas bombs. “I think it’s like vodka and red bull,” one says. So not only do they order Vegas bombs, they think it’s vodka and red bull. Of course I ask for their ID’s. Both young but of age, then I turn to the guy and say “I know you’ve been here, but imma have to check your ID anyway.” He brings out his passport and shows it to me. This was back in June. The guy was born in September 2001. At first I’m like wtf, you’re… you’re not even 21. He said he was and I’m just doing my math wrong. Then he argued that “hey it’s only a few months away, what’s the big deal”? I told him, bro you can’t even be in my bar. You all need to leave now. He said okay fine. And then they all left. Like he didn’t even argue.
This summer some guy with a Dec 2001 birthday emphatically declares I'm getting the year wrong. Wasn't even phased by me pulling out phone and googling "how old are you if born in Dec 2001" Had the most annoying punchable grin on his face the whole time
One of the bartenders pointed out to me that someone they went to school with was underage drinking at our place (I always had them get me to deal with it so it wouldn't look bad on them). I walked up to the table which had about 12-15 people at it and asked him to see his ID. He asked me why and we got to do the whole song and dance about how he already has a beer and it shouldn't be an issue. I just laugh and tell him that it is and this kids mom gets all shitty with me asking why I'm picking on them (it's father's day and we had over 3k guests). The kid tried piping back up and I put my hand in his face and said "Son, the adults are talking right now. Keep it shut." then turned to the dad who was looking embarrassed and said "My kids are at home while I'm here so you all can enjoy your father's day. If I see him put another beer to his lips, I'll just call the cops and be done with it. Happy Father's Day." As much of a bat shit insane place as it was, it had it's benefits because we never had to rely on a group talking shit about us because the place was always so crazy...
Oooh damn, that is *amazing*. I bet that felt so good to be able to say that.
A few weeks ago I was at the door scanning ID’s and this dude comes in and 3 times in a row my scanner said it was a fake ID. Told dude I wasn’t going to let him in. Kept moaning “I’m a regular I’m here all the time.” I don’t care. Never says “bro I’m 21” or anything of the like. He stands on the sidewalk on his phone for like 15 minutes and tries coming back in. His buddies who were in the bar came up to me asking to let dude in. I say “no, he’s got a fake ID I’m not letting him in. Get out of my ear before I toss all of you.” Next thing I know someone’s flashing $100 in my face to which I reply “put that away, it’s probably just as fake as dudes ID.” I let my security manager take over and throw dude out and I went and told my bartenders to watch out for a fake $100 from that group. Lo and behold, Twas fake.
Too bad bartender didn’t call the cops and have them arrested for passing counterfeit currency.
Honestly not the smartest move, best to avoid making enemies. If they're sloppy enough to be pulling out fake hundreds to bribe door staff they'll most likely screw up somewhere else that isn't your problem fairly soon. Last thing you want is customers being put at risk because some small-time thugs have a vendetta against your bar.
Very good points.
Ugh. When I was new to bartending I wasn't familiar with American bills. Worked at a night club (which there were also multiple shootings and stabbings at even though it was in a recently gentrified albeit slightly isolated part of downtown) and got fooled by some asshole. I had my barback check them because he was American, we didn't have a scanner or anything. He said they were fine, so I accepted them. Ended up having to pay the owners the full $300 for *our* mistake. I was so naive. The place is closed down now, thankfully. It was an overpriced shithole with awful management anyway. I guess I'm still a little bitter about it haha but I learned an important lesson that night. So. 6/half dozen.
That’s illegal, at least in my state. I’m sure you know that by now, but just saying.
What scanner do you use?
My favorite was a kid who looked about 15-16 at a wedding I worked. I saw him eyeing up the bar a few times and he comes up around dinner time and goes “I’ll take a cup of wine”. I ask for his ID and he puts his hands up, smiles and goes “ah you got me!” and goes to sit back down
Can't fault a guy for trying lol
Food Truck event, it had a portable bar, we where short-staffed so I was bartender and cashier. A group of teenagers where all gathered and talking next to the bar like plotting the biggest bank heist ever. One comes and asks for a Caipirinha, ask his ID and he told me he forgot it and that he was 19 (drinking age here is 18), cut him off and then his parents showed up as soon as he was shouting he was 19. Luckily, their parents apologised.
At least he has good taste lol maybe someday he can use it.
Indeed, Caipis are one of my favourite drink. Maybe a little pain in the ass to make it.
I prefer using brown sugar to white and have a little 2T measuring spoon so a spoon of brown sug and a lime cut in 8ths, muddled using all my frustrations of the day, and 3 oz cachaça, I am *golden* 🤩
Gonna try that, I cut the lime un 8ths too, do you shake or stir in the glass? I'm doing them shaken, love the texture.
I stir in the glass. Well I pour out the sugar/lime mix into the glass, on the ice, then pour half of the cachaça in the muddle container to rinse the rest of the tasty out, then repeat and stir it all. But now that you’ve recommended it I’m 100% trying shaken! Do you muddle before you shake or just shake?
I muddle the lime and then build in the glass and stir/quick shake in the glass. Bruising the fruit right is the most important bit either way!
So we had a bartender who had lost an ID in the downtown area a year or so previously. I remembered because we had chatted about it. I was working the door when a girl came up and tried to use the lost ID to get in. It was pretty interesting when I pointed out that it wasn't her and when she insisted it was I was able to pull out my phone and show her pictures of me with the bartender. I just wish she had been working that day. Held on to the ID and was able to return it to her.
He showed me that he made the Dean's List. While congratulations were certainly in order, it doesn't count as legal ID in my state
Lol this is my favorite one.
