Anyone know or been with someone that went out to bar the night before they turned 21? What happens in this situation? Does the person have to wait until 12:00 AM to buy a drink? I’ve been wanting to try this out for a while, but ran out of people I know who are under 21.
Thanks for reading,
Mike
We took my younger brother to a bar the “night” before his 21st birthday–technically the morning of, as it was after midnight–and the guy checking IDs looked at my brother’s ID, checked his watch and let him in. I’ve also been in many bars that haven’t bothered to check IDs.
So the answer would be: Depends on the bar.
Or buying an assault rifle? There must be all-night gun shops 
Seriously, though, living in Canada I had numerous occasions to take friends to bars to celebrate their 18th or 19th birthdays. Never had any problem with the “night before”.
The night before my 21st birthday, I was sitting in the bar, drinking as usual, with no problems. For some reason, I had been able to buy booze on my own (no fake ID, either) with considerable success from about the age of 15.
A few minutes after midnight, I ordered another beer. Just to mess with the bartender, I said “You know, you’ve never bothered to card me when I drink here. I get carded at other places all the time.”
Raising his eyebrow, he asked for my ID.
Upon glancing at it, a calender, and a clock, he gave me another Harps on the house.
I read years ago that you can buy alcohol the day before you’re 21, as a result of some case from the 18th century. Some guy died the day before his 18th birthday, and there was some dispute over whether his will was binding, or something like that. It was decided that he was essentially 18, thus establishing the precedent that the day before a birthday is close enough. Or something like that. Of course, I’ve no idea whether this is true.
I wouldn’t try going to court with that defense unless you can cite the case.
I would imagine that whether or not you are cited depends upon how much you upset the police officer investigating the case.
Here’s a related anecdote:
On the day before my 21st birthday (we were having a party that night), my friend and I traveled from Vermont to N.H. to buy the booze, mostly because there was no bottle deposit, and the drive wasn’t very far anyway. So we both went in to the liquor store (my friend had turned 21 months earlier, so he would buy it), and got ready to check out. One of us made a harmless comment about how this was for my 21st birthday coming up at midnight. The woman ringing out then refused to sell us the booze, since I was only 20 years and 364 days (even though my friend was of age). She told us we would have to come back later when she wasn’t there, so we were essentially forced to stick around N.H. for a couple of hours. Sheesh.
I have a fairly similar story of my 21st birthday.
I remember it was a Monday night because I’d just watched Raw and once that ended at 11:15 or so, I put my boots on (it was January in Erie!!!) and walked over to the neighborhood softball bar and got there at 11:30 or so and ordered a drink (fairly nervously, I might add). I got my ID checked (I have quite a babyface…I’ll have to post a pic to the People Pages sometime as people will be rather surprised by my appearance ) and well, he explained that he couldn’t serve me for another 25 minutes (placed a beer oh so tantalizingly close but so far away), so I got a Coke and went over and played Golden Tee for a little while. When it got to be close to midnight, he wished me a happy birthday,handed me the beer (Honey Brown) and a shot of Jack Daniels I requested, put them down as birthday comps, I made a toast to the bar and enjoyed my first (legal) alcohol!
All in all, I enjoyed a couple weeks of pure alcoholic bliss and then the fairly pessimistic realization that “I waited all those years for THIS?!?” set in.
Depending on how strict the bars are around your neighborhood, you may get in without them looking at your ID. On the eve before my 21st, I went out with my roommates. We arrived at the bar at about 11:40, and the bouncer teased me a bit about still being underage (never mind that I had gone to that same bar for the past couple months with someone else’s ID!), but still let me in. Although a lot of places around me (I live in a big college town) specify that it has to be between 10 AM and closing for you to be eligible for birthday specials. I guess this is so people don’t cash in 2 nights in a row.
Wow, New Hampshire only has one liquor store?
BobT, given my age, I have no need to cite the case. Either way, I can’t imagine trotting out this nuance of law will help with many argumentative bartenders or others the day before your birthday.
Apparently, what I referred to is found in common law as the “coming of age” provision. I refer you to this case from Kansas for a brief description:
Alas, for you younger Dopers, as this decision points out, this NC case established that the birthday rule is more appropriate in this day and age.
