I was wearing these:
Which are "athletic shoes" (though you'd be an idiot if you ever tried to wear them for running or any sort of sport)...and dark colored and nice looking. I checked Yelp and saw "business casual" and assumed it would mean what it means in a small business atmosphere...i'd been wearing dress shoes all day and these are nice but more comfortable. I'd have no qualms if an employee came in wearing shoes like that. It was a trouble of interpretation.
Still...they wanted me to go in and spend loads of money...so they were like "well, we have shoes you can borrow"
I was in the process of waiting for the shoes at the coat check and then I had a thought..."here I am, looking reasonably nice (aside from my shoes...apparently), at a bar where I see a bunch of old stuffy exec-types, and I am waiting to BORROW shoes just so I can sit in here and buy $12 drinks? Fuck. That."
So I turned around and walked out...called up Rikki, and we went to a generic irish bar that had the bulls game on. We slapped dicks and I drank some Jameson.
Infinitely better decision IMO.