21st Birthday

For my 21st bithday, I decided to go to the Ram with some friends. The plan was to drink some beer, get a free dinner since it was my birthday, and have a good time. Little did I know, there would be a series of setbacks to thwart my plan.

Good So Far
I went to the Ram with my friend Kevin Chiu and my roommate Torri. I hear you need at least three people to have a proper party so we were all set. The parking lot was crowded, but we managed to get a good spot by waiting for a woman to leave. We arrived at around 4:30, before it got terribly busy, so we waited less than 5 minutes to get seated.

The First Setback
It was time to order drinks. Torri ordered coffee and Kevin ordered Sprite. I ordered the beer sampler (6 different 3oz beers for $3). I showed my driver's license to the waiter. He looked at it awhile, wished me a happy birthday, and then said he couldn't accept it since it expired today. I thought he was joking. I asked the waiter how my license expiring today could possibly affect the date of my birth. He replied it was their policy not to accept expired identification and said I would have to talk to their manager. I decided not to pursue the matter further. After all, I had already waited 21 years, another few days isn't going to hurt.

So I ordered coke instead. Kevin asked them to serve it to me in a beer glass, but it just wasn't the same.
The Second Setback
I had a hankering for some shrimp, so I ordered cod and shrimp. When the food arrived however, my shrimp were nowhere to be found. I turns out the waiter thought I had ordered fish and chips. After I informed him about the mistake, he brought my shrimp on the side.

The Third Setback
When the bill arrived, I was expecting my dinner to be free. When it wasn't, I asked the waiter about the free dinner on your birthday promotion. The waiter said they had free mud pie on your birthday, not free dinner. I asked to talk to the manager, but he told me the same story. This couldn't be right I thought. The first time I had eaten at the Ram, my friend got free dinner since it was his birthday.

I remembered the email I got when I signed up for the Ram's MVP Club said something about free dinner on your birthday. Unfortunately, I hadn't printed it. Luckily, there was an Apple store right next door. So I grabbed my camera, and literally tripped over myself while running over there. I went online, brought up the email, and took a picture of it with my camera. I came back and showed the email to the manager, but he still refused to give me a free meal.

All's Well that Ends Well
In the end we did get a mud pie that was absolutely enormous.
The manager also gave me a coupon good for $15 off my next visit.