New Years Leave

(It is New Year’s Eve, and I have meticulously planned an evening out for my group of friends. We are planning on going to a certain restaurant in a nice part of town, and I call the restaurant several times over the course of a week to confirm our reservations. Our reservations are at 9. I am driving two people, so my other two friends have already gotten to the restaurant around 8:50. We get there at 9:10, but are stopped at the door and told no one under 21 is allowed after 9. Note that we are not far from 21, and look around 23-25.)

Me: *as kindly as I could manage* “I called several times and not once did they mention this to me or even ask my age. It wasn’t on the website either.”

Bouncer: “I can’t let you in.”

Me: “My two friends are already in there at the table. What am I supposed to do?”

(The manager comes out.)

Manager: *curtly* “You can come in but you have to leave at ten.”

Me: “Thank you.”

(It is now 9:20. The manager checks our table an obnoxious amount of times to make sure we know we need to leave, we are forced to down scalding hot food, and the manager never apologized for anything. Way to ruin New Year’s.)