Evolution of Pubs

Michael Weston

Its no secret Irish pubs are a dying breed at the moment with closures everyday. My question is this, assuming price was not the issue and live music is not the answer what do you think our local bars need to do to evolve and survive??

chin_grin

Well you've just addressed the main (if only) two reasons.

hondasam

Customers who are great drinkers would help.

batistuta9

if price wasn't the issue then there'd be no problem

Rhyme

Women, gallons of them.

Red Hand

Rhyme wrote: »

Women, gallons of them.

Pipe them in like beer, since they are measured in gallons?:pac:

Bandana boy

Plenty of pubs are thriving at the moment it is only those who's offering is no longer attractive that are struggling

chin_grin

Red Hand wrote: »

Pipe them in like beer, since they are measured in gallons?:pac:

When liquefied, yes.

DMG_49

Alcoholics Anonymous

admiralofthefleet

Michael Weston wrote: »

Its no secret Irish pubs are a dying breed at the moment with closures everyday. My question is this, assuming price was not the issue and live music is not the answer what do you think our local bars need to do to evolve and survive??

and costs/insurance/waste/water/overheads/heating/lighting isnt an issue too

ColeTrain

Bring back the happy hour. We f****** need it..

admiralofthefleet

DMG_49 wrote: »

Alcoholics Anonymous

i went there a while ago and they advised me to stay away from alcoholics. so i stopped going

Rhyme

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

and costs/insurance/waste/water/overheads/heating/lighting isnt an issue too

Not for the customer.

When I first saw this thread, I thought that it said "Evolution of pubes" dyslexia strikes again, :rolleyes:

Sky King

Sorting out the price of a pint would definitely help.

The drink driving thing fuked the country pubs right up though.

LH Pathe

most of the suburban pubs seem like phoney sets to me now. feels if I walked on the set of fair city, some crud makeovers altogether

anyways was fairly obvious at the time the smoking ban killed em and they never really recovered.

Sky King

Here's a list of things I hate in pubs which might help publicans reading the thread:

Televisions. Full stop. I don't go to a pub to watch TV. OK if it's a sports bar, show a bit of sport or whatever, but otherwise watch your poxy fair city at home.

Screamingly loud music (good or bad)

Bad music

**** quality beer. There's no excuse for it, other then your bad housekeeping.

Turtyturd

Greedy publicans killed them as much as anything else. In saying that legalizing drugs on the premises is the obvious solution.

batistuta9

Sky King wrote: »

**** quality beer. There's no excuse for it, other then your bad housekeeping.

beer that isn't popular in a pub is supposed to be worse than the regularly drunk beers - it isn't being used much, lying in the ceg for ages

ColeTrain

Sky King wrote: »

Televisions. Full stop. I don't go to a pub to watch TV. OK if it's a sports bar, show a bit of sport or whatever, but otherwise watch your poxy fair city at home.

Sport is fine but there's nothing more depressing than having a soap or something like that blaring when you're having a pint.

golden lane

it is the advent of television.......that deadened the art of conversation..

and the jone's......people feel the need to spend money elsewhere......

arse..biscuits

No TVs

Better selection of beers

Friendly staff

No loud music

Tits out Tuesdays

Michael Weston

To be fair I find a lot of publicans have reduced their prices and I accept they creamed the situation for years but even the cheaper prices dont seem to be getting custom back.

I think our whole mentality about how we socialise has changed and the pub is no longer central to all our social activities.

fabbydabby

We're still drinking heroic quantities of liquor though....

arse..biscuits wrote: »

No TVs

Better selection of beers

Friendly staff

No loud music

Tits out Tuesdays

Sodium Light Saturdays (discussion group)

Michael Weston

arse..biscuits wrote: »

No TVs

Better selection of beers

Friendly staff

No loud music

Tits out Tuesdays

Ha ha ha Tits out Tuesdays. End of thread problem solved with pure genius :D:D

eth0

arse..biscuits wrote: »

No TVs

Better selection of beers

Friendly staff

No loud music

Tits out Tuesdays

No fruit machines. Its more of a British thing but I fooking hate them things with their annoying light patterns flickering in the background

Rhyme

fabbydabby wrote: »

Sodium Light Saturdays (discussion group)

I read that as 'Sodomy Light Saturdays' and thought you mixed up the Irish pub scene with the Irish club scene.

