Don’t Like Your Beer? Don’t Pay For It

Last night I met up with some folks for beers at one of the many places I have yet to visit, The Victory Bar. It was described to me as a dive, which is A-OK in my book, but upon arrival, “cozy, neighborhood bar” seemed a more appropriate description. Being the first one there (shocker, huh?) I bellied up to the bar for my first pint – Oakshire Mud Puddle Chocolate Porter – and to wait for the others.

While still working on the first half of the pint, Mike showed up, decided upon the Jolly Pumpkin Wit, and we grabbed a table to wait for the others. As it turned out JP’s version of a wit came with a fairly pronounced sour finish, much to Mike’s chagrin. Sours being right up my alley (and a bit bummed that I had missed the Cascade Frite Galois they had on tap the previous week), I gave it a try and offered to make his first beer my second beer so that he could order something more to his liking. When our waitress/bartender came by he ordered an IPA and I mentioned by way of explaining the nearly full glass in front of him, that he didn’t like it so I’d buy his IPA in exchange. She offered not to charge him for it but I insisted that I had tried it, enjoyed it, and it was no problem to keep it on the tab.

Fast forward a couple rounds beers and the rest of the folks that were supposed to show up…wherein we decided we’d all explored their beer menu to our satisfaction and decided to saunter down the street to one of the New Old Lompoc locations. Our tab came and low and behold – she actually didn’t include the Wit on the bill!

Victory's tap list, in case you were curious

That’s a new level of commitment to customer satisfaction for me and just adds to the reasons (good beer reasonably priced, meat, cheese, atmosphere, close to home) I’ll be coming back and recommending it to others.