I suppose in preparation for the big moment, you could research which rule holds in your jurisdiction, and either prepare the bartenders at your favorite watering hole, or bring a lawyer with you…
I can’t speak for bars, but nineiron’s post reminded me of when I used to work in a beer store. I had a few people come in the day before they were legal, and try to buy beer.
Nope, under provincial law (Ontario) they couldn’t. The law saw them as still not legal, even the day before. It would have been my job, and assorted fines for myself and the store if I had sold it to them and got caught. They had to wait until the next day, since we weren’t open past ten p.m.
Of course, it might have worked in other stores or in bars, but our store was pretty strict.
Anyway, I always tried to soften the blow: “Tell you what–I can’t sell you beer tonight, but I’ll be glad to sell you a case of beer tomorrow. And I’ll even carry it out to your car for you.” Must have meant something because we often did see them the next day, when we’d sell them their beer, and wish them a happy birthday. And we’d do the promised carry-out if they wanted.
[/hijack]As a Québecker now living in Ontario for school, I have to ask - WHY can’t they bring the Beer Store and LCBO together, and make one happy store??? [/hijack]
They refused to let my boyfriend buy cooking wine (for his celebratory dinner) the night before his 21st.
They refused to let me buy wine once at a supermarket with an out of state DL and I was 28! Sheesh!
We have the “day before your 21st birthday” every week here in Georgia. It’s called Sunday. Only bars and restaraunts can sell on Sunday (assuming a certain percentage of their revenue comes from non-alcohol sales) and not even that in every county.
When I first moved here I tried to buy a bottle of wine for cooking at the grocery store. The checkout clerk said, “We can’t sell you that”. When I inquired why not she replied, “it’s Sunday”.
Essentially, yes, assuming they were buying hard liquor.
There are ~30 State Liquor Stores, and they are the only ones that can sell hard alcohol. In most cases, there’s only 1 within a convenient driving distance, especially considering the mountain potential in NH.
A friend of mine was turning 21 on a Sunday. We tried to get her into a bar after midnight on Saturday, so by the clock it was Sunday, but they wouldn’t let her in. The reasoning was that since all bars were closed on Sundays, the hours after midnight on Saturday were just ‘extra Saturday hours’. This was in Missouri in about 1983.
Sorry to continue the hijack, but you asked.
There are a number of reasons. Probably the most important is that the Beer Store is run by private interests (currently Molson, Labatt, and Sleeman own all the shares), and the LCBO is run by the government. It is a long story, but to make it short, this is due to a part of the Ontario Liquor Act 1927 that says that Ontario brewers and winemakers can set up their own retail operations to sell their own products (this is also why the Beer Store only sold made-in-Ontario beer until about 1994 or so).
In spite of the fact that the LCBO has a limited selection of beer for sale and deposits collected at the LCBO can be refunded at the Beer Store, there is a certain amount of rivalry between the two.
The Beer Store doesn’t believe that the LCBO can provide the service that the Beer Store does. Such service includes things like recycling beer packaging (bottles, cans, cardboard, caps, plastic rings–they’ll take all of them for recycling), as well as selling only cold beer–all beer sold in a Beer Store is sold cold and ready to drink, unlike the LCBO. (Although, IMHO, the Beer Store doesn’t need to chill the Guinness as much as it does. :))
There are other customer services, like the carry-outs I mentioned above, but there are plenty of things that the retail customer doesn’t see also–the pub deliveries, the bottle returns and necessary deposit credits during pub deliveries, the chilled warehousing for products like draught beer that need it, and the Draught Equipment Service are examples.
Anyway, the Beer Store does a lot more than it believes the LCBO would be willing or able to do. Given the level of service that the Beer Store prides itself on (whether justified or not) and the fact that Molson, Labatt, and Sleeman would have to give up a very lucrative retail operation, I don’t think we’ll see any sort of merger in my lifetime. Certainly, if it somehow someday comes to pass, I don’t think it will be, as you say, “one happy store.”
End of hijack. Back to our regularly-scheduled GQ.
What does LCBO stand for?