Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

cruasder777

Mynamehere wrote: »

cruasder777 wrote: »

Bar work is not rocket science, anyone can learn to pull a pint in no time. So called bar apprenticeships sound like a scam not to pay proper wages in the past, before the minimum wage.

Being a good barman is a skill it takes years of practice. In England a barman/woman does it as a stop gap while their in between jobs or in college which brings down the standard.

Id still rather have average service in spoons and half price booze then expert bar staff and 5 or 6 euros a pint.

Mynamehere

cruasder777 wrote: »

Mynamehere wrote: »

Id still rather have average service in spoons and half price booze then expert bar staff and 5 or 6 euros a pint.

Would you wait 20 minutes to be served that cheap pint? Iv often waited ages to be served in a pub in England that was nowhere even near full due due to their culture of one customer at a time service. English people are used to it and know no different but I cant see Irish customers putting up with poor service.

Do the Wetherspoons in Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire do the English kicking out time routine where you will only get your last pint at exactly the legal time and then try and grab that same pint off you as their trying to kick you out the door 5 minutes later? Or do they do the standard 1 hour drink up time while their cleaning up/having a pint themselves?

Mynamehere

cruasder777 wrote: »

You cant say Youngs pubs have bright lights, you pay at the bar in advance, because some people desperate for a drink would drink and walk without paying.

I was talking about food. Building up a tab is custom in this country why try to change that. How do you know if you would like a desert/coffee after your dinner before you order? You would have to Q up again. Also you might have to Q up again half way through your meal to get another drink.

Another one I found strange when I came over to London first was barstaff while they are collecting glasses from your table wont take an order. Or they never offer to drop your pints down.

cruasder777

Mynamehere wrote: »

I was talking about food. Building up a tab is custom in this country why try to change that. How do you know if you would like a desert/coffee after your dinner before you order? You would have to Q up again. Also you might have to Q up again half way through your meal to get another drink.

Another one I found strange when I came over to London first was barstaff while they are collecting glasses from your table wont take an order. Or they never offer to drop your pints down.

Spoons often have 250 people in them, too many people would eat and walk. Its not a waitress service thats reflected in the price.

cruasder777

Mynamehere wrote: »

cruasder777 wrote: »

Would you wait 20 minutes to be served that cheap pint? Iv often waited ages to be served in a pub in England that was nowhere even near full due due to their culture of one customer at a time service. English people are used to it and know no different but I cant see Irish customers putting up with poor service.

Do the Wetherspoons in Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire do the English kicking out time routine where you will only get your last pint at exactly the legal time and then try and grab that same pint off you as their trying to kick you out the door 5 minutes later? Or do they do the standard 1 hour drink up time while their cleaning up/having a pint themselves?

I have never waited 20 mins to be served in Spoons, although I try to avoid pubs on Saturday nights. I waited 15 mins before, due to the length of the bar, number waiting to be served. Its not just becassuse the staff are slow its that they cant tell whos next because the bars are so long.

irish_goat

Mynamehere wrote: »

Another one I found strange when I came over to London first was barstaff while they are collecting glasses from your table wont take an order. Or they never offer to drop your pints down.

Because taking orders at tables is a massive waste of staff time. More often than not a waiter will be stuck at the table whilst people make up their minds (Especially in spoons where the drinks are rotated/different from bog standard pubs). After the waiter eventually gets the order he has to go back to the bar, prepare the drinks, get the bill and then bring the drinks back down. At which point, they will order another drink because Mary wasn't paying attention, so the waiter has to repeat the trip and get a new bill and then take the payment and go get the change. Making customers go to the bar is a much more efficient way of doing things.

Dropping your pints down normally isn't practical either as Wetherspoons usually have a very long bar counter that takes a while to get in and out of. Plus, if they're busy dropping pints down they're not serving people at the bar, which only increases the waiting you were complaining about. Dropping pints down I think is a very Irish thing anyway and it just stems from the whole waiting 2 minutes for your Guinness to be "ready". I don't really see why bringing your own pints down is an effort anyway.

anncoates

Mynamehere wrote: »

Id still rather have average service in spoons and half price booze then expert bar staff and 5 or 6 euros a pint.

While I agree broadly that bar staff should be competent at what they do, this thing about the quality Irish barman is usually part of the general propaganda here about the uniqueness (and subsequent cost) of Irish pubs compares to 'soulless' (and cheaper) foreign invaders.

