British pubs for sociologists

snipped-for-privacy@nohow.com/10/03 3:01 AM

Be thankful for small mercies... my motto.

CR

Is the reason this message came so long after the others in the thread because there is only one person serving up messages, but three assorted managers stood watching that one person? Maybe the Caps Lock key is broken, but it is "against policy" to warn people of this before they try to type?

Not to mention Samantha being a top-poster, of course....

--

"If laws are to be respected, they must be worthy of respect."

All pints served in a JDW outlet have a large top of froth.

Samantha (turn the caps-lock off, &/or calm down & accept the possibility that...) someone may have criticised JDW as being soulless & lacking atmosphere (& you disagree) because you have different experiences & expectations of pubs in general? I have had pleasant enough nights in a couple of JDWs, but they've not added much to the night, apart from (regularly, but not always) fairly good beer & a roof; wheras stunning pubs have character, warmth, excellent beer, memorableness (is that even a word?) and more which IMO are things that chain-pubs (JDW,Pitcher&Piano,AllBarOne,Hogshead,Firkin,etc,etc) seldom achieve one of, never mind several or all of them.

I've just spent the night in a ScotCo (orchard inns?) chain pub & it was pleasant enough (e.g. OK beer range, & they happily exchanged the

2 off pints they served me! plus q a fun pubquiz) but despite the beer range, pleasant furnishings, decent wine list, nice food on offer, etc, etc; it was only OK, nothing special - and even at their best that's all that I think chain pubs ever will be; but that's OK for me, because I think there's enough of us who want more than McDonalds to eat, & chainpub to drink, & Dido to listen to... cheers MikeMcG

Being a Yank, my experience with Weatherspoon and the other pubcos is pretty limited to a couple trips to the UK. But, it strikes me that bashing JDW and their ilk is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, roughly the equivalent of my coming up with the startling observation that McDonald's is hardly as good as a nice local restaurant with a great burger made from freshly ground chuck with a roll made from the local bakery, etc.

It also strikes me that jumping on the JDW-bashing bandwagon is a bit disingenuous. Maybe from a business perspective this is true, but in terms of pub character, they're hardly monolithic. The handful of Weatherspoon's pubs I've been in have all been remarkably different in character, fitting the neighbrohood, the building it's in, etc. Sure, there are commonalities, some overly commercial aspects. But I give them credit for not being a cookie-cutter chain, as opposed to so many American chains (whether simple restaurants or drinks places) where every outlet is virtually indistinguishable from any other, with identical decor and often identical layouts.

I can think of one Weatherspoons I've been in (in Middleton, if I remember right) that was downright pleasant. I can think of another one, in central Manchester, that was downright sterile and ridiculously trendoid. Of course, both of these (and another in Manchester) were visited during the record heat wave in August, and they all had air conditioning, so they were quite delightful just for being able to not be drenched in sweat just from sitting around. That could skew my impressions...

It seems to me better to judge the merits of each individual outlet than to tar the entire chain with the same brush.

-Steve

No, it's just so loud in that pub that she has to shout all the time.

-- Joel Plutchak | Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots

"I don't like beer. I tried it once and thought it was terrible." - Overheard at a restaurant

Some sections of Irish society do not take a blind bit of notice of any law. I can't see the average guard in Limerick risk his life to arrest a drunken wedding party who are puffing in defiance of Michael McDowell. We shall have to wait and we shall see.