A 53-year-old England supporter had to settle for a banana milkshake after a bartender deemed his British driving licence an invalid form of identification. Layth Yousif, editor of a Gooner fanzine, was out with three friends in Seattle, Washington State, when they decided to grab a drink and a bite to eat on Sunday.
To his surprise, the bartender at the Lost Lake Cafe and Restaurant asked the group of four—which included two Americans, a Canadian, and Layth—for ID when they ordered alcohol. Layth, a sports journalist covering the World Cup in the US, presented his UK driving licence, assuming it would be a mere formality.
“He looked at it and said he’d have to check with his manager to see if he could accept it,” the father of three told Metro. “A couple of minutes later he came back and said it was invalid, and since I couldn’t prove I was over 21 (the legal drinking age in America), I’d have to order a soft drink. So I got their milkshake of the month—a banana cream pie—while all my mates enjoyed a beer.”
Layth, from south London, said that while initially taken aback, the group quickly saw the humour in the situation. “I wasn’t angry in the slightest,” he said. “It was actually just funny, given I’m 53. The banana cream milkshake I had instead was delicious. As my friends pointed out, I have grey in my beard, and we joked that there can’t be many 20-year-olds in Seattle with salt-and-pepper beards.”
He added: “We were all taken aback at first, but then just found it funny—I’m 53 and have three grown-up kids. It was also amusing that they simply didn’t recognise my British driver’s licence. I might as well have shown them my Costco card for all the good it did. To be fair, at my age, I was flattered.”
Lifelong Arsenal fan Layth is covering the World Cup for the Morning Star, which gave him the “perfect excuse” to visit Seattle-native Jason Quillin and a Canadian friend. The trio became friends while studying for an MBA at Westminster Business School in 2011. Jason’s wife was also in the group, all of whom had North American ID except Layth.
Despite the setback, it’s not all bad news for Layth, who travelled to Budapest to cover his team’s heartbreaking penalty shootout loss to PSG in the UEFA Champions League final earlier this month. “I had no issue getting hammered on Monday night,” he joked.
His World Cup coverage has so far seen him visit Toronto earlier this month before England’s opening game against Croatia at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, at 9pm GMT tomorrow.
