Howie's Sports Bar & Grill — Restaurant in St. Cloud

I understand that smaller restaurants/bars get targeted for sting operations when there are other establishments down town clearly letting in minors to their bars and businesses are afraid of getting fined. My girlfriend on the other hand is 25 and works every day of the week. We walk in to the bar planning to meet friends at 10pm (the beginning of the night & shes was the sober cab planning to have a drink and hang out with us the rest of the night before driving home and having to drive to work at 9am Saturday morning to work all day) and the bartender singles her out asking for her ID. A MN ID and takes it telling us to go pick it up from the police department in the morning which nobody has time to do. She pulls up her medical records showing her date of birth and says she needs her ID back and the bartender as well as everyone else working there refuses to work with us. This is a dive bar. The bartender threatens to call the cops so we call them instead using the non emergency line and we have to wait for the police to come get the ID back for us and she tells the police officer to tell us we can come back in. Regardless of all the other problems with this situation, work with someone. If you have medical records from centracare showing your date of birth give someone their property back and tell them to leave as they will not be served. That wouldve been fine. My girlfriend is 25. Im 28. We are busy people, business owners in the greater St Cloud area and dont have time to go drive to the police station to get ID’s back. We dont want to have a night ruined the moment we step in to the dying downtown St Cloud area. Other than that Howies has always been a great place. Ive been hanging out with friends and family there since 2019. Work...

The bartender was extremely rude. She thought I was underaged from the beginning, asked for only my ID. I am 25. Then proceeded to ask me for my drink order again, only to tell me that she was not going to give me a drink, and she was not going to give me my ID back. Also telling me that I could pick it up from the police station tomorrow. She then ignored me but asked my bf if he still wanted a drink (did not card him). I tried talking to another person only for him to tell me that no one else could help me, only the bartender who took it away. Multiple people working there, all just giving me dirty looks. Finally I go back to the original bartender. I tell her I am not leaving without my ID, she said she could call the police and I told her that I would call them. I waited outside and the police had to give my ID back. I understand procedures but no one would help me and I even offered to pull up my medical records! Never...

Don't let the signage out front fool you as this bar was not as divey as it might seem. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the size of the place and the ambiance. It definitely had the vibe I was looking for. Think "1970s basement at your Grandma's house". The barkeep, Tiff, was friendly and chatty. While there were far too many Todds at the bar, it did not dampen my spirits. My food was above-average and the service was excellent! I found it very cool that they offered microwave popcorn in a bag for a $1.50. I will likely return next time...