Why can't I push to this bare repository?

Yes, the problem is that there are no commits in "bare". This is a problem with the first commit only, if you create the repos in the order (bare,alice). Try doing:

git push --set-upstream origin master

This would only be required the first time. Afterwards it should work normally.

As Chris Johnsen pointed out, you would not have this problem if your push.default was customized. I like upstream/tracking.

If you:

 git push origin master

it will push to the bare repo.

It sounds like your alice repo isn't tracking correctly.

cat .git/config

This will show the default remote and branch.

If you

 git push -u origin master

You should start tracking that remote and branch. I'm not sure if that option has always been in git.

This related question's answer provided the solution for me... it was just a dumb mistake:

Remember to commit first!

https://stackoverflow.com/a/7572252

If you have not yet committed to your local repo, there is nothing to push, but the Git error message you get back doesn't help you too much.