We reached Halifax fairly late in the day and checked into our hotel. Afterwards, we walked down to the waterfront in search of a restaurant at 8:30.
We found one, but were greeted at the door with “I’m sorry, it is past the time. We can’t serve minors.” Our teenage (one underage) children were not really into drinks, just some decent food.
When the second place turned us away, we asked a bit more. Most restaurants have a license which allows them to serve food to minors until 9 p.m. As we arrived after 8:30, our children were too late to be served before that time.
One of the waitresses, after I inquired where in Halifax we could get something to eat, suggested two places she knew of which served children past 9 p.m. One of them was Salty’s (on 1869 Upper Water Street) and unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the other restaurant anymore. Both seem to be a rarity in Halifax, though.
Anyway, Salty’s is a good restaurant right on the waterfront. We sat outside and as usual, we ordered three dinners and shared it among the four of us. We learned from traveling around that most portions are too big anyway and food gets wasted.
Halifax waterfront
We were tremendously relieved to have found a place to eat, so when the waiter suggested to get a pitcher of beer, we did not hesitate to order one. We had almost downed it when he suggested getting another one. By then we were happy enough to have another one.
Then it came time to pay. When I saw the bill, I started laughing. Or maybe I was crying, difficult to say. Both pitchers cost us C$ 57,90. Then the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) of 15% gets added on. This brings the beer to a total of C$ 66.59. When we add on the 20% tip, we have a new total of C$ 80.
In Germany, the average cost of a liter of beer (a.k.a. Maß) is around 8 euro = C$ 11,– including tax.
So three dinners, two pitchers of beer, and one 7-Up totaled C$ 125.93 and then we left a C$ 20 tip.
Before we got ready to pay, we were going to leave the second pitcher with half the beer behind. After I saw the charge, I drank it all.
What did I learn from this? Running a restaurant and serving minors past 9 p.m. requires a costly license. This in turn gets charged back to the customer.
Advice:
* If you are coming in late to Halifax by plane, eat your airline food. Running around Halifax trying to find a restaurant which serves your family is not very amusing after a full day of traveling.
* Ask your hotel receptionist for a list of licensed-to-serve-minors restaurants. We would have if we had known about this regulation.
