Booted and Confused

My birthday was this (and every) St. Patrick's Day. To celebrate, my friends and I went out in Philadelphia. After jumping from bar to bar, we eventually ended up at The Dark Horse. As it was getting late, we were all getting a bit hungry. The bartender had been very hospitable and had given me a few drinks on the house. We asked if they served food and he told us that the kitchen was closed. A few of my friends ran over to the nearby Wawa and brought back some food which we began to eat in the bar. This is when the trouble happened. Once we began to nosh, the bartender yelled at us across the bar that we were not allowed to bring outside food into an establishment that already served food. We had not known about this legality, but complied with his request to get rid of the food. We stayed in the bar and continued to drink, but five minutes after the bartender had told us to get rid of the food, he approached our table and said, very sternly, "Okay. Here's the deal. You take one last sip and then you get out!" None of us really understood why we were being kicked out. We had unknowingly broken rules, but we had done as we were asked once we realized our mistake. One of my friends was visiting from Australia and didn't move from the table. I asked Tom to wait until I left before he said something and I exited the bar hearing Tom tell the bartender, "This isn't how we do things in Australia." and the bartender replying, "Get out NOW! AND WALK QUICK!"

We were all upset over this event, but also amused. This was a collective event as we had all been in the same bar and had all experienced it together. There had been a few other patrons there, but for the most part, the bar was dead. We really felt we had did nothing wrong. This, combined with our varying levels of intoxication and the rude tone the bartender seemed to use out of nowhere affected our perception of the event. I'm sure to the other people in the bar we seemed like irresponsible kids who got what we deserved. No one tried to fight with the bartender (save Tom) and we didn't realize we had done anything wrong. We all concluded the bartender had been a jerk. The way I experienced this event directly related to my perceptions about it. We were not rude, but we were treated rudely. I feel the bartender's Irish temper got the better of him as he kicked us out after stewing over the incident for a few moments. My perceptions of him being Irish (indicated by his brogue) also affected the way I perceived his actions. I'm sure if I had read about this in a newspaper, I would have sided with the bar. I'm sure we would have been painted as defiant and careless. However, since I was there, and I know we were treated unfairly, I'm on my side.