Zee Bar

Before the most recent incident I had at Zee Bar, my experience with the club was pleasant. The staff was friendly and the club had a cool atmosphere. However, the encounter I had with the bouncer last night has unfortunately forced me to change my attitude completely.



I arrived last night with a friend of mine who is visiting from another country. Having had wonderful experiences at the club before, my friends and I automatically decided that this would be a perfect location to bring her to. Upon arriving, she realized that she had forgotten her ID at the place she was staying. Of course this was our fault, and we let the bouncer know that we would return with the proper form of identification. I understand that he was simply doing his job by immediately turning her away, but he was unnecessarily obnoxious from the moment we arrived. Either way, we left and drove back to retrieve her ID.



My friend is a Portuguese citizen and therefore does not have a United States ID. Reasoning that carrying her passport was an unwise idea, she grabbed her Portuguese ID (the only other form of identification she has) and we started back for the club.



Over an hour later we finally returned, and the same bouncer took one look at it and proceeded to tell us that he didn't accept out-of-state forms of identification. So, Zee Bar turns away visitors from New Jersey, New York, Delaware, or any other out-of-state patrons? The answer is definitely no, as I have brought many friends from New Jersey to the club just months prior to this occurrence. Considering that he was completely rude from the moment we first interacted, it was clear that doing his job was not his primary intention. He obviously harbored an issue with the Portuguese identification; the out-of-state comment was entirely irrelevant. He knew perfectly well that not only was my friend a foreign visitor, but also that we had just spent the last hour going out of our way to get her ID so we could finally go inside. If foreign identification was not accepted, then maybe he should have said so before we wasted our time driving back and forth. He had proof in his hands that she was in fact twenty-one years of age, and yet he insisted that the only form of identification he would accept was a passport. This man is obviously ignorant of common passport protocol, but carrying one around while abroad is extremely unsafe. I along with anyone else who has traveled can certainly vouch for the stupidity of such an action. If the passport gets lost or stolen, that person is then stuck in the alien country until they can contact the embassy and replace it, a process that takes a very long time to complete.



Never have I dealt with such a shameful act of discrimination in a public venue. My friend was merely visiting, not a United States citizen, and therefore her Portuguese ID was all she had to offer. We were nothing but kind to this bouncer and tried our best to reason with him, but it was evident that her broken English triggered an embarrassingly racist reaction, one that he hid extremely poorly. It was also evident that he was committed to denying her entrance from the moment she said hello, unwilling to listen to anything either of us had to say.



Overall, it was a horrendous experience that I have no inclination to repeat. I am very disappointed in the manner of which the situation was handled and will absolutely be taking my business elsewhere from this point forward.