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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??

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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.

Daveysil15

Bring in strippers, or failing that have the women wear t-shirts and shorts like they have in hooters. I was in an Irish bar in Prague and all the female staff wore little green shorts and white t-shirts. It got the crowds in.

We could do with some proper strip clubs in Ireland too.

desertcircus

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 is pretty much exactly it. Against The Grain doesn't even sell Guinness, Carlsberg or Heineken, and they've expanded to the stage where they have three pubs in Dublin after starting off in a spot that was poison to any pub that set up there.

The price of the aforesaid beers in off-licences have done for most pubs - why pay €25 for five pints of Heineken when you can pay €24 for an entire crate in the off-licence? The beer you get in a craft-beer pub will cost about three times as much as the mass-produced stuff in the off-licence, so there isn't the same incentive to drink at home.

Richard Hillman

More TVs and a wider range of sports or at least different football leagues.

bring your own food or at least after the kitchen is closed

less pub bands, music.

decent WiFi

board games

dan1895

Richard Hillman wrote: »

More TVs and a wider range of sports or at least different football leagues.

In a sports bar yes yes yes. In a regular pub no no no.

Richard Hillman

dan1895 wrote: »

Richard Hillman wrote: »

More TVs and a wider range of sports or at least different football leagues.

In a sports bar yes yes yes. In a regular pub no no no.

Most pubs lead source of income comes from sporting occasions now a days. We are talking about the evolution of the pub. They need TV and sports to survive. Using me as an example, there is a local pub in my area that i won't drink in because there are not enough tvs and they are in rubbish positions. Over the years theyve must have lost thousands of euro of custom because the other local boozers do have a decent sporting arrangement. When I go to a boozer, I want sport and booze.

dan1895

Fair enough but some bars loose custom because there is too much sport on in them. There needs to be variety with pubs. If I lived in an area with say four pubs and all of them had twenty screens showing football all day it wouldn't be much difference between each. Luckily I have the choice of going to certain bars to watch sport, others for good beer and conversation and others for music.

Judgement Day

I don't know about the evolution of pubs but I suppose it will be like human evolution - the survival of the fittest. I like 'old man' type pubs, always have done and now I am one they suit me even better. TV for rugby (only) and switched off the rest of the time is my idea of heaven - throw in good Guinness, friendly bar staff, nice clientelle, and basic sambos - not much to ask is it. The only thing I would like to see in all surviving pubs is a MASSIVE improvement of toilet facilities.

mikemac1

When I was a barman the toilets were checked hourly and they were kept damn clean

Maybe some owners think this is beneath them, maybe they don't go near them and have a cleaner do it once a day in the mornings

If you want to judge attention to detail of staff then you judge the toilets
And some of them are a disgrace.

If you get the Sunday World there is a team called Pub Spy who visit towns all over Ireland and review the pubs there, this is often a big issue for them

Pubs are quiet, no excuse for them not being clean
And tradesmen are plentiful, if you need stuff repaired then hire one

Steven81

dan1895 wrote: »

Fair enough but some bars loose custom because there is too much sport on in them. There needs to be variety with pubs. If I lived in an area with say four pubs and all of them had twenty screens showing football all day it wouldn't be much difference between each. Luckily I have the choice of going to certain bars to watch sport, others for good beer and conversation and others for music.

And i bet you would go with the one that brings out a few sandwiches or cocktail sausages at half time. This is what is needed to keep the customers in and happy. I remember years ago a pub did this and then stopped, deserted the week after.

Another pub every week would back 100 euros on a certain scoreline were they would be getting odds of 20-25/1 ie Man City to beat Newcastle 2.1 with Aguero 1st goalscorer and if this came in there would be free drink for all those in pub til money ran out, Always got a crowd in.

Diabhal Beag

More smoking areas with bars please