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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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dan1895

Steven81 wrote: »

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.

Ryans in parkgate st used to put out free finger food at half time when showing rugby. dont know if they still do as I don't live aroub]nd there anymore

Dr Bob

Pub bands.Kill them.Kill them with fire.
Seriously , there's never been a time I've been sitting with my mates chatting in the local and said
"you know what we need now , someone playing a bad cover of Wonderwall at about a trillion decibels right in our ear so we cant hear a damn thing we're saying"
Or arriving with friends at a packed pub , seeing a perfect empty table and chairs , and then twenty minutes later seeing some spotty numpty wheel his amps in and set up about two inches from your head..
Venue pubs like Whelans or whatever are fine , its just crap in a local....

Dyr

Richard Hillman wrote: »

decent WiFi

board games

Because a table full of gimps all staring at their iphones makes for a great atmosphere

old_aussie

Get rid of the drink driving laws so everyone can get pissed and have a good time and not have to worry about driving home drunk.

Stickman2

The staff in alot of pubs in my area in Dublin are c#nts. Obnoxious,unfriendly,unwelcoming c#nts. That is part of the problem I feel

admiralofthefleet

Stickman2 wrote: »

The staff in alot of pubs in my area in Dublin are c#nts. Obnoxious,unfriendly,unwelcoming c#nts. That is part of the problem I feel

part of the problrm is there is very few real barmen left. most places now recruit the lounge staff who have no idea how to look after a customer

SteoL

Susie_Q wrote: »

- 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.

To be fair you would pay a euro (give or take a few cents) for a packet if crisps in a shop so they aren't really ripping us off there IMO.

Archeron

Bambi wrote: »

Because a table full of gimps all staring at their iphones makes for a great atmosphere

I'm visualizing this literally, with giant jenga and twister to keep the leather clad ones amused when their phone batteries run out.

Michael Weston

Was out earlier and it looked like a decent Thursday night, levels of footfall were nowhere near a normal bank holiday.

eth0

Judgement Day wrote: »

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.

Nothing like an ould man's pub

Small wooden door to get in about 5" high cause it was built in the Famine when people struggled to get anywhere near that height. There has to be a porch

Dimly lit by carbon filament bulbs or oil lamps. If there are electric lights they must have an oldschool looking lamp shade and plug into a bakelite round-pin socket.

No Budweiser or other any of the common big foreign beers. Unusual stuff is ok, must have a good selection of stout on tap and any half decent local brew, no more than 3.50 a pint.

Unpainted stone walls, all furniture must be dark brown except for the cushions on a few nice comfortable couches in well placed out of the way areas in the pub. Two of these should be on either side of a small stove that people sitting around occasionally throw a few blocks into

No TV except for maybe a small 15" one thats only turned on the odd time. If there is music it should be soft downtempo stuff or slow Irish trad that you can talk over without too much effort.

Live music the odd time but there should still be a room to chill out where you can get away from that too if you're not in the mood.

Walls so thick no iPhone will pick up a signal unless you're standing in the porch.

Nice food, but no indication given that they serve food at all. The only way to find this out is if someone tells you or you see the food being served. Else you get busy fellas coming in for a quick bite ruining the relaxing peaceful atmosphere.

No bouncers, they make for an unpleasant hostile environment. Just if there is a trouble the barman stands there for a few seconds in complete silence and threatens to get the shotgun. Troublemakers leave before he comes back. Everybody then gathers to have a look at yer man's shotgun and a long conversation about shotguns and hunting trips starts.

SEANoftheDEAD

€5 for a bottle of beer... €4.20/€4.30 for a pint of the same beer...
or 5 bottles of beer in the offo for the price of 1 in the pub...

Unless they sort this nonsence out, I hope they go out of business fairly sharpish!

fasttalkerchat

utopianruins wrote: »

€5 for a bottle of beer... €4.20/€4.30 for a pint of the same beer...
or 5 bottles of beer in the offo for the price of 1 in the pub...

Unless they sort this nonsence out, I hope they go out of business fairly sharpish!