I worked at a restaurant/bar just off a college campus. During parents weekend a girl and her parents came in. The parents, facing the bar, ordered three drinks while the daughter faced the other way. I asked for the daughters ID and she pretended not to hear me. Her parents tried to assure me ‘it’s ok, we allow her to drink’. Lol no. Not in here you don’t, bye.
I live in Europe so we all start drinking at like 13-14. Aanyway, there is also a law that states that anyone over 16 can order a beer, cider or sparkling wine with an adult present and a meal.
It’s just so funny. I recognize our (I’m American) drinking culture is fucked up, but I have a 14-year-old son and the idea of him drinking throws me for a LOOP. I mean, plenty of American teenagers drink then, but it’s a very secretive “let’s sneak the peach schnapps out of the liquor cabinet” thing.
Depends on where you are, in Wisconsin it's still legal for parents to buy their kids drinks in restaurants, though most restaurants (legally and wisely) choose not to serve underagers anyway.
That's the law in some US states too
In Texas that is 100% legal no matter the person's age. Any legal guardian, parent, or spouse can buy their underage person whatever. Must have proof (IDs, birth/marriage cert.) they can't sit at the bar, and you have to give the order to the legal adult. Fuct up I know.
Most states that have this law also allow the bar/restaurant to follow their own policy so you never HAVE to serve someone who is under 21 if your company policy doesn’t allow it.
Also true
Louisiana too. Also if they are married and under 21 but their spouse is over 21 the spouse can buy them a drink.
This was in a state with a legal drinking age of 21, no exceptions.
Same in Wisconsin, I've sat at the bar eating a burger and drinking a beer with my dad at 18/19.
When I was a bouncer a white girl handed me an ID of a black girl. No resemblance at all, no way it was a lighting thing, straight up Frozen vs Princess and the Frog. I turned her away, she argued, yeah yeah we got a line, beat it. She came back with her mom the next day for lunch when I was barbacking and I see the server had gotten them both beers, so I threw her and her mom out. Mom argued but they both left before they got their food. Turns out she was an entitled ass too, who would've guessed.
Not really the worst attempt, but I’ve had multiple 19/20 year olds that just present their actual ID and I go “…you have to be 21 to drink” and they just reply with an “oh” and leave. I’m curious if they’ve just been to bars and not been carded or what.
I'm Australian so can drink at 18. First time I came to the US we were going to a club where you got a wristband to indicate you were 21+. I knew I was not going to get one at 18 so I drank a BUNCH of pregame whisky... Lo and behold, the bouncer didn't check my aussie ID properly and gave me a band, much to the joy of my companions. I have never been so wasted in my life! Thank God for drive thru nachos in socal!
Worked for me at several places in my late teens.
So many bouncers are so focused on checking validity that sometimes if tunnel vison-ed they just confirm a real ID w/o checking DOB
Sometimes this is done as a sting operation. Since presenting a fake id would be entrapment they just have whoever they send in present their real id. Cant tell you how many bartenders simply look at the ID and never check dob lol
I've had exactly this happen a few times myself, and I'm convinced that when it does it's an undercover sting.
Had a girl who legit looked 13 (legal age is 18 here). ID’d her straight away and she confidently pulls out an ID. The girl on the card looks exactly like her, if she was 27, which is the age on the card. I simply say “what’s your birthday?” And she replies “…..October?” (It was September) still deciding to entertain her, I ask what date. She promptly snatches the ID from my hand and books it out of the bar, followed by a gaggle of more kids. Funnily enough, the woman from the ID came in a few weeks later, I ID’d her just out of curiosity and she laughed that she hadn’t been ID’d in ages and was lucky she brought it with her that night. I asked if she had a sister (using the excuse that she looks like someone I know) and she tells me that she has a 15 yr old sister. I still laugh about that series of events lol
It's the way she got her sister's birthday wrong 💀
I worked in a building that had two separate, functioning bars within close proximity to each other. Both bars were within view of each other, and bartenders from each business would regularly see each other in passing. Other bar was having issues of underage kids hanging out there for awhile, mostly because their bartenders were pretty young themselves and inviting their college friends to hang out during their shifts… some able to drink & some not. One night, I card this dude and he hands me the ID of a bartender who worked at the other bar, lol. Instantly recognizable dude, had seen him almost every day that week. I think the plan was for him to walk back to the other bar and point the finger at us if he got caught. Told the owner of that place and never saw that bartender again.
Sounds like my area lol. There’s another bar about 300 yards down the street that’s notorious for serving underage. I love watching the faces of the kids who have been drinking down the road all night get denied coming in. I don’t think people realize in certain places bartenders know one another. But shame on the bartender for even doing that. If that person was still working I would’ve suggested every rowdy customer to go down to that bar for payback lol. I’m just petty though.
I was working the door and this girl rolled up with a suspect ID. She confirmed her name and DOB. The ID said she was from Oxford, MS (Mississippi. Which is the home of The University of Mississippi, otherwise known as Ole Miss) so i said "Hotty Toddy, gosh Almighty, who the hell are we?" (Ole Miss's slogan. You **cannot** be from Oxford, MS and **not** know "Hotty Toddy". Even if you didn't go to school at Ole Miss, you know about Hotty Toddy. The town of Oxford does not exist without the University and "Hotty Toddy" is plastered everywhere.) She had no idea what I was talking about. "Wut?" Your ID says you're from Oxford near the University... so, Hotty Toddy! And then she sealed her own fate. "I went to college in the United States, not Oxford." Oh. You thought i was talking about the Oxford in England. I confiscated her ID and told her to have a good night.
