That’s an even better vote winner than free laptops!

Top tip: if you enjoy eating real food, avoid any establishment where the chips aren’t gluten free. 😉

If I had my own pub at 24, by the time I hit 25 I’d basically have become father Jack

none of the 24yr olds I know can afford to buy a pub.

True. Not many can afford to buy a house either. I suspect the two are linked.

If you do want those 24yr olds to be able to pursue a decent career as a pub landlord then the starting point would be pushing back the pubcos power. That way they might not have to dream just of a freehouse but be able to make a living anyway.

I know an independent pub does bombadier for £1.90 a pint. No idea how. But the landlord does pin typed (as in not printed) probrexit and anti-political correctnesss poems to the wall, amongst the brasses and pissed-off looking fox heads. I manage to turn a blind eye.

One of the nearest pubs to my home is a wetherspoons. Never used to go there as the chances of meeting my offspring were simply too high.

my (main) home

Christ almighty.

One of the nearest pubs to my (main) home is a wetherspoons. Never used to go there as the chances of meeting my offspring were simply too high.

You know sometimes where there’s something called “too much information…” this may be that 🙂

you’re so right. Concentrating too hard on trying to post a pic of rees Weitherspoon, for purposes of a joke. Whatever, I don’t own a pub.

Now it’s Christmas and all of the works do’s
go to spoons for their first GnT
But it’s Julie from purchasing who never goes out
who just gets way too lashed too early
and the deadbeats and losers and alkies
all grumble because of the crowd
for they’re waiting till 7 till they all stumble out
to buy a lone drink, not a round

laaaa diddi da da

great effort for the first verses and chorus

But I’m not coming round to yours to pay you for a drink and a meal whist you keep chipping in spouting bollocks. 🙂

Sorry Rusty, I’ll get you on the list for the next Penne and Prosecco bash at Chez Eddie. Hope I haven’t oversold the concept but I want to cash in now before I have to downgrade to pint and a pastie themes. 🙁

Forget these brilliant lyrics you’re coming up with, just replace on Beasley Street with in Wetherspoons.

I know an independent pub does bombadier for £1.90 a pint. No idea how. But the landlord does pin typed (as in not printed) probrexit and anti-political correctnesss poems to the wall, amongst the brasses and pissed-off looking fox heads. I manage to turn a blind eye.

I wouldn’t worry too much, it’ll self-police. He’ll be out of business by June.

I think , as others have said that some wetherspoons are ok , the one in Leyland for instance is really nice – built around the theme of buses [ ie local industry ], others are shabby .Where I live there are plenty of shit pubs that were built in the 60s and seventies where you can pay good money for shit beer in shit surroundings [ and also a growing number of really good micropubs- there is no good reason for beer to be more expensive that wine .As others have said its just corporate greed.

Well i missed the early boat on this but hey…

it’s 8am on a Thursday
The regular crowd’s already in
There’s an old man sitting next to me
Waiting for service to begin

He says son have you tried the breakfast here
It comes with plenty of toast
It’s good and it’s cheap and I’d eat it complete
Until the bar opens up

Oh, la la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum

<chorus>Tell us a sermon, you’re the judgmental man
Tell us your better right now
Because We’re all in the mood for a car-ar-ling
And you’ve got us bang to right<chorus>

Now Tim at the bad is a corporate clone
He tops up my coffee for free
And he won’t pour you French wine or Lithuanian mead
Because there’s somewhere he’d rather not be
He says “I believe Europe is killing me”
As Theresa smile ram away from her face
“Well I’m sure we’ll all be better off
When we could get out the Europe-place”

Oh, la la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum

Now Owen is a functional alcoholic
Who downs a few pints before work
He’s talking to Mark, who once was a spark
But now lives a retired life.

Now the waitress is laying out hard liquor
That stw ordered on their phones
Yes they’re all drinking in Wetherspoons
All the better to look down their nose.

