Shade Rooftop Patio Bar — Restaurant in San Marcos

I recently visited this bar with a friend (who is gay), and it ended up being one of the most embarrassing experiences I’ve had. We each had one drink at another bar, Zelicks, and spent more than an hour there before walking over, so we were by no means drunk.

When we arrived, I went to use the restroom while my friend waited for me in the hallway, where the bouncer could see him the entire time. Despite that, the bouncer didn’t say anything to him. When we both handed over our IDs, he took my friend’s, gave it back without a word, and then looked at mine. Only after I handed over my ID did he tell me that we couldn’t come in because he thought my friend was “too drunk.”

I explained that we’d only had one drink each and had been sitting at the previous bar for over an hour, but the bouncer refused to engage with my friend or acknowledge him directly. If he really thought my friend was too drunk, why wait until I came out and gave him my ID to say something? It felt discriminatory and dismissive.

What’s even more frustrating is that I’ve been to this bar countless times with my girlfriends, sometimes way more plastered than we should’ve been, and we were let in with no issues. It seems like the problem only arises when I’m with a gay male friend, which is odd.

I’ve also seen other reviews mentioning that this bar has an issue with people who have tattoos, which might have been another factor, since both my friend and I have tattoos. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I’ve never had an issue getting in when I’m with female friends, despite having plenty of visible tattoos.

Whatever the reason, it was an incredibly embarrassing and frustrating experience, and I won’t...

First time back in 20 years for homecoming and we made the mistake of spending our $ here. Night was good and peaceful until the manager decided he wanted to stick his chest out. Some young girl was throwing a little pumpkin around and hitting people with it and she hit us multiple times. The final straw was she hit the wrong guy. My friend with me is a cop and proceeded to tell the young lady to stop throwing the pumpkin. She snatched it from him and went and told the manager/bouncer we were intimidating her and her friends. It’s not our fault we’re all 6’5 and over. We’re alum and came just to have fun. Well be proceeds to say he’s gonna call the cops and I pointed to my buddy and said he’s here already and he’s the one she hit. So, door guy runs behind him and decides he wants to take a deep breath and poke his chest out also. We’re all ex athletes and we’re about 15 strong in there, so intimidation wasn’t gonna work. So he decides to raise his voice and puts his finger in one guys face. On top of that once we all woke up we had been overcharged for our drinks. We legitimately spent about $400 and our total was almost $550. Find you another place to have fun. There are plenty there and next homecoming I’ll make sure to put this on...

I've been to this establishment about five times, all of them were great visits except for the last time. The bartenders are nice and the drinks are great. However there was a busboy going on a powertrip and just being down right rude trying to tell our tired friend that he had to leave because his head was down on the table. Our friend was tired, he had two drinks, was sipping a water, and was sitting with a group of four of us clearly conversing amongst ourselves and enjoying the atmosphere. The ridiculousness of the situation was not lost upon us and things became heated quickly. The busser was overly aggressive and looking to start something, had zero knowledge of how to politely or tactfully ask people to leave. Had zero knowledge of how to apply common sense to a situation and realize that this dude who is now talking to you telling you that he is just tired, not drunk out if his mind, is actually no issue whatsoever. He committed to continuing the farce and insisted we leave, and was the first to commit to bodily contact when it came to it. Hugely disappointing way to end what was an otherwise...