Boy was my face red.


so to speak.

mackg

My main problem with most bars is the loudess of the music. Obviously I'm not talkig about clubs or even late bars after a certain time but why the fuck do normal bars that close at half twelve blast out the choons at ten o clock when you're on you're second pint trying to get in the swing of things?

The only reason I can think of is that if it's too loud to talk you drink faster and so you drink more and in turn they make more money. Anyone else give me a better reason?

admiralofthefleet

Rhyme wrote: »

Not for the customer.

if the massive costs incurred by a pub were reduced im sure the cost to the customer would too

Battered Mars Bar

Price is an issue, no need for rubbish music, women shouldn't be allowed in unless they act in an appropriate lady like manner befitting of the environment.

IrishAm

Pubs in Ireland try and be too many things. Sports bar/Disco bar at the weekends/ Fine dining restaurant/ Coffee shops during the day/ Local bar/

They need to focus on what they are good at and stop trying to break into each and every niche market.

Friendly bartender.
Decent selection of beers and to look after their lines.
Simple, reasonably priced food.
Clean toilets.
Sport on when necessary. Turn off Sky Sports News when nobody is watching it.

Pedant

Well I thinks it's only a matter of time before pubs evolve and eventually become aware of their own existence.

mikemac1

Price of minerals would drive me to drink

A fiver for a rock shandy is just plain wrong

Logical Fallacy

The problem for pubs is twofold and both are down to the price of something.

First up is the price of their rent, a lot of pubs will be tied to crazy contracts negotiated around boom time and still getting butt ****ed by it.

They pass this butt ****ing on to the customer in the form of a drink that is costing far too much.

staker

There should be no television in any pub.

IrishAm

mikemac1 wrote: »

Price of minerals would drive me to drink

A fiver for a rock shandy is just plain wrong

Paid six euro for a pint of Lucozade the other day.

Thought Id get shares in the place at that price:(

paddyandy

If you went into a Bar in the 1950s the clientèle were usually all over 40 . Pubs are for young people and it's totally different now .Nothing left at all .

DEFTLEFTHAND

A knock down in tax on alcohol and tobacco and a greater pressure put on organised crime rackets in cities. My old college local in Dublin pays protection money to these pseudo gangsters.

fasttalkerchat

We need 3 types of pub.
1. Dirt cheap pub with no frills other than a toilet. No loud music.
2. Pubs with a bit of class. Good beer and a big screen for big football games. Sinnots in Dublin is a fine example.
3. Pubs that are good before hitting a club. Need to be fairly priced and loud music

TehDagsBass

If the price of the drink is completely irrelevant, things that would be important for me are:
-Easy access to the bar and good service while there.
I am so, so, so sick of having to get into a mass of people to get to the bar in a busy pub. Then when you get to the front, you've to fight for the bartenders attention so YOU can hand over your money. This has to end.

-Reasonable music levels
I've been in bars abroad, they have music playing which I can enjoy and yet, I can still have a normal conversation! Here, you've to shout to the person next to you or join the dirty smokers out in the cold to actually be able to enjoy a conversation. Again, this is something that is going to have to end.

-Get rid of the fecking tvs.
I go to the pub to enjoy a few pints and socialise and have a chat, I don't go to talk to people who are distracted by a nearby tv screen or to watch sports.

-One section for dancing, one section for sitting
Nothing worse than looking for a seat and it being next to/basically on the "dance floor", under the speakers. The only consolation is how ****e Irish people are at dancing.

-Stop playing river dance and the national anthem
You f**king hicks.

-When you call last orders, give people time to consume their drinks.
Utter bastards when you've had a few drinks, last orders come around and of course you've to buy more only 5 minutes later the gorilla in the suit is ushering you to do the door.

-Get rid of the toilet "attendants' or have them clean the toilets while they're there.
Filthy, filthy bathrooms and a f**ker sitting there guilting you out of a few euro when you're desperately trying to wash the filth of the room off you before rejoining the comparatively civilised society.

That'd be a good start.

fasttalkerchat

TehDagsBass wrote: »

-Get rid of the toilet "attendants' or have them clean the toilets while they're there.
Filthy, filthy bathrooms and a f**ker sitting there guilting you out of a few euro when you're desperately trying to wash the filth of the room off you before rejoining the comparatively civilised society.