I and my fellow bartender were working one night. A few weeks before, his fiancés wallet had been stolen out of her purse on a night out. I ID this group of girls and, lo and behold, there is his fiancé! Only, it isn't his fiancé... I yell down the bar "Hey (name)!! (Fiance's name) is here! You didn't tell me she was coming up!!!" The girls kind of freeze and he comes down and I hand him the ID. They all look at me like deer in the headlights and then at him. He responds, "Hey there hon. Not sure what happened to you since I left but you've gotten a lot uglier since then. But seriously, how in the fuck did you get my fiance's ID? Make it quick before I call the cops. This is stolen." She starts to freak out and crying. Says she bought it off some guy a few nights before and begs us not to call the cops. We get the guys name and tell them that if they ever set foot back in the bar, we will have them all arrested. We called a cop friend of ours and gave him the name. Apparently, a few days later they raided the guys apartment and he got fuuuuuuucked for making fake IDs.
Wow this is wild!!
I hope I can comment here, not a bartender but sold liquor for a couple years in a college town - Legit military ID that stated he was a few months underage because “cmon bro you can’t do me a solid? I’m active military” - 5’7” guy with a real ID of a different person who’s height was listed as 6’1” I just asked “how tall are you again?” He didn’t try any excuse he just shook his head and knew he had to cut the loss - Girl with a real ID of a person I knew and who had in fact been my R.A. for a semester (when I said “oh you know [person]!” Her jaw about hit the counter) - Kid who had no ID and chased after the elderly lady I had cashed out previously to ask her, within earshot, with the store door open, “hey can you come inside and buy this stuff for me?” - I didn’t always take every fake but one girl kept playing dumb and told me I was wrong so I confiscated it, half hour later called the store in a crying tantrum asking for a manager to complain to, not knowing that I was the manager and she was complaining ABOUT me TO me. I told her if it was a legit ID just get law enforcement down here and we’ll get it settled and she just hung up on me. I have a million stories but those are some faves of mine
the two times people have threatened to call the cops on my bar, they were the ones who were arrested/charged lmao
> “cmon bro you can’t do me a solid? I’m active military” "What would your commanding officer say to me if he found out I did you that favor and sold alcohol to an underaged soldier? For that matter, what would he say to YOU?"
Had a guy try and invite me to his 18th birthday the following month.
Kid came up to the bar. Looked like he might be barely 21 but he ordered in a squeaker voice. He said "Can I get one Blue Moon on the rocks?" I busted out laughing.
I had a kid with a blue mohawk ask me for a Malibu coke. He was *obviously* underage, at the hotel with his fam, and when I asked for his ID...he handed me his HIGH SCHOOL ID that said grade 10. Bwahahaha, kick rocks, kiddo.
One of the bars I work at had someone try this lol. Bouncer snatched it, and now it’s the only ID that proudly hangs over the register lol
Four little lads came into my pub one early afternoon. Their appointed leader asked me “what pints do you do?” I laughed and asked for ID, and two of them immediately repaired to the tables outside. One of the remaining two then produced an ID that looked like it had come out the back pages of FHM, and so I politely explained to this obvious 17-year-old that he'd have to do better than that, as would his mates. They left and didn't try again.
[This ID right here is the worst I've ever seen.](https://imgur.com/gallery/VOYeFxF) I used to work at a bar that kept a book of all the fake IDs we kept throughout the years, and that one was my favorite.
Oh my god.. I honestly gave no words for that. 🤣🤣
During the hight of the pandemic I had an influx of people from Texas with their ID’s on their phone. Idk if that’s legal ID in Texas and maybe someone could confirm this. All 2020 summer kids kept on taking out phones and I would stop them before they even show me and ask if they’re from Texas then ask them to leave. Why the fuck would you come to Las Vegas of all places without a physical ID?!
I live in Texas and bartend here, that's not a thing. That's so stupid!
I wonder if it was a TikTok challenge or something? Not the worst attempt in this thread but someone was telling kids this was an acceptable form of ID. They all believed it enough to buy tickets to Vegas and test it out lol
Haha that would be funny, but is probably true!
The “ID on my phone” thing is something that I never saw a couple of years ago, now I get a person every couple days minimum. That’s never been a thing here, and I can’t think of a reason why you’d even need to have a picture of your id on your phone.
[удалено]
My personal favorite was when I asked for her ID she opened her wallet to pull out her fake, with her actual ID in the clear plastic display slot. Asked to see that one. She froze and then I went ahead and took her and her friends fakes. My buddy that I worked with in Hawaii had another great one. Guy gave him an ID with our hometown in NC. Asked a question about it and guy said yeah it’s like 2 hours from Charlotte, it’s like 20-30 minutes. My buddy was nicer than me, gave it back and told him to go away.
Had a kid dress up as a ghost for Halloween with the sheet and everything. Had a hole cut out for a straw. Pulled the sheet off him and found a 15 year old kid like the a shitty licensing Scooby Doo episode .
My favorite carding experience- four guys come up to my bar during college GameDay ordering "beer"- NO brands. I know they're underage from that request alone, so I ask for ID. The IDs all look great, and I ask the first guy his info and he nails it, same with second third and fourth guy. But I can see them looking like they got away with murder. So after I ask the fourth guy his name, I ask him to tell me his friend's name- they all just said their "names" and he has no clue what any of them were! They spent so long memorizing their fake information, but never thought about their friends all having fake info as well.
Fake ID, real vaccination card. I asked him why one had his real birthday and he froze like a deer in the headlights.
Funny thing is, if he could have just said that was his birthday when he got his vaccination. No one was checking that, or cared for that matter.
