I heard through the grapevine that at least one person showed up at The
Local a while back expecting a beermeeting and instead getting a bunch of
employees mad about a broken reservation.  So, in case that person and anyone
else is wondering what happened, here you go.  If you AREN'T wondering,
stop reading now, because this is kind of long.

****** The Tale of a Beer Admin and an Irish Restaurant ******

I made a reservation at www.thelocal.com, on which I didn't notice any
special conditions for making reservations there.

A couple of days later, I get an email from someone there, basically saying
something like "Thanks for your reservation.  You know about the two drink
minimum right?  With a group of your size, you can order off the menu."

I wrote back saying something like, "What two drink minimum?  Order what
off the menu?  I'm confused.  Does everyone have to be 21+?"

She wrote back saying something like, "Everyone in your party has to order
two drinks, or else pay the equivalent (something like $10).  Under 21ers
are welcome, but then someone else has to buy more drinks to make up for
them."

I wrote back saying, "I'm very sorry, but I wasn't aware of this
stipulation.  I have to cancel our reservation.  Perhaps another time."

Either they didn't get that last message, or the lady that did forgot to
tell everyone else.  This was still a few days before the meeting itself,
not at the last minute.

I immediately changed the TCLUG beermeeting site, and that week's
beermeeting announcement said something to the effect of "This week's
beermeeting is NOT AT THE LOCAL!!!! It's at..."  I forget where it was now.
At least I think that's what I put.  I haven't thought about this in a
while.

Anyway, the point of all this is I'm very sorry if this caused anyone any
inconvenience.  I thought I had made it clear that the location changed,
both to the LUG and to the Local, but I'm still new at this and this isn't
the first time I've made a mistake.  Any and all suggestions are welcome,
both on how to deal with these kinds of situations, and what places won't
have two drink minimums.

Thanks,

Lorry