We arrived on a Sunday evening to discover two bartenders, whom were heavily inked on back and arms; one with a close and almost buzz cut (solely to identify them), whom presented as incredibly surly and passive aggressive staff members behind bar. The two bartenders, whom paraded up and down behind bar without serving customers; proceeding to ignore others at bar and only serve a woman, whom they appeared to be acquainted with already. They made my friend and I feel less than welcome, which goes against the grain of a supposedly LGBTQI+ venue in a community, where tolerance, acceptance and friendliness should abound. Moreover, the bartenders demanded I hand over cash or my bank card, after he placed my drinks down. I requested and proceeded to try and pay using my iPhone and Apple Pay, which then resulted in a petulant and unprofessional response from him, where he berated and lectured me for not having cash or having my bank card to surrender to him at bar. He said:

“you should’ve told me this”.

He then went and got the duty manager, whom kindly apologised and said they were getting used to dealing with Apple Pay, which is strange, as there is widespread use throughout the island. I thought the matter to be resolved, however on attempting to order again with the aforementioned problematic and hostile bartenders, I proceeded to pay and in passive-aggressive form, the two bartenders turned to each other and said:

“I don’t know do we take Apple Pay, I don’t think so.”

At this point, my friend and I left the bar feeling affronted and appalled at the manner, in which we had been treated in a bar, which is allegedly central to the LGBTQI bar offerings in Honolulu. It might have been a tough last few years with COVID-19; restrictions and lockdowns, however these bartenders continue to make life difficult unnecessarily so.