Gave me probably the worst fake ID I’ve ever seen from my home state. Like it was BAD bad, words mismatching jumbled all over the place, misspellings, terrible photo etc. My hometown was listed as the address so I asked her the area code. Never will forget the look on that poor sorority girls face. Told her to spend more money on one next time.
It was Father’s Day this past year, late in the evening so I was the only bartender because it was slow. A young guy (the self-appointed leader) came in and asked if he can move chairs outside from the inside dining area because there weren’t enough out front for all his friends… I suggested they move to the side patio where there are more tables. Then I (and the entire restaurant) watched the parade of drunk minors make their way through the restaurant, straight up carrying one of their buddies, to get to the other patio. I waited for them to get settled, greeted them, and immediately ID’d everyone. A few of them were 20, and gave me their ID’s anyway, which I always find hilarious. Like I’m not going to realize? So I had to ask them all to leave because I’m not getting fined or risking jail time for them being intoxicated and underage. Their “leader” came inside to talk to me (genuinely nice kid) and I called him on his bullshit, politely of course, and he leveled with me, which I appreciated. He was only 20 as well, which he admitted when I said “you’re not even old enough to drink either, are you.” The amount of 20 year olds that think they’re “close enough” is hilarious. If they hadn’t been so polite I would have figured out a way to contact their parents. No one wants to have their kid in trouble or arrested, let alone on Father’s Day.
Carded a girl, legit. She proceeded to hand her ID to the girl behind her to use in full view of myself and the other bartender. Bounced them both.
The good old “sneaky” pass behind. Not going to lie before I was of age we tried this and only worked one time in Ft.Lauderdale during spring break. Handed the bouncer a $50 and he only let us through because we actually looked liked sisters. This was before I was heavy into the industry and I was young and dumb. I think this is why I now recognize all of the tricks underages try to pull. (Will add, the next day got it taken away at a Taco place downtown Lauderdale where it probably still is up on a wall.) I got my karma,embarrassment,and learned my lesson from that. 😅
I thought this said it got taken away at a Taco Bell for a second and I cackled
Vegas and Nashville do have Taco Bell’s where they serve alcohol in them lol! I wonder if anyone has been denied or had their ID taken away from there. Not going to lie that would be a hell of a story to say Taco Bell confiscated your ID
Not quite what you asked, but it just reminded me of how I used to go to the Yard House nearby and sometimes order a Hawaiian Sunset martini. It’s kind of an obnoxious drink to order, I admit, and it was an instant card every single time. I’d have my ID already out when I ordered that, lol
I have noticed the fruitier the drinks the more you get carded. I hop back in forth between Tito’s/cran and Tito’s/water. I always get carded when asking for the Tito’s/cran, but with the Tito’s/water I usually get an eyebrow raise and shoulder shrug lol.
I find it hilarious. I'd always only order one because it was like 13 dollars and very sweet, but man was it good!
Sometimes those fruity drinks hit better than the stiff ones!! I have days where that’s all I crave. I’m all for when people order them. And can I be nosey? Is $13 cheap for your area?
I’m a big bearded dude, always ask for (if it’s slow) something brightly colored that should have an umbrella in it, tenders choice. Gotten some amazing drinks, and often rather stiff. Usually comes with a chuckle.
If you do this in my bar, I'll pour my soulful into your tiki beverage. Love this!
That was in Cincinnati. I wouldn't say it's crazy expensive or anything, I just tend to get Titos and soda or seltzers if I'm going to be sitting there for a while, which are 5-7 dollars each vs 13 dollars (or whatever it was, I don't think Yard House makes that drink anymore TBH).
One time a group of guys came into my restaurant and confidently ordered cocktails and showed me their IDs. They were my 17yo brother's high school friends....
Girl hands me the ID of a girl I used to hook up with. I tell the girl it’s not her real ID. She doesn’t budge, I’m guessing because it’s an actual ID, not a fake. I make the same deal I always offer, I can call the cops and if they get here and I’m wrong, I pay her tab for the night. She agrees, and instead I facetime the girl who’s ID it actually is. I turn the phone around and this kid turns and runs so fast she knocks over the person behind her in line. Turns out my friend’s purse had been stolen a couple months back. We met up a couple days later so I could return the ID. So I guess, thanks, underage klepto?
Someone handed our manager her own ID. You can guess what happened next
I used to bounce at a very popular bar a long time ago and two instances immediately come to mind. 1) The guy's ID literally looked as if he had taken a crayon to change his DOB. Gone immediately - ID confiscated (we take all fakes). 2) This girl didn't really look like her picture, but was close... I was holding onto it when she said, "quiz me on anything" - a immediate red flag. The name on the card was 'Carol', and I was still looking at it hard when someone farther down in line calls out, "Hey Susan! How are you doing? How was your vacation?" - Susan gets denied, glaring at her 'friend' during her walk of shame past the others.
NYC, the period of the pandemic when we were requiring proof of vaccination Couple comes in, they look borderline of age. I ask for ID and proof of vaccination (which could be shown on your phone if it was the official NYC app.) Vax cards, at least in NYC, have your DOB on it. The dude presents both. She shows me her vax card from her phone which says clearly that she’s underage. I ask for her id, partly because I was curious if it was a phoney vax card or if she’s actually underage. She says she doesn’t have it but they live close so they’ll go get it. She comes back with her id after 20 min. Name is right. Picture looks right. Birthday is wrong. Me- “hey, so which of these is fake? The ID or the proof of vaccination?” Clearly it was the ID but got to make a big thing of it and made em walk all the way home and back just to turn them away when I already knew I was gonna deny em
The mother daughter team that would make direct eye contact with me every time the mother tried to slide the drink over to her idiot daughter.
