Kirby Ice House Raises Its Drinking Age To 23

Turning 21 is an American rite of passage. Long after you’ve started to drive and been able to vote, when the clock strikes midnight on your twenty-first birthday, you know that you’ve been admitted to a club of sorts. The kind of club that meets up at (almost) any bar on the planet any time the mood strikes.

Unfortunately, Kirby Ice House is now officially an exception to that rule. The Houston Press reports that as of this week, the bar has raised its age of entry to 23 years old. As the Press’s Phaedra Cook notes, Kirby Ice House is well within its rights to raise the age limit under The Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which only prohibits discrimination in hiring practices for adults over the age of 40.

On Kirby Ice House’s Facebook page, a debate between patrons raged on, but most seemed to be in agreement that raising the age requirement would give the bar a better atmosphere.

In the comments, Kirby Ice House also reminded patrons of its strict no-child policy: "We do not allow infants or children because we want to maintain the quality of our customer's experience and also feel that our yard, which allows dogs, is not the best environment for a child."

Fortunately, there are still plenty of bars for drinkers under the age of 23 – Kirby Ice House just isn’t one of them.