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Last night we went to a mexican restaurant and my wife ordered a margarita. The waiter asked her for an ID. She's in her lower 40's. She was feeling pretty good about the whole thing until she handed the waiter her drivers license and he walked away with it. I watched him take it to a machine of some kind and scan it. He then came back with a paper with her name,address ect...all the info on the license and said, "In order for you to drink alcohol in here you have to join a club." At the bottom of the paper was a place for her to sign it. We decided not to sign it and not drink. We kept the piece of paper with her info on it.The food at the restaurant was good, however the waiter had a bad attitude about it since we wouldn't join the club. Has anyone had a experience like this before?

fishman wrote:Last night we went to a mexican restaurant and my wife ordered a margarita. The waiter asked her for an ID. She's in her lower 40's. She was feeling pretty good about the whole thing until she handed the waiter her drivers license and he walked away with it. I watched him take it to a machine of some kind and scan it. He then came back with a paper with her name,address ect...all the info on the license and said, "In order for you to drink alcohol in here you have to join a club." At the bottom of the paper was a place for her to sign it. We decided not to sign it and not drink. We kept the piece of paper with her info on it.The food at the restaurant was good, however the waiter had a bad attitude about it since we wouldn't join the club. Has anyone had a experience like this before?

I have heard of this in the city of Dallas. Where were you guys?

It was in Tomball.

fishman wrote:Last night we went to a mexican restaurant and my wife ordered a margarita. The waiter asked her for an ID. She's in her lower 40's. She was feeling pretty good about the whole thing until she handed the waiter her drivers license and he walked away with it. I watched him take it to a machine of some kind and scan it. He then came back with a paper with her name,address ect...all the info on the license and said, "In order for you to drink alcohol in here you have to join a club." At the bottom of the paper was a place for her to sign it. We decided not to sign it and not drink. We kept the piece of paper with her info on it.The food at the restaurant was good, however the waiter had a bad attitude about it since we wouldn't join the club. Has anyone had a experience like this before?

Yes. Some counties in Texas are 'dry' and require a private membership to buy liquor or get it by the drink. These are going away, but it is still in effect im many areas. It used to be a VERY common thing, but not so much any more as counties vote to repeal the liquor law restrictions.

Ok, Why can he scan a Dl with your personal information on it for that purpose? We decided not to join the club, but their scanner still has our information on it.I really don't want them to know our address ect.

fishman wrote:Ok, Why can he scan a Dl with your personal information on it for that purpose? We decided not to join the club, but their scanner still has our information on it.I really don't want them to know our address ect.

Those only collect the information that is on the front of the card anyway. They could just as easily write it down. That is the way they did it before the magnetic swipe scanner.

Interesting that this happened in Tomball since neither Harris nor any of the adjacent counties in the vicinity, Waller, Montgomery or Grimes, are dry counties. We don't drink much when we are out (partially since we are usually armed), but I was not aware of any restaurants in the Houston/Tomball/Conroe area that required joining a club.

Middle Age Russ wrote:Interesting that this happened in Tomball since neither Harris nor any of the adjacent counties in the vicinity, Waller, Montgomery or Grimes, are dry counties. We don't drink much when we are out (partially since we are usually armed), but I was not aware of any restaurants in the Houston/Tomball/Conroe area that required joining a club.

Ditto... it sounds almost like a pure money-making thing for this place assuming they charge some small fee... ?

Where was it exactly? Would you mind sharing the name of the establishment?

In partially wet counties some cities may restrict the sale of liquor by the drink or type of alcohol sold. See the map below for those counties.. For instance, Dallas did restrict liquor by the drink and you had to get a private club membership. Think they voted to repeal that. And in Collin County you can get hard liquor by the drink without a club membership, but you can't buy hard liquor in a store; you have to go over to Denton County to do that.

Also, here is a spreadsheet that shows individual cities, but it can be really confusing http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/local_optio ... Status.xls" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Scott in Houston wrote:

Middle Age Russ wrote:Interesting that this happened in Tomball since neither Harris nor any of the adjacent counties in the vicinity, Waller, Montgomery or Grimes, are dry counties. We don't drink much when we are out (partially since we are usually armed), but I was not aware of any restaurants in the Houston/Tomball/Conroe area that required joining a club.

Ditto... it sounds almost like a pure money-making thing for this place assuming they charge some small fee... ?

Where was it exactly? Would you mind sharing the name of the establishment?

Cisco's salsa co. Like I said the food was good the service was not, atleast by the waiter we had. I will call the restaurant later to tell them my thoughts, or maybe I'll wright them a letter.

If they are governed under ordinaces to require you to join a private club to buy liquor by the drink then there is nothing that teh Manager will be able to do.

Keith B wrote:Also, here is a spreadsheet that shows individual cities, but it can be really confusing http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/local_optio ... Status.xls" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Edited b/c I misread the chart. There are cities in Travis County that do have restrictions.

And, here is probably the system they are using http://www.wescanids.com/services/private_club.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What I have a problem with is that he asked for an Id and took it away and scaned it without saying anything about joining a club until he came back to the table. I thought he was just going to look at it to verify her age.