We're there for a half hour, when I decide to go to the back of the venue just to check out the score of the game - the back of venue is away from stage, and is a sort of separate area with TVs, pool tables, and less crowded. While we are there, we figure we'll get another drink - we've only had one each at this point - since there is no line at that bar at all. In fact, there is no one at that bar at all except the bartender who is deep in conversation with someone - either a friend or a co-worker, definitely not a patron.
Hubby tells the bartender what he wants to drink, but that he wants to keep the same rocks (ice) in his cup, and if she'd like, she can just go ahead and use the same cup, which is empty but for the ice and a little melted water on the bottom. She tells him that he cannot fill the same cup, she can pour him another drink in another cup. Then she explains that she is not allowed to "top-off" an existing drink. Hubby repeats that he would like to keep the ice (without saying anything about using the same cup). Okay, we get that you cannot refill a glass, likely due to liquor laws. But it is not unheard of for a whiskey drinker to ask a bar to keep the same rocks, in fact many places will ask if you want to keep the rocks when they see an empty glass and you order another refill.
What happened next was kind of irritating. She reaches over to bar grab his cup, which is next to his hand on the bar, takes it, and deliberately dumps it into the sink in front of us. He asks why she did that, when he told her he wanted to keep the ice, and she smirks and say, "well, if it was only ice and water, it doesn't really matter, now does it"? The unheard implication was, "and if there was liquor in the glass, well too bad for you because I just dumped your drink". Thankfully it really was just ice and water.
At this point, even though we haven't been rude, it's clear she is giving us attitude and is itching for an argument, for whatever reason. We think the attitude might have been due to the fact that she was stuck in the bar in the back, with no patrons, and not getting tipped. And there was definitely a better way for her to handle the request, like telling him, sir, I can't pour into the same glass, I have to give you your drink in a different glass, but keep your original glass with your rocks and then do whatever you like with them yourself. Hubby tells her, you know what, I don't want the drink any more, forget it. Thanks. We leave the bar , and go back to where our friends are standing at this point.
What happens next leaves us positively floored. We are minding our business, watching the performers with our friends, when about 5 minutes later a guy comes over to my husband and asks if there was a problem. She decided to send a bouncer/manager after us. Although my husband thinks its possible they saw her giving us a hard time and came to see our version of what happened, I thnk that is less likely. How they found us in the crowd, I will never know, and God only knows what she told them, probably that there was some obnoxious drunks (which we were neither) at the bar bothering her. He explains the story, politely, calmly, including that the bartender threw his drink away that was on the bar after he told her not to. It's clear that he's not drunk, which the bouncer or whoever he was quickly realized, and his tune started to change and he was a lot more polite. Then a second guy (ETA: who claimed he was the manager though he sure didn't look/act like any manager I've ever seen) comes over to talk to my husband, for whatever reason, and all I can hear repeatedly is that "you gotta be cool man, you can't act like that". Act like what? We weren't drunk, yelling, swearing, causing a disturbance, or anything like that, in fact, we're the ones that walked away from your bartender to avoid causing a scene.
At that point, hubby decided he had enough, especially with a second guy coming over to bother him for no good reason. Even though we were not asked to leave (probably because first guy realized we were clearly not intoxicated, which is what we think the bartender probably told him when she sicced him on us) he tells them not to worry about it, we are out of there in 10 mins anyway. After the set was nearly over, we gave our regards/regrets to our friends, who we had planned on spending the rest of the evening with socializing, and left. We drove home slightly annoyed, yet slightly amused (at the ridiculous thought of almost getting thrown out of a bar at our ages when weren't even drunk), with a hint of WTF thrown in.