Buy you a drank

Last Friday, I went downtown with a couple friends, braving the crowds pouring in from ACL weekend. We were barhopping, trying to find a place with a dance floor and elbow room, but most were packed wall-to-wall. Most of the bars we went into were first times for me, as I most frequently end up on 4th street.

We got to Treasure Island, a decent place with a dance floor, a patio and the properly-themed decor. I bought a round of H bombs (amazing, please try) which ran $12, but to my surprise, the bartender informed me that the credit card minimum was $15, something I’d never encountered at a bar before. OCH and Rain don’t do this and many 6th street clubs don’t either. So I hesitantly bought another drink before my tab was closed and my friend and roommate Lisa told me this was illegal.

I knew it was a crappy thing for me but I’d been to plenty of gas stations, businesses on the drag and restaurants that had a minimum charge policy. I even mentioned in the Double Dave’s entry last week that they have a $5 minimum. To me it had been a small annoyance, but to credit card companies, it’s a violation of their merchant agreements. I searched the Internet for some information on this and found an MSNBC article from 2006 explaining why.

[Save your receipt and hopefully you'll remember where you put it.]

If you’re using Visa or MasterCard, those businesses signed agreements allowing the credit card companies to charge a service fee, but in turn, businesses cannot charge a fee to customers. I can see why a business wouldn’t want that deal, but they signed the agreement. Businesses are however, allowed to give discounts for paying with cash or check and many gas stations are beginning to do this.

So what can you do about it? Save your receipt and report the business to the bank or institution that gave you the card. They can take the entire purchase of your card and the business can be fined $1500.

Sit down and stand up

Most young college students drunkenly stumble past Esther’s Follies on 6th street without a thought. But when you are sober, the iconic establishment provides an enjoyable alternative to the usual night of debauchery. They’re located on Neches St. and E. 6th and parking is of course hard to find, especially because of construction. The convention center is probably the safest and closest garage, but it’s $7. If you’re willing to walk, there’s a parking lot on 11th and Red River that I’ve been told allows parking at night. Other than that, sometimes you get lucky and find a spot on the street.

The show itself is a hilarious combination of vaudeville-style comedy and magic performance, using both the inside stage and the street outside–the audience can see the street through a large window behind the stage. Their shows change by the season and they keep the material current, especially pertaining to election news. They prove to be an equal opportunity satirist, with jokes about conservatives, hippies, liberals, gays, Martha Stewart, drunk people on the street and more. The place opened on April Fool’s Day in 1977 and transformed from Esther’s Pool, a pool hall, into a highly respected and well-oiled comedy machine.

The ticket price is high at $20, but considering the quality of the show, it’s well worth it. They have a full bar with very pricey drinks, so stick to water if you’d like. And for an unexpected surprise, I discovered that the ticket will enable free admission to the Velveeta Room next door, a comedy club which shares an adjoining hallway and restroom. The comedy show happens right after EF shows on Friday and Saturday; Esther’s at 8 and 10 pm and Velveeta at 9:30 and 11:30.

The 2 for 1 deal is definitely a great bargain and the Velveeta Room is a decent club, usually featuring two amateur-ish opening comics and one bigger name comic, artists who’ve opened for Comedy Central regulars are the normal type of headliner here.

The Velveeta Room’s history is unclear, even on their web site, but the story is that the two UT students who started Esther’s Follies began the Velveeta Room in 1988 out of what used to be The Embassy Room, gentlemen’s club.