That'd be a good start.

The worst thing is that they actually get paid to be there! When I saw them in Spain etc. I thought they had snook in to set up a stall selling perfume etc. Couldn't believe when they started having them in Ireland too.

MrShine

One of the most important things for me is the crowd/atmosphere. There are a lot of pubs around that I think are great themselves, but don't go to cause they're full of dickheads. Then again this isn't really something the pubs themselves can change.

Warmer smoking areas with better tables/benches would be great. I don't even smoke myself, but my friends do. I get moaned at by my girlfriend for "spending the whole night out there", and her reason for not coming out generally is it's too cold, even in summer. I'm sure the smokers would like it too.

Zebra3

Range of quality beers available.

Pub near me sold the usual crap Guinness, Bud, Heineken, Carlsberg, etc. They decided to expand their range for the customer by getting Peroni in. :rolleyes:

And yes, get rid of the TVs!!! People have them at home!!!

fasttalkerchat

Zebra3 wrote: »

Range of quality beers available.

Pub near me sold the usual crap Guinness, Bud, Heineken, Carlsberg, etc. They decided to expand their range for the customer by getting Peroni in. :rolleyes:

That may have something to do with the breweries who basically own most pubs.

mickrock

Pedant wrote: »

Well I thinks it's only a matter of time before pubs evolve and eventually become aware of their own existence.

Pubs need to be more intelligently designed.

batistuta9

Zebra3 wrote: »

Range of quality beers available.

Pub near me sold the usual crap Guinness, Bud, Heineken, Carlsberg, etc. They decided to expand their range for the customer by getting Peroni in. :rolleyes:

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

That may have something to do with the breweries who basically own most pubs.

It's probably because not that many will end up drinking it anyway & then the one's that do will complain because "it doesn't taste right"/"bad pint" because it's lying in a barrel for ages because no one drinks it

stupid expecting pubs to stock all these different beers when the majority won't even touch the stuff

Lionel Messy

I want to slap people who drink Bud. Slap 'em good. And hard.

Susie_Q

- Bring back table service. I feckin love table service! I'll happily tip a young fella that can save me a trip to the bar and deliver my drinks to my table.

- If there's a live band (which I hate) or a dance floor (which I also dislike) then make sure there's a separate area for us folk to sit and have a quiet pint and a decent conversation. If it's too loud to hear my friends, you've lost yourself a customer.

- Make sure there is toilet paper in every cubicle and that the locks on the cubicle doors work (Dublin is terrible for this).

- Take the TVs and throw them out the window. I didn't come to the pub to watch tv ffs.

- Get a wider selection of beers. I don't want to drink Heinken/ Carlsberg/ Budweiser - it's not like they're the only beers on the market so no excuse to stock only them. Same goes for cider. Get some proper Somerset cider in and you'll have a loyal customer in me.

- Don't charge me a euro for a packet of crisps. I'm doing you a favour by consuming a salty snack; it will make me thirstier and want to drink more. Lower your goddamn prices, you thieving knackers!

That is all.

Zebra3

batistuta9 wrote: »

It's probably because not that many will end up drinking it anyway & then the one's that do will complain because "it doesn't taste right"/"bad pint" because it's lying in a barrel for ages because no one drinks it

stupid expecting pubs to stock all these different beers when the majority won't even touch the stuff

It's not too difficult for a publican to get in a small number of bottles of a new type of beer (let's say wheat beer) and to advertise it in his/her pub explaining the difference on this new fangled product to his/her customers.

Too many people are involved in the pub trade who thought it was simply a licence to print money.

Now they are completely stumped and have no idea what to do next.

dan1895

I hear the likes of mulligans and against the grain are doing quite well for themselves and their prices arent cheap, they just sell a better quality product.

billybudd

dan1895 wrote: »

I hear the likes of mulligans and against the grain are doing quite well for themselves and their prices arent cheap, they just sell a better quality product.

This! they put quite a bit of work in to sourcing their products from beer to food and they are reaping the rewards, also harrys in Donegal are doing this, if you look at the most successful pubs in london they are also doing something along this line.