About Those Credit Card Minimums At Bars...
By Marcus Gilmer in Food on Mar 11, 2009 9:25PM
With one of the busiest bar days of the year fast approaching, plenty of folks will be hitting the ATMs around town to have plenty of cash on hand for St. Patrick's Day festivities so they can avoid dealing with the minimum requirements that many bars have for credit cards. Thing is, if you ask the credit card companies about these requirements, they'll tell you such tab minimums aren't required. The Decider's Steve Heisler did just that and also spoke with a few local bars about the practice to get to the bottom of why the issue still lingers in Chicago.
“The reason a lot of bars do it is they’re a high-volume bar—if you order one beer and close out your tab, it takes a lot of time,” says Alex Renaldi, assistant manager at Lakeview’s Mad River. His bar used to have minimums, but now only enforces them when insanely busy, like on holidays.