Pubs. What are they these smoke-free days?

[Robusto]

Robusto, its not bizzare, but it is par for the course for wetherspoons pubs in my experience. Some are worse than others (the one by piccadilly gardens in manchester is particularly awful), and some aren't too bad actually (Kendal springs to mind, being housed in an old mthodist church as I recall), but I can only repeat my view that wetherspoons are not pubs and should not be regarded as such. They are impersonal holes where you can get cheap (and normally ok) beer and cheap (and normally crap) food. They are a bolt hole of absolutely last resort, particularly if you have kids in tow. But they are not pubs...

I can't believe how they are all over the place now. They have taken over substantial buildings and, I suppose, "preserved" them from the bulldozer.

Is it the case that Starbucks is losing big time over here to Wetherspoons and Costa Coffee? I read that somewhere.

Wetherspoons are depressing because of the old men supping pints really early in the morning.

(I just added this to your post and not mine. Hence the edit above).

[Paulie]

I quite like going to pubs whereever I find myself. When I say pub I actually mean a pub and not a modern style bar.

The pub I used to got to near Woking was in the same ownership for decades. They knew your name and your drink. Friday evening they put bar snacks out for customers to enjoy for free. The build a huge heater smoking area at the side when the ban came in. This was a pub and had no desire to be a bar at all. It was great. In fact Ronnie Wood was seen in there recently during one of his "moments".

I tend to avoid the gastro pubs as IMO they have no character or feeling.

I understand the reasons behind the smoking ban and have no real opinion either way as I can see both sides of it.

[captain duff]

Robusto, its not bizzare, but it is par for the course for wetherspoons pubs in my experience. Some are worse than others (the one by piccadilly gardens in manchester is particularly awful), and some aren't too bad actually (Kendal springs to mind, being housed in an old mthodist church as I recall), but I can only repeat my view that wetherspoons are not pubs and should not be regarded as such. They are impersonal holes where you can get cheap (and normally ok) beer and cheap (and normally crap) food. They are a bolt hole of absolutely last resort, particularly if you have kids in tow. But they are not pubs...

[tippexx]

[QUOTE=Lads2000;103740].... as most the pubs round my way have started selling food


Thats a ditto here. And where they make there money these days. But is that what they're really supposed to be about.

[Robusto]

I was tucking into an All Day Brunch at Wetherspoons in Folkestone a week or so ago when I had gone off alone on a discover-me-me-me adventure under-canvas away from the wife, kids and dog. Away from EVERYONE, in fact.

It was about 7.30pm and it cost about ?3 something.

A very drunk (or whizzed-up), very effeminate man with a really mincing voice came to sit opposite me and asked me where I thought his boyfriend had gone.

Then he began to pester.

I had to leave the bacon and make for the door. Surreptitiously.

I'd passed on a ?9.50 all-you-can-eat Chinese self-servery in the High Street for Wetherspoons.

I made my way past the fishing port, along the beach path, up towards the chalk cliffs and into the campsite pretty gingerly. All the while looking through sweat-mired specs and over the corner of my hefty rucksack.

I was on the me-discovery but wasn't looking for this me. "Loads of my friends are gay", but it's weird to be in a first-time situation.

And as I haven't seen my shrink, I needed to share with someone sympathetic like you. I haven't told my family.

I'm sorry it isn't as genuinely interesting as Liverpool, Manchester and Chester pubs, but it was all rather bizarre.

I was on foot for this three-dayer so couldn't CUT! by slipping deftly into my Jag.

I don't believe in the existence of cartoons but I swear I had found one momentarily.

[ChrisMClark]

I have to have a damn good reason to go in a pub these days. It's not the same anymore, most seem to be either full of chavs drinking WKD or full sad lonely fuckers drinking themselves to death wondering what the hell went wrong. Even my anti-smoking friend says pubs aren't the same without the smoke. We mostly BBQ round his house of a mates house over the summer where I can smoke my tits off. And over the winter we have gazebos, heaters and comfy outdoor furniture (something ALL pubs lack), or we don't BBQ, and sit inside

[bigbarneyhotdog]

i built my own pub in my back garden, it rocks! warm beer, cold food and big ash trays

[Lads2000]

I think it all depends where you live I must say I'm quite fortunate as most the pubs round my way have started selling food and very good food to boot. Some of the pubs in the town I think are doing better business due to the quality of there food.