Lucena

Listen here anncoates, all of the following were invented in Ireland by Irish people:

- Having the craic
- Einstein barmen capable of handling two or more beverages in a single order.
- Characters. You know, the old guy who'll regale you with yarns of days gone by, of the time he went on the beer with Brendan Behan, Phil Lynott and Oscar Wilde and after 17 pints cycled to the top of Carrauntohill.
- Guinness, the world's best beer.

I didn't watch DeValera die face down in the mud in Béal na mBláth to have Johnny Bulldog come over here to our Emerald Isle, desecrating our sacred soil with his brightly-lit, cheap real ale infested "pubs".

Ravelleman

I just order multiple beers at a time when there's a big queue. You can be waiting for ages in the city centre too.

I reckon I'll just go to Blackrock tomorrow - why change a good thing.

Mynamehere

irish_goat wrote: »

Because taking orders at tables is a massive waste of staff time. More often than not a waiter will be stuck at the table whilst people make up their minds (Especially in spoons where the drinks are rotated/different from bog standard pubs). After the waiter eventually gets the order he has to go back to the bar, prepare the drinks, get the bill and then bring the drinks back down. At which point, they will order another drink because Mary wasn't paying attention, so the waiter has to repeat the trip and get a new bill and then take the payment and go get the change. Making customers go to the bar is a much more efficient way of doing things.

Dropping your pints down normally isn't practical either as Wetherspoons usually have a very long bar counter that takes a while to get in and out of. Plus, if they're busy dropping pints down they're not serving people at the bar, which only increases the waiting you were complaining about. Dropping pints down I think is a very Irish thing anyway and it just stems from the whole waiting 2 minutes for your Guinness to be "ready". I don't really see why bringing your own pints down is an effort anyway.

Not talking about a waiter service im talking about the quick same again John while hes picking up the glasses from your table. Hes not there with a pen and paper he just takes the order as hes taking the glasses. English staff are unable to do this.

anncoates

Mynamehere wrote: »

Not talking about a waiter service im talking about the quick same again John while hes picking up the glasses from your table. Hes not there with a pen and paper he just takes the order as hes taking the glasses. English staff are unable to do this.

I'm sure they're able to, they just don't.

Which I don't see a problem with.

JohnK

Mynamehere wrote: »

Not talking about a waiter service im talking about the quick same again John while hes picking up the glasses from your table. Hes not there with a pen and paper he just takes the order as hes taking the glasses. English staff are unable to do this.

I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've seen this happen in bars in Ireland, and even then its more in bars that see themselves as restaurants with a good drink selection, so its hardly an just an English thing where they want you to go to the bar yourself. As a practical matter the guy collecting glasses tends to be getting them from a load of tables on a round so taking a drink order from each one just isn't feasible unless they're specifically offering table service.

the_syco

Lucena wrote: »

I didn't watch DeValera die face down in the mud in Béal na mBláth to have Johnny Bulldog come over here to our Emerald Isle, desecrating our sacred soil with his brightly-lit, cheap real ale infested "pubs".

Diageo headquarters are in England. Just saying... :pac:

So we have an english absentee landlord dictating the price of drink in Irish pubs. I'm sure DeValera would be turning in his grave if the worms haven't gotten to him yet...

irish_goat

Lucena wrote: »

I didn't watch DeValera die face down in the mud in Béal na mBláth to have Johnny Bulldog come over here to our Emerald Isle, desecrating our sacred soil with his brightly-lit, cheap real ale infested "pubs".

You're thinking of Michael Collins there.

Dont be at yourself

irish_goat wrote: »

You're thinking of Michael Collins there.

irish_goat

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

Whooooosh.

Ravelleman

irish_goat wrote: »

You're thinking of Michael Collins there.

Sure, Dev is on the Wrasslers logo too.

Mynamehere

anncoates wrote: »

I'm sure they're able to, they just don't.

Why not if the pub isnt busy?

When i worked in a pub a few years back i was told by the head barman to always ask the customer if they want the same again when they are over 3 quarters of way through their pint. 95% of the time they will say yes ending all ideas they may have had of going to the pub down the street. Keeping them and their mates in the pub longer. It was never a waiter service just a quick nod or gesture and if it was quiet a drop down. Just good service which i have yet to see in London outside a bar run by an Irishman.