<chorus>

It’s a pretty good crowd for a Thursday
And the owner gives me a smile
‘Cause he knows that it’s his prices that attracted me
And to look at look at the real world for a while
And the fruit machines light like a carnival
And the carpet is soaked with beer
And they walk to the bar for another Jaeg-ar
And i say man this is good eggs benedict

Oh, la la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum

Chorus

The Spoons near me are pretty joyless pledges to go. Only good thing is no music. I’m that age.

I do like a Coyle of places near me that so the whole real ale thing. Oooh sad thing is I doubt either will be around 10 years from me now. A shame as one in particular is a real centre for the little community round it.

One old girl there had recently lost her husband and to see how the pub has basically carried her through this terrible time has been really heart warming. Proper old school community stuff.

If you’re brewing cask ale in small batches and selling to independents there can be a lot of wastage as each independent only buys a few casks. Any left over will quickly go off. He said Wetherspoons would give him a fair price for the entire remainder of a batch as they were confident they could sell all of it quickly.

Is bollocks. As is the JDW chain buying short dated stock., total bollocks.
They refuse to accept short dated beer and will send it back if it got less than 4 weeks BB on it.
I have sent thousands of casks into the JDW estate . They get wholesale prices as , every year, at budget time, you tender to supply an approved list of outlets .
There are bracket prices , and as you may have 20 -40 pubs , its a holesale price.- but you have to direct deliver to each pub ( not wholesale )

And as for the comment about JDW selling it for less than it costs a free house to buy , guess what. Total BS . I can run the numbers , but i can assure you its a total fabrication.

If , as a brewer you get rotation on a festival event ( 2 a year easter and october ) then you are on a winner . You have access to 1000+ accounts so it is a silly amount of volume, in a 2-3 week period . These prices are marginally lowwer than the tender prices above, because distribution is done by 3 rd party, from carlsberg Gravelly park . SO the dist cost is lower
HTH

Right following on from 8am in Wetherspoons I give you 11:30pm in Brewers fare. 5 minutes after leaving the brewers fare we were in last night to retire to the adjacent Premier Inn a couple of well built chaps walked in with rather large knives, demanded our friends put their mobiles and wallets on the table then proceeded to empty the safe and attack the cash point. Didn’t take the patrons phones in the end. Hagley road in Birmingham.

“Running a pub (I’ve had mates who have done in the past, and good mates who still do) is the only job where if you make your boss – the brewery – more money through your successful management, you then get punished by them for it with increased rent and beer prices”

They’re effectively a franchisee – which is always a horror show. There’s a reason the franchisor doesn’t want to run the place themselves…

For those that were asking earlier in the thread why folk were aware / bothered about Mr Spoons Brexit support – he’s making a speech at the moment at the Leave Means Leave Gammon Fest in London. In addition to all his pubs being festooned with Brexit related posters and beer mats.

So if you choose to politicise your business it comes with positive and negative consequences. I assume he weighed it up and decided the ruddy-faced pound was worth more to him.

“Running a pub (I’ve had mates who have done in the past, and good mates who still do) is the only job where if you make your boss – the PubCo – more money through your successful management, you then get punished by them for it with increased rent and decreased beer prices”

Its all about the retro

12 Santa’s will be in our local spoons tomorrow morning at 8am for our annual Christmas ride, brekkie and a pint and then 34ish miles.

And as for the comment about JDW selling it for less than it costs a free house to buy , guess what. Total BS . I can run the numbers , but i can assure you its a total fabrication.

Wind it in old boy, I never said free house, I simply said proper pubs, and I stand by my comment for I can also “run the numbers”.

But for clarification to those who don’t know the business, a large chain free house like ‘spoons can buy a barrel at less than half the price your friendly tied landlord can.

Has this been done?

