‘Keep it safe for all’: Bar owners raise minimum age for guests to 30 for men, 25 for women

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC/Gray News) - Owners of a bar in Alabama are changing the age requirements for guests to enter.

Meme Williams, one of the owners of the D’ZIRE Bar and Lounge, says the decision was made after hosting an alumni event last week.

Everything was going smoothly until a younger crowd showed up and then things took a different turn.

“At one point, they were standing all in our chairs on the patio sneaking bottles in and kept trying to smoke marijuana,” she said. “We turned it down and went straight blues. We turned it all the way down. They started walking out, but the crowd was still right outside our doors.”

D’ZIRE owners Williams and Mario Billingsley said a fight then broke out between a young woman and another man while the group was outside.

“I just saw a young lady just beating on her boyfriend,” Williams said. “And when I tried to tell her to calm down, she just told me, ‘I don’t give a f***’ and punched me. My arm is still bruised.”

The young woman was arrested, but after that encounter and the shooting that happened last month in the Birmingham area, Williams said things had to change.

The owners shared that men will now have to be at least 30 years old to enter and women must be 25 or older.

Williams and Billingsley said if they still have issues with the new changes, they will make the age requirement 30 and up for both men and women

“I just want to keep our customers here safe, happy, and having a good time. We are family here, and we treat everybody like family. We want to keep it that way and keep it safe for all of our customers,” Williams said.

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