Mynamehere

anncoates wrote: »

While I agree broadly that bar staff should be competent at what they do, this thing about the quality Irish barman is usually part of the general propaganda here about the uniqueness (and subsequent cost) of Irish pubs compares to 'soulless' (and cheaper) foreign invaders.

The difference in quality of bar staff is huge between Ireland and Britain. I live in London and fly home every 5 weeks. My Irish mates when they come over always complain about how slow the service and my london mates when they have come to ireland cant believe how quick they get served in a packed bar and how everyones served quickly.

I never noticed how good irish staff were until i moved to england. I took it for granted when i was based at home.

the_syco

Mynamehere wrote: »

head barman

Well, the bar staff that I saw in Blackrock were young enough (well, no old timers/bar furniture). Not sure if many had worked in many pubs before, but I'm guessing they were employed for not having the habits ingrained into them?

Mynamehere

the_syco wrote: »

Well, the bar staff that I saw in Blackrock were young enough (well, no old timers/bar furniture). Not sure if many had worked in many pubs before, but I'm guessing they were employed for not having the habits ingrained into them?

More about minimum wage than anything else. Its a minimum wage job in the uk so their doing the same in their irish pubs. But all the chains in the uk pay minimum so everywhere iv been to has poor service as a result. Its not just pubs its the coffee chains in the uk too. Just as hard to find an independent run cafe in london now as a pub.

cruasder777

Dinner in Spoons Charing cross Rd, 2 sirloin steaks and drinks 20 quid. Watched Ireland beat England, on a vast cinema screen.

The spoons there used to be the the Marquee Club, strange eating in a place where Hendrix, the Stones, Clapton, Floyd have all once played.

Huge pub.Vast choice of ales.

Idbatterim

Spoons were selling one beer at e1.25 a pint today as a rugby promotion...

MonkstownHoop

Idbatterim wrote: »

Spoons were selling one beer at e1.25 a pint today as a rugby promotion...

Tell us now ya greedy boll*x

Marcusm

cruasder777 wrote: »

Dinner in Spoons Charing cross Rd, 2 sirloin steaks and drinks 20 quid. Watched Ireland beat England, on a vast cinema screen.

The spoons there used to be the the Marquee Club, strange eating in a place where Hendrix, the Stones, Clapton, Floyd have all once played.

Huge pub.Vast choice of ales.

I guess you're at the Monty Pyke? It's on Charing X Road rather that TCR and none of those guys ever played there - they played at the Oxford St and (mostly) Wardour St versions of the Marquee. Where you are was a cinema and became a home for the Marquee in the early 90s.

cruasder777

Marcusm wrote: »

I guess you're at the Monty Pyke? It's on Charing X Road rather that TCR and none of those guys ever played there - they played at the Oxford St and (mostly) Wardour St versions of the Marquee. Where you are was a cinema and became a home for the Marquee in the early 90s.

Rolling stones played there in 2002. 40th anniversary. Roger Waters played there late 80s. It moved there in 88.

http://www.iorr.org/rs40/

alastair

cruasder777 wrote: »

Rolling stones played there in 2002. 40th anniversary. Roger Waters played there late 80s. It moved there in 88.

http://www.iorr.org/rs40/

So, not Floyd, Hendrix or Clapton?

Marcusm

cruasder777 wrote: »

Rolling stones played there in 2002. 40th anniversary. Roger Waters played there late 80s. It moved there in 88.

http://www.iorr.org/rs40/

It also closed down in 1996 and couldn't have hosted any 40th anniversary - I remember because I was already living in London at the time and the pub opened shortly therefter. By 2002, it was already a Wetherspoons (unless you're saying that the Rolling Stones played int he Wetherspoons which would be a serious claim to fame).

It also wouldn't have been much of a 40th anniversary as they originally played in the Oxford St Marquee Club (not the Charing X Road one).

If you were looking for the true experience, it would be the Wardour St version which was around for the longest before being converted in the 80s into Soho Lofts and Mezzo which for a lot of the late 80s and 90s was one of the hottest restaurants/late bars in London. It's now called Floridita, a Cuban based bar.

Idbatterim

unfortunately I wasnt there to take advantage of the E1.25 pints, just saw this on their fb page...

Mynamehere

Surely thats below cost selling.