Ian B.
Yelp
First, I'll go through what you get with Bonfire on a GOOD night, and then on a bad night.
On a good night at Bonfire, you get a bunch of girls swinging into you on tire swings and a bunch of dudes that probably have a confederate flag in the back window of their F-150. I'll admit that the atmosphere is kind of cool and rustic, I do like that. Drinks are pricier than neighboring bars and there's really no space to dance or anything. It's overall just so meh. If you're really into country, it may be fun as a novelty.
On a bad night, the power-tripping owner/bouncers will ruin your night. I've not been let into Bonfire twice and was stone-cold sober both times. I walk like an idiot because of chronic bad achilles. The bouncer must've seen me walking up and made some assumptions. After making me stand on one leg, he declared me "hammered" and told me to beat it. Whatever dude. I don't like your bar anyways, my friends do.
The second time was way worse. Again, completely sober. I hand my MAINE ID to the bouncer, and he proceeds to put it in his back pocket. Uhhhhh dude, that's my driver's license, I need that. He INSISTS that it is fake which blows my mind. I know he probably sees a ton of fakes but this is a MAINE ID. Like dude, I've lived in Maine my whole life and I'm freaking 23 years old. If you can't correctly verify the ID of the state you work in, you should be fired.
Anyways, he tells me I'm going to need to call the police if I want my ID back. I do so. As it's (fairly) a last priority for the police, 45 minutes goes by of me waiting for an officer to show up. I go back to try to reason with the bouncer. Dude I don't wanna go in your bar anymore, I just want my ID back.
This is when the owner comes out and puts his hand on my chest and tells me that I'm "belligerent" and need to step back. I am literally floored by this reaction as I was talking to the bouncer as calm as could be. I ask him what the problem is and he tells me that he heard me say I was gonna "F up the bouncer" and that anyone he works with will back him up on that. I weigh 160 lbs and this bouncer is pushing three bills. I'm not dumb. I didn't say anything remotely close to that.
I walk away because I'm going to lose my mind at the fact that this dude is trying to slap assault charges on me for NO reason. 10 minutes later the owner comes out with my ID and says "lets go for a walk". He lectures me for 5-10 minutes like I'm some 18 year old kid on the town for the first time ever. Tells me he'll only give my ID back if I shut up and don't say a word and listen to him (talk about demeaning, but at this point I want my ID back. I hate the DMV). "It's not a matter of if your ID is real or not" he says. Isn't that literally ALL it's a matter of?
At the end of this lecture he hands me my ID back. I try to be the bigger man and go to shake his hand whilst saying "hey thanks man, glad we didn't have to get the police involved". His response is "you should be glad, that would've ended poorly for you". At that point I had my ID and I'll admit that I was walking away I told him to go eff himself, among other more colorful insults. He deserved them.
I've never in my entire life seen a human on such a massive power trip. I'll never go back to Bonfire and try to tell as many people as possible not to give this guy business. I hear he owns a couple other bars in Portland? Would love for someone to tell me what those are so I can avoid giving him my business at those spots.
You can't treat people like they're lesser than you. Sad that he probably gets away with it on a nightly basis because he owns some meh country bar that everyone's girlfriend LOVES.
I hate this guy. And I hate Bonfire. Never go there.