That sounds like a situation where rules were made at one point for a very specific situation, then blindly applied across the board. How frustrating and pointless when, like you said, you’re trying to give them money.

I really enjoy Brambly Park, but had a really disappointing experience while trying to plan our wedding party. We eloped a few years and wanted to rent out their private room upstairs for a belated celebration. I was in communication with Louise, their event planner, for over 4 months. She had the date, number of people in our party, etc, and we were finalizing logistics. I should have paid attention to the red flags of her being unresponsive… It took me about 3 times asking over the course of several weeks “we want to book this date, how do we move forward?” when she told me that date was already booked. No explanation, no apology, no attempt to try to accommodate in another way. I was shocked and pretty irritated to say the least.

So as much as I enjoy the space, the food, the wine, and hell, the servers have always been great too, I can’t justify spending any money there or supporting them. IDK if it’s poor management, a bad apple, or complications of trying to remain open during a pandemic, but woof - get it together!