Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

Anyone hear these rumours that they sorted out a lease for Dennehys Cross Cork today next to the Ramen restaurant? You know, right inbetween UCC and CIT?

That's the first I've heard about it.

Richmond Ultra wrote: »

They just sorted out a lease for Dennehys Cross Cork today next to the Ramen restaurant. Right inbetween UCC and CIT.

just once would have been enough for this good news!
I like it, could see myself availing of there good value on a regular basis...

Any idea on when it expects to be open there?

a_non_a_mouse wrote: »

Any idea on when it expects to be open there?

Jeez, don't ask him any questions. God only knows how many times he'll post the answer!

Richmond Ultra wrote: »

They were putting in equipment this morning and doing bits and pieces around it. I'm surprised if there opening soon as I haven't seen any licence application in the area.

Regarding the multiple posts, I find if I post on my phone and then click back it reposts and if I do it a few times it stops. I don't have this problem however with my laptop. Anybody else have this problem?

Happens me all the time on my phone - very annoying.
(and there is no other straight forward way back to the main forum)

BaZmO* wrote: »

Just because Spoons are cheaper it doesn't necessarily mean that you are being fleeced in other bars. I would imagine the reason why Spoons still make massive profits is down to scale and buying power. Other places might have higher overheads or maybe are just not as savvy when it comes to buying or just the general running of the pub.

It's impossible to know any of this without seeing their books though.

Well, as you or I are not going to be seeing the books of 'spoons or any other Irish pub it is a pointless argument.

The "buying power" justification has already been destroyed by the Heineken spat. Heineken already clarified the they were not selling to JDW in Ireland at lower prices than to other customers, they were just butt hurt that their "premium" pisswater was being sold in a high profile location at bargain prices.

It is not as JDW were unique in selling much cheaper booze than normal in a licensed premises, the likes of Dicey O'reilley's and Blacker's (Welfare Wednesday) were and still are selling beer including "premium" Heineken for €3 or less without bother.

The difference is that JDW are taking non-scum custom from established pubs and will potentially be doing so on an ever increasing scale over the next few years and the 100% Irish cute hoor pub barons do not like the idea of their profits being hit by an incomer that doesn't play by the Irish cartel game.

The economy of scale justification is pretty thin also as JDW has a grand total of 2 open pubs in ROI at the moment. No doubt they are importing certain products to Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire from their UK or NI operations but that is hardly a cheap method of supplying cask or keg beer to an Irish pub unless the prices charged by local suppliers are so high to offset the additional logistics costs of bespoke imports.

Even if their expansion plans continue at a high rate it will still be a few years before JDW have more licenced premises than any of the big Irish pub chains (and they are chains even if they hide their common ownership under a shroud of "Genuine Irish Local Pub" branding) but never mind that, anyone selling beer at €3 or under must be doing something dodgy, otherwise it is really true that we have all been gouged by the LVA and Diageo/Heineken for decades for the defining Irish past time of boozing in a pub.

All that has happened is that JDW has demonstrated the prices that alcohol should be sold at in a pub. €2.50-3.00 for beer in a regular venue, maybe up to €4.00 in an exceptional premises, not the €5 upwards as is standard now in urban pubs.

Just heard a rumour about the Castle Inn in Rathfarnham. Although a lot seem to be nothing more than rumours.

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Yeah, I heard that at the weekend while drinking in Blackrock.

It was voted best restaurant in Bray in 2014 for what it's worth.

by whom? They must have no taste buds. I've been to the barracuda 5 times, and only once by choice. Food is bog standard, service is slow and inaccurate. Nephew ordered fish, they served him up a steak even though no one at the table even ordered steak.

Campo the italian restaurant opposite it, is much much better and in or around the same price too.

Someone in the Galway city forum claims JDW have agreed to open in the former Cottage bar in Lower Salthill, announcing in a couple of weeks so he says.

RasTa wrote: »

That's far too small for a weatherspoons

Yep id agree but thats what the rumours say. Very few/if any large sized venues available in Galway though.

RasTa wrote: »

That's far too small for a weatherspoons

Big enough if you include all the rooms though isn't it?

Any update on the time frame for the Swords and Dublin City locations?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057364517&page=8

loyatemu wrote: »

They have a lot of staff wandering around the place, it would be much simpler to give them tablets and let them take the orders rather than their farcical "go to the bar" system.

Unless the tablets were attached to the staff by sturdy chains, they would probably go 'missing' before long plus you have the issue of how to handle the cash - they'd all need cash (float) bags and credit card machines.

But I agree that it's silly that they can't at least go and get the coffee that you paid for when you ordered your meal, it really annoys me when I'm in the TTT and have to go back to the counter for my coffee even if there's lots of staff flouncing around with nothing to do.

I don't get the point of their ordering system - it doesn't appear to be necessary as part of their low-cost model (what I mean by that is that it doesn't seem to save them money), as a lot of people have already said it is very inefficient and time consuming for the customer. How come I was able to go into the Brew Dock over the weekend, have a member of staff come over and take my order, and hey presto 10 minutes later my food was in front of me? I paid when I was finished - simple, straightforward! How is JDW making this so complicated??

loyatemu wrote: »

other restaurants manage this fine, who do you think would steal the tablets?; Wetherspoons are trying to re-invent the wheel. If it resulted in better service, fine, but it doesn't.

Any restaurant or pub I've been to where the waiters have handheld gadgets do not ask for payment upfront. Most places want you to leave open the option of ordering dessert and/or coffee so it makes commercial sense to leave the paying to the end of the meal.

loyatemu wrote: »

After queueing to order the food, I had to go back and queue again (for 20 minutes) to order coffee and cake. I got the coffee straight away, the cake arrived 25 minutes later... While I was queuing others were going straight to the bar and then getting into arguments with the people in the queue, then other queues would form at a different parts of the bar. This is not a good system.

Agree that it leads to messy situations as you described. I can just about handle queuing in McDonalds but at least there are usually separate queues so you know where you stand - in JDW there seems to be no order to the queuing and the staff don't seem to care if the people who were there first get served first.

That article feels mostly like a sop to counteract Una Mullaly's rather deranged rant against JDW a few months ago in the same paper.