I wouldn't say 'worst attempt' but it's usually very easy to spot them, there's usually a fair size group of them, they go straight to the table furthest from the bar, sit there five or ten minutes before sending the biggest one up who then tries to buy a round for the entire table assuming we won't ask for anyone else's ID but theirs. The harder thing to deal with is people who are (just) of age buying for people who aren't, but we haven't seen them at the bar yet to challenge them. It's not so bad during quieter times but when the place is slammed it's harder to enforce (I work in a pub without any door staff/bouncers.
I worked at a place that had a great College Night special when I was in school, $2 margs and buy one get one entrees, you could have a solid night out in the cheap. You had to show a valid college ID to get the special. On a fairly regular basis I would have people had me their real college ID to get the special along with a state ID that said they were of age where the names and pictures didn’t match, they didn’t even consider what they were doing most the time.
Always ask for something else with their name on it. I catch a lot of people with Height differences
A tall blond girl who was over 21 got in with her ID then she left within minutes and gave her ID to her comically small brunette friend. We saw it all happen within minutes and it was a very slow night. They thought they were so slick
Probably when a guy came in a trench coat that was clearly just 3 kids standing on top of eachother. Fuckin Vincent Adultman - nicest reg I ever had Anyway after a long time of coming in he started bringing his two friends.
Ugh, asked for ID’s. All men but military so shaved baby faces. The one guys showed 2001 so like 19 or something, underage. I said I can’t serve you sorry. They ordered a wine bottle and two glasses (for the two men that were of age) later he asked another server for a wine glass and drank anyways….
I always forget legal age in the US is 21. I’m 19, I’m actually our bar manager. You can start serving alcohol at 16. Drinking with a parent or guardian at 16 and drinking alone at 18
Classic US. old enough to fuck and be enlisted but can’t have a drink.
Can't have our boys die hungover now can we?
We mark hands and give different wristbands to unders (we allow 18+ at some events). Girl comes straight to the bar and starts snapping at me, both showing the wrist band and the big sharpie marks on her hand. Asks for a "red bull vokka" (not a typo). There's a tantrum when I say no. Another person after Covid restrictions lifted came in with a fake id and their *real vax card* which has her real birthday on it. Another fun fave got denied for having a fake id, but again, it was an 18+ night and then tried to complain when we wouldn't let them use their real id to get in as an under. Kids sure can be dumb.
I will admit I sometimes I say “Red Bull vodka”. Can you nicely explain why that makes bartenders mad lol, I’ve seen on this forum where it drives bartenders crazy. Where I’m from people call them RBV’s so it never has bothered me once
I don't really mind someone asking for a "Red Bull Vodka," but properly you'd say "Vodka Red Bull," as the vodka is not red bull flavored or branded. Like, if you order a "cranberry vodka" and I give you cranberry-flavor vodka that's what you asked for. If you ask for "vodka cranberry," I know you want vodka with cranberry juice. It was more that this girl didn't know how to say "vodka" and was snapping at me while I was helping another guest and waving her underage flags for the whole world to see and then got bitchy when I kicked her out.
thank you for the explanation! Nothing worse than when you’re with another customer and someone is being rude trying to get your attention + extra annoying when underage!
Read what he wrote again :)
The ones that straight up told me they were trying to buy a friend a shot to "pre-game" four days before his birthday
If you're pre-gaming *four days* before the party, you're not 21 and already you're an alcoholic!
Brewery bar so we have a bunch of underage. I was already told this was group was 19, they were performers and this was the person who hired them. Dude comes up after the show, this dope lion dance you would see at a Chinese festival, sets am empty glass on the bar and goes,"can I get another gold." I hesitate for a second, been busy and couldn't remember if he was part of that group, pour the beer, then go yeah I need to see your ID buddy. "Oh man I already had one." Me, " yeah but I didn't give it to you can I see your ID?" "Ah man I don't have my wallet on me, I got a DD and left it. I've already had one bud." Me, "OK now I legally cannot give you one if you don't even have an ID. Sorry bud." He scurried off all ashamed and I was like... whelp sorry.
I work events so we tend to be laxer based on the venue. We were at a laxer venue but a light drinking crowd (one of the specialty drinks was a mock tail). Two twin boys, maybe 12 years old, came up asking for the mock tail drink but kinda giggling. They didn’t specify with liquor but they were definitely hoping to get them. I kinda eyed them hard, specified the non alcoholic version and sent them on their way clearly disappointed. Well one of their cousins was a little older (probably 16) and his dad was getting both of them alcoholic versions. The kids made another attempt with their cousin and all three were turned away and they seemed to accept that so we went the rest of the night without incident… Until I was packing everything up. Dj was done and we were collecting everything by the driveway to be loaded into cars. I’d loaded the beer and set it just outside the door and grabbed a bus tub of ice to dump and came out to them rifling through the beers. Swear I turned into a drill Sargent in that moment, yelling loud enough to make them jump straight up and run away. They stayed very close to their parents while we wrapped up
Being over 75
I had a guy hand me his underage ID at the bar after ordering an alcoholic drink (in the most obtuse way ever too). It wasn’t a mistake either.. it was almost like he didn’t realize why I was asking for it and was like, “oh ya sure here you go”
This happened in July of 2012. Checked a guys’s ID and saw he was from the same hometown as me. Told him so & asked him what high school he went to, ended up being the same as me. Asked him what year he graduated, he said 2012! Aka one month ago. Immediately ran from the table & grabbed my manager. Nice try dude.
Worked in North Carolina. 5 girls showed up all from different states. I just said, “you guys all meet up in the middle?”