It seems someone is also not adverse to running a few stories about Spoons that parody the owners, Erm, liberal interpretation of the truth.😆

Spoons goes to court

07:59… nearly there…

Every jdw pub also has the cleanest and tidiest cellars. They are usually large . Well lit. At the correct temperature,spotless,with all the casks labeled for stock control. As opposed to the majority of pubs where the cellar is in a complete mess. There are puddle s of mouldy beer over the floor, keg caps and other rubbish blocking the sump pump, the cellar smells of acetic vinegar and the casks have no spiles in them.thenyou get a flat duff pint as the stinky air. Is sucked into the cask with every pint dispense d
And it the majority unfortunately

A group of chaps, all aged 40, discussed where they should meet for a reunion lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Uxbridge because all the waitresses had big breasts and wore very short skirts.

Ten years later, at age 50, the friends once again discussed where they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Uxbridge because the food and service was good and the beer selection was excellent.

Ten years later, at age 60, the friends again discussed where they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Uxbridge because there was plenty of parking, they could dine in peace and quiet, and it was goodvalue for money.

Ten years later, at age 70, the friends discussed where they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Uxbridge because the restaurant was wheelchair accessible and had a toilet for the disabled.

Ten years later, at age 80, the friends discussed where they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Wetherspoons in Uxbridge because they had never been there before.

And where did they choose at age 90?

And where did they choose at age 90?

Witherspoons?

The (sadly no longer with us) comedienne Linda Smith summed up Wetherspoons perfectly as “reeking of oven chips and disappointment”.

I don’t get the Whole Wetherspoons bashing at all, they are actually a decent company (Brexit owner aside). The pubs are kept in good condition and usually put in a building that was derelict (old cinema, closed pub etc). As in my work I get to see a lot of the rear ends of businesses I can happily say that what singletrackmind says about their cellars and stock conditions is 100% accurate, always good as they get bollocked if it’s not. Same for they all have 5* food hygiene ratings and the food is always of a good quality. Prices are good too.

As for the OP’s point about 8am drinking Wetherspoons get that as they are one of the few places open serving at that time of the morning, if they weren’t the pissheads would be somewhere else that opens earlier. The problem is the UK#s culture with regards to alcohol, something I’m massively more aware of since I went teetotal 7 years ago. It’s available everywhere for cheap, at the supermarket, corner shop, petrol station etc. Same as with fast food, chocolate, crisps and gambling. Everything that we as a country have problems with is available everywhere, anytime for not too much money. How we fix it I don’t know but the problem is complex.

They get bashed because they’re owned by a tit, they’re the McDonald’s of pubs, and because they’re uncool.

Meanwhile, I was in one yesterday and noticed that the Brexit propaganda was posted “back of house” too. So it’s not just the punters that are getting the gammon messaging, it’s the workers too.

Never trust a man whos face is too small for his head.

Never trust a man whos face is too small for his head.

LOL! I don’t think Sajid Javid MP should be trusted either!

As opposed to the majority of pubs

You must be the first person I’ve known that has visited the cellars of the majority of pubs.

I haven’t visited the majority of pubs, but thankfully singletrackmind’s description is far from the truth of my experience.
I have no idea why he or she would find barrels with no spiles in (bar the ever more common vertical extraction), it is again the opposite of my experience.

I will reiterate that I have only worked in a few pubs, not the majority like others(!), but every pub I have worked in has had full marks from cask marque and been featured in the good beer guide.

Plus our chips are made from potato.

Nowt wrong with a gammon breakfast.

There doesn’t seem to be the same Brexit paraphernalia on show in the spoons north of the border, maybe only in the ‘gammon belt’ counties in the south?.

I like Wetherspoons. I’ve just been booking accommodation for a leisurely Lands End to John o Groats next year. I’ll possibly be getting my evening meal along with a couple of pints in Wetherspoons every night as far as Penrith.

I know the beer will be cheap and decent quality and the food acceptable with decent portions

In my local area there are some good alternative pubs to Wetherspoons. There’s also pubs where you’ll pay a god bit more for no better food or beer. Hard to beat a Spoons for cheap food and beer in a place you don’t know.

depends what you call “the south” ?
Carlisle was where I saw the brexshit propaganda, which is positively north 😉

Mibbe the gammon belt is bigger than first thought Andy!