There are also a couple of course that are not doing so well but these were the spit and saw dust types and yes the smells coming from them is not pleasant but even though there business has dropped they seem to be getting a steady business from the youth of the town.

[captain duff]

Well I don't know where you are based Robusto, but you're obviously going in the wrong boozers. I spent 20 years of my adult life in Liverpool and loved the place (still do), and there are pubs there that I still have very fond memories of and revisit whenever I can because they never change.

The Jacaranda in Wood St with the best eclectic dukie in the country and the most eclectic (and often eccentric) clientel from kids to pensioners. It just feels right. The Swan bikers pub round the corner with the massive portrait of Karl Marx on the wall (and great beer). The Marlborough Arms where you will occasionally still find Alan Williams and his Beatles stories, Ye Olde Cracke up the road where Lennon used to sag off from the Institute across the road, unchanged for decades and still with the small 'war room' where gentlemen met to discuss the progress of the boer war.

And where I am now, the Conti, 5 minutes from my house sits next to the river ribble with a dozen real ales and a massive beer garden and community and arts events almost every night of the week. The Dog & Partridge bikers pub in town (and within sight of where 5 sriking mill workers were killed and dozens injured when the 72nd Highlanders fired into a demonstration in 1842), unchanged for decades and with the warmest welcome you will find anywhere (and some of the best beer). The pub up the road where, ironically, Joseph Livesey founded the Temperance Movement in the 1830s.

And don't get me started on some of the great pubs of Manchester, or some of my youthfull haunts in Chester.

Yes, Wetherspoons are awful, although useful in a strange town if you want proper beer and cheap food. Been a long while since I've been in one of those - I don't see them as pubs, never have done (no atmosphere, no community). Yes, sometimes smoking areas are the street. And yes, bad pubs abound.

But the real ones are still there. As good as ever. If you know where to look...

[El Catador]

Places where bandsmen get trapped at the door when they're packing to leave by blind naked drunks.

Blind, naked... and drunk?
Jeez big fella, what kinda places are you hangin' out at?

Still, least they sound like they've got 'character'.
In short supply, these days due to the rise in popularity of the: bland, soul-less, corporate franchise.

Though, sayin' that, it's the town centre pubs you gotta watch out for these days... alcohol fuelled, social warfare.
The average Saturday night 'up town' makes 'Escape from New York' look like a vicars tea-party!

[satch]

Yep i still enjoy the pub much more so in the Summer, fine Ale and good friends,come weekends good food. and a good heated terrace .
www.thewhitehartinnmoreton.co.uk

Just my personal opinion but I like pubs, I like restaurants, never the twain.
I like to enjoy my pint without someone troughing next to me.
I hardly do restaurants, come to think of it!
I have ambivalent feelings regarding smoking in pubs. To be honest I trh

[cohibaIV]

The bogs in Cheshire smell of roses???

[Stevieboy]

Yep i still enjoy the pub much more so in the Summer, fine Ale and good friends,come weekends good food. and a good heated terrace .
www.thewhitehartinnmoreton.co.uk

I only ever go to the pub if there's a beer-garden attached for a schmoke otherwise I give em a wide berth. I agree re:the smell...mostly discharge and yeast. Orrible

[snooky]

Yep i still enjoy the pub much more so in the Summer, fine Ale and good friends,come weekends good food. and a good heated terrace .
www.thewhitehartinnmoreton.co.uk

[cj121]

An interesting observation mate, re the urinals. Now we've all got relatively smoke free nostrils and increased olfactory efficiency...

they do stink of pi$$ all the more don't they?

And number duo(haven't used that smiley for a while)

Pubs are a bit dull, without the option to smoke, these days I must say.