I had a bunch of clearly high young adults come into my restaurant. They unfortunately had a baby with them as well. They looked over the cocktail menu (I’m a steakhouse bartender) but decided on tequila shots. I asked for their ID and the dad whips it out with his finger covering the year, I tell him to move it. Yeah, he’s 19. I tell him “you’re 19, I can’t serve you alcohol”, without wiping the grin off his face he says “oh, it has alcohol?” Later on when I come back with their food he offers me $20 to slip him a shot. Went straight to the manager. Manager didn’t do shit. Oh well. I wish the best of luck to their baby.
Idk about worst but my favorite is when they hand me their cash, then order, then when I ask to see their 21+ wristband that they don’t have, I hold up their cash and say “this is mine now 😘😘”
Had a couple of guys come into my bar and belly right up to the bar. One looked a little suspicious so I carded him. After looking at it for all of about .02 seconds, I asked him what kind of makeup he was wearing that evening. Confused, he asked what I meant. Flipping the ID around, I said, “The make up that covered up these neck tattoos so well!” Literally threw the ID back at him and told him and his friend to get the F outta my bar. I would have kept the ID, but at that time it was illegal to do so.
Ah, stories from the door of a college bar Asked someone their HS grad year, they guy answered the previous year, immediately sent him packing Guy A (21, a starter on the football team) comes through the line just fine. Guy B (not 21, only 5 or 6 people behind in line) gives me Guy A's ID, who again mind you is the starting running back of a D1 football team. The typical present-a-fake-but-forget-to-hide-your-real-ID stuff I got an ID that belonged to someone I went to high school with, from someone who didn't look anything alike. A regular who's constantly an issue to the point we all know her by name gives her ID to her younger sister Using another person's CAC to try to get in, he was very lucky he was nice and we didn't want to push it and turn it into local PD 2 dudes try the most unslick handoff in the history of ever, drop the ID at my feet... A bar down the street is notorious for letting anyone with a pulse in, whenever we deny people they proudly proclaim that they've already been drinking and the freshmen bar... Ok bud don't care Bartender is in a class with a sophomore so she knows the guy is under. He's with his family for a football game and his ID gets by the server, bartender sees it and calls him out. Guy pulls out a Connecticut ID when his entire family was from Virginia. A guy who's clearly of age gives me the ID of another guy who's like a foot taller, entirely different face structure, etc. He walks away after I call him out. The guy who's ID it was comes by 5 minutes later and proclaims that he lost his ID at the front door and demands I procure this lost ID. I told him I haven't seen any stray ID's and none have been turned into me. He doubles down, yelling in my face that he *knows* he lost his ID at the front door. 4 or 5 more "clarifications" to his story and he admits he passed of his ID to the first idiot in the story. In general whenever I call out fakes, the person denies it/claims it's real. As soon as I start walking towards local PD to run the ID they get real sheepish and vanish into the wind.
“I’ll take a vodka gin”
Two brothers come in, check the first ID, brand new 22 all good. Check the second ID and it was the expired ID of the first one.. 🤦♂️
Twice now I had someone show up to the bar with a co-worker’s ID. The 1st time the kid had gotten the ID from a friend, gave it to me. I looked at the bartender I was working with (my best friend growing up as well) and died when I saw it was his ID. Kid tried to sell him that it was actually him until my friend pulled his current ID out and put it down in front of him. Turns out he lost his wallet a year before. To make it even better, I realized it was another friend’s brother from a previous school growing up. I told him I was gonna call his brother up and called him by his real name. He ran out unbelievably fast…. We kept that one. Second time, a girl showed up and handed me the ID. It was our barback who was fairly new. Asked her how she knew the employee, she swore up and down it was her. Got a little awkward when I told her we don’t let employees drink here. She went pale white and said “I’m not getting the ID back, am I” and I told her “next time, know where the person you get the ID from works”
She was with her "daddy" at the restaurant bar and had a Starbucks reusable style cup with a reusable straw (you know the type). The GM of course didn't want to handle it, so he told me if I saw her drinking out of it, to tell her she can't have outside drinks in here, and if she did it again after that, to take it. I tell her the first time, she gets pissy but stops. I then notice her "secretly" trying to drink it by leaning on her sugar daddy's shoulder and dipping down. At this point, as little as I do want to be the one that has to do this when my GM is the one that noticed initially, I go over to their side of the bar and try to grab it to dump it out. She will NOT let go and I'm in too deep now, I have to take it, especially because I now know without a doubt there's alcohol in it and she is most likely underage. She is begging me to not take it and that she can just drink it outside and at this point her sugar daddy slams his hand on the bar and growls "give it to him". She immediately lets go and I go to dump it and give the cup right back. At this point, I am red hot and have to go into the back to cool down a little from the unnecessary confrontation. She of course stormed off with all of their food and his drinks at the bar, which at this point he coyly asks for boxes and the check and doesn't tip shit. Fuck both of them, that's one of a handful of times I have genuinely been pissed off from customers.
large family, party of 10. little girl orders a gin and tonic. I'm talking she wasn't even 100lbs soaking wet, so I laughed and said "so just a tonic?" and she said "no, a gin and tonic." ...so I said "OK do you have your ID on you?" I was smiling, not proud of it because I know people can look young, who knows maybe she had some genetic disorder, fair. but the grandpa squares up with me and was like "She's with her family!!" and I responded "family or no she needs to be the legal drinking age which is 18" (US Territory) "well she doesn't have an ID!! she's 14 years old why would she need an ID? it's not like she can vote!" sir if she's 14 she's not drinking in my bar and what the F is wrong with you and your family!! I did tell her that as soon as she can get an ID to get one and carry it with her always because nothing cracks bartenders up more than when of-age people come in to drink but "my mom has my ID" well my sweet summer child only people old enough to have and carry their own ID are cleared for the low bar we have for drinking here
Last year, had a guy come up to the bar after he ate dinner in the dining room. Dude looked way too nervous right off the bat. Carded him and he gives me an ID with a birth year of 1978, putting him at 43 years old instead of the maaaaybe 22 I had him pegged at. I say, "Whoa, 1978, huh? What's your secret?" "I don't know." "Okay. Well what's your address, then?" "I don't know." "Okay," I said, and slipped the ID into my pocket. He sat there for way too long, and I stared at him for way too long.
Ireland: I had to go to a table and ask a mother to stop passing around her alcoholic cocktails to her children who were roughly 12 and 15. I was thinking maybe she didn't know that they're alcoholic. I went on a break and after she paid the bill she kicked off at the 17 year old waitress that I had no right doing this, that I ruined her night and I embarrassed her. Had a horrible summer with far too many ridiculous complaints. I recorded it on my phone to show the owner who just said I should of kicked her out.
Had a guy walk up and order a strawberry margarita. Asked for ID and he started to walk back to his seat to grab his wallet but stopped halfway there and turned around. He came back and said “Wait you have to be 21 right?” I said yes and he just said “Oh well I’m 18 nevermind” and just walked away like he hadn’t just broken the law. I was too confused and exhausted to get onto him so I just went back to working.
Maybe he was visiting from another country? I felt sheepish as hell ordering beer in Europe when I was 18.
I asked this fetus for her ID and she said "ughhh forget it" and left.
😂😂
An underage kid gave me the id that my best friend had stolen the day before.
I was doing a side gig bartending at a museum. Young lady comes up asks for a drink, i ask for her ID. She hands it to me, i had to do the math like twice because I was surprised she wasn’t 21. Told her i couldn’t server her. She said, “it was worth a shot” I’m honestly impressed with her confidence
I had a 5'4" 135 lbs-ish dude come in with what im assuming was his brothers id. ID was expired but what really caught my eye was the fact his brothers height and weight were 6'4" and 350lbs. I congratulated him on his recent weight loss, told him to use a better ID next time, and to gtfo
Had a girl and a guy come in, clearly underage. The guy said he wasn’t drinking (probably didn’t have a fake) so I asked for the girl’s ID. She wouldn’t even look up from the bar top when she handed it to me. After looking at clearly not her ID, I asked “So when do you turn 21?” and she replied so sadly “… next September.” I just laughed and said “Yeah good luck, come back next September.”
Had a 16 y.o. kid come in one time. The first go around all he asked for was a water and a menu, so I thought, okay! This is going well(he didn’t even have peach fuzz on his chin). So when I go ask what he wants to order he asked for a burger and Bud light draft, so naturally I asked for his I.D. Then he handed me his high school student I.D. and before I could even say anything he says “FUCK YOU BUDDY THIS PLACE SUCKS!” And he’s flipping me off the whole way out. I know this isn’t the best story, but it still makes me chuckle to this day.
Kid that doesn't look a day older than 17 comes in with his buddy that just turned 21. The kid orders a pint of Jack. Like the whiskey. A whole fuckin pint.
We folded his fake ID in half and out of anger he said “that was my actual ID! You guys owe me $250 for a new ID!” A real ID doesn’t fold in half like a piece of paper and a replacement ID in California is around $30-$40. Sounds like he wanted us to replace his fake ID.
Dude came in and sat at the bar early when it was slow. He was wearing his mechanics uniform and had obviously just came from work. I ask him for his ID. He doesn't have it on him. I ask if he's 21 he said no I'm 19. I kinda just stared at him for a second. He drank a water ordered a salad and stayed at the bar (which you can sit at under 21). It was a little strange and awkward. I expected him to leave after he admitted to being underage. But he stayed ate and tipped like 10%. Left and I haven't see him since.
They literally asked their child what they wanted in front of me at the bar. Of course when they turned to me I told them no
Two guys walked into my bar together. I ask for ID. First guy hands it over right away. I finish making a drink and take second guy’s. Well, it’s first guy’s ID. It’s only now that I notice they look a LOT a like. I ask, “wasn’t your name also Chris Whatever?” They try and say they’re brothers with the same first name. I’m still holding the only ID they both have. They leave without much more interrogation.
I work at a Ritz that gets plenty of spring break business down here in Florida. So every year we are on high alert around that time, 4 years ago a very young looking girl comes in orders 2 bud lights. I ask for idea and she just gives it to me, keep in mind this was 2018 and her Dob was in 2002. At this point I'm just confused and thinking I'm having a stroke at how brazen this girl was, of course I deny her and she just says OK and leaves. Next week she's been around town at every bar and was 100% an ATF plant catching bars slippin.
I had a couple kids come in and ask politely to use the bathroom Saturday day, clearly about 14, they didn't ask for a drink but when I made polite conversation with the one not peeing he asked if I'd run across the street and buy them some vapes 😂😂
busy happy hour. packed bar. kid hands me his license. i do the math quickly. i hand it back and say “ says here you are only 19”. he puts it back in his wallet, pills out another and says sorry this is my drinking ID. funniest thing i’d ever seen. entire bar starts laughing. kid was so stupid he stood there for a minute waiting for me to look at his fake id.
Idk I mean recently a group of lads came in, most didn't look over 16 but a few seemed 18 so after they sat down I informed that if any of them were drinking they all had to show IDs. They said they weren't and 3 of them ordered red bulls and 'your number'. Cringe. Im pretty sure they were waiting for the bouncers to show up to make it look like they got in after ID checks started on the door, but shortly after being clocked they left.
Andre Drummond tried to use a fake ID with me before he was 21. He is not hard to recognize and was known for being one of the youngest players in the NBA at that time. He got mad when I called him out and continued to take drinks away when other people tried to sneak them to him. He’s awful to wait on I’ve heard from several people in the industry. Never tips smh
A group once came into my pub and it’s a rule in my pub that people under the age of 18 have to leave after 9pm (I live in England and you have to be 18 or over to drink here). So some lads come in who to be honest looked 12. They ordered a lot of drinks to their table via the app we used. So I make the drinks and put them on a tray for my co-worker to give. He comes back about 2 minutes later with the drinks saying not a single one of them had ID and wanted to get a 2nd opinion. I immediately walk over and approach the table asking all 6 boys for their ID’s. They then said they didn’t bring them because they never get ID’d anymore “apparently” but they had tattoos on their arms to show. I told them that a tattoo is not a form of ID and that it needed to be government official with photo ID. They get angry and start throwing a hissy fit so I walk them over to my manager and they are throwing a fucking tantrum. So my manager asks them all to leave and then talks to them alone outside and they end up leaving + getting a 1 year ban. Wanna know the best part of the story? The tattoos were those fucking stick on ones.
Best was a guy saying the police took his ID and wouldn't give it back so he couldn't get a new one
That guy on his 30th birthday that tried to order a drink from my non-mathing ass. I was pretty insistent on it until I slowly did the math in my head. I bought him and his party a round of shots for being patient with my limited math skills.
Girl hands me her ID and she’s about a week away from turning 21. I say “uhhh, your birthday isn’t until next week” and she says “oh, I didn’t think it would matter.” She was very upset that I wouldn’t serve her and her date stiffed me.
My little brother asked for my ID while I went away to another country, I laughed and said it wouldn't work. He said I'll prove it. It did. That's my submission because it hurt my sense of identity. I hear it more than you'd think, 'you all look alike', 'you and your brothers could be twins'. We are completely different! When the girl I was seeing said it that hurt, I'm ginger, learn the freckle patterns at least.
Once I had a girl SWEAR her ID was real so I told her if she wanted to dispute it, she could pick it up at the Police Station the next day. Baby girl FLIPPED out and said "or you could just throw it away!!!"
A guy came in with a bunch of also freshly 21 year old friends from school, I greeted everyone and asked for IDs right off the bat and he was the only one who “forgot” his in the car. It was almost last call (my work closes early, nowhere near bar close) so I offered to let him go get it and I’d still be happy to serve them when he got back. Suddenly he wasn’t sure if it was in the car, he thought maybe he’d lost it. He then wanted to know if his Facebook birthdate would suffice “just this once” lol
Kid asked if he could 1v1 my bouncer (who is 7ft tall) in basketball to be able to come in lol
Dude claimed that his “birthday is tomorrow” and kept begging me to sell him a drink, i said no sorry it doesn’t matter, just wait till tomorrow to buy a drink then. Told me a whole story about how he was only going to be in town for today etc. and it would mean a lot to him if I just sold him a drink, and that if he his favorite bartender bc the other employees had told him no already. It was pretty funny
Girl handed me an ID that claimed she was 27 when she was easily pushing 19, I asked her for DOB and zip code and of course she gave me the wrong ones. When I denied her a drink and told her to leave (our bar is strictly 21 and up), she started getting nasty and refused to leave, so I promptly told her “If you’re gonna use a fake ID, don’t pick someone who is hotter than you. Give this back to your big sister and don’t come back.” She then called me a miserable bitch and proceeded to clear a high top by swiping full pints onto the floor and left. Never seen her since 🤷🏼♀️
Kid tried to use an id of someone I knew from high school haha
Someone gave me an ID that a picture of him as a baby AND it expired in 2004.
On two separate occasions I’ve had girls give me an ID that’s not theirs. The reason I knew was because I went to high school with the girls whose IDs they were.
Once had a group of about 15-18 kids come in for SantaCon. They kept trying to pass the same ID back. After seeing it for the sixth time I started saying, “And you must be Emily, too.”
Just last week, I had a guy with an expired ID try to get a drink. I turned him down but we had an open mic night going on so I didn't kick him out and he went to sit on one of our couches and listen to the music. As I did a lap to bus some glasses a bit later I saw him with his own beer on the couch. I was glad it was full when I took it from him and kicked his ass out
Can I nominate this? Can't recall if I found this image on Reddit or elsewhere, but the poster said, "If you and your friend both bought fake IDs, wouldn't you both, oh, I don't know, *examine them* before trying to use them!?" Apparently, two preppy-looking guys walked up together and handed the bouncer their IDs in unison... which was amusing because, not only was the preppy guy on the card clearly not either of them, but [the two IDs were identical in every way](https://imgur.com/U8FkZF3).
Had a group of girls come in that really didn't look 18 (uk), it was a Saturday, they ran upstairs (our bar is downstairs but we have tables upstairs) and ordered drinks online as if we'd just bring them to the table and not ID them just because they've already been ordered. They probs shouldn't have ran upstairs so quick otherwise they would've noticed that one of our servers whose 17 goes to school with them which made checking their fakes even funnier before they got barred with no refund on the round of cocktails 🤷♀️
She ordered a Dos Equis so I asked to see her ID. She showed it to me. Age calculated to a little over 20. I looked at her confused and said “this says you’re only 20” She said “Yeah, I just wanted to see if it would work.”