I could never understand why bottles are dearer than pints in the south. Up north a bottle is about 2.50 and a pint 3.50

Judgement Day

I can't post a picture here but here's the link: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=73225212&postcount=23

Redmond's Pub at Scarawalsh (a couple of miles north of Enniscorthy) - no draught beer, bar counter about 10ft long and nothing on the outside to indicate that it's a pub at all. If there's too many at the bar you're invited into the owner's parlour!

Toby Take a Bow

Don't randomly close for the night. I tried two pubs in the city centre and they were both closed.

jt69er

IrishAm wrote: »

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.

lines are maintained for them by diageo,heineken,bulmers etc FOC

Michael Weston

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

Don't randomly close for the night. I tried two pubs in the city centre and they were both closed.

That is very annoying, and serving you until a quarter to one them sending in the gorillas to throw you out at five to one .

mikemac1

Putting prices up after a certain time

I'll accept it sometimes
For example there were a few bars around the IFSC in Dublin that put on all drinks three euro before nine pm. Desperate to catch the after work crowd
So fair enough if they raise them again later

But having normal prices and then hiking them at eleven pm and maybe hiking again at midnight, GTFO

Defiler Of The Coffin

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??

A far better selection of beers is needed, I find it disheartening that every little pub you go into has the same muck on offer. I've been drinking Heineken for years now and I'm sick of it. Different pubs should have different beers on offer, a pub could really distinguish itself by having a quality local brew available. This would really need to go hand in hand with a revival of the microbrew industry but for example if one of my locals offered beers from O'Haras or the Dungarvan brewery then it would get my custom, provided the lines were clean and the price was reasonable.

I find it strange that a country that loves its beer doesn't have a popular lager to call its own. I don't count Harp as popular!

Turning down the music and the TVs would help. Price badly needs to come down although that isn't the main reason I don't bother with the pub as much as I used to. A lot of pubs seem to have an identity crisis at the moment, they don't know whether they want to be pubs or clubs.

toexpress

batistuta9 wrote: »

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

Yes but that comes back to a number of factors, like the cost of buying the drink, the level of rates to be paid, the costs of insurance, security and paying staff.

Live entertainment is also hugely expensive. So you see it is pretty difficult to drop the price when you try to meet all the demands of both the licensing laws and the those of the customer

batistuta9

toexpress wrote: »

Yes but that comes back to a number of factors, like the cost of buying the drink, the level of rates to be paid, the costs of insurance, security and paying staff.

Live entertainment is also hugely expensive. So you see it is pretty difficult to drop the price when you try to meet all the demands of both the licensing laws and the those of the customer

The op's talking about price as the customer.

If people could afford to buy the drink at these prices then there'd be no problem with the irish pub scene relating to customers, there was no problems for people to pay these prices a few years ago & pubs done quite well didn't they

batistuta9

Zebra3 wrote: »

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.

This might or probably even could work well in large population centre's but not for your typical rural or small/medium size town pubs - which i think most of the closures are taking place anyway. The majority in these pubs wouldn't be turned over to drinking the new beers and it'd be wasted expenses i feel, maybe that's not a reason for them not to try it but i can't see it working across the board

some of the rural pubs might even be doing OK, but it's where there's pubs in towns every 2/3/4 premises along the street and they haven't got the population for it's probably one of the main problems i think.

Zebra3

batistuta9 wrote: »

This might or probably even could work well in large population centre's but not for your typical rural or small/medium size town pubs - which i think most of the closures are taking place anyway. The majority in these pubs wouldn't be turned over to drinking the new beers and it'd be wasted expenses i feel, maybe that's not a reason for them not to try it but i can't see it working across the board

some of the rural pubs might even be doing OK, but it's where there's pubs in towns every 2/3/4 premises along the street and they haven't got the population for it's probably one of the main problems i think.

Schöfferhofer, half litre bottles, are on sale in Aldi for €1.49. Any publican looking to try something different could do worse than buy a dozen bottles and see what their regulars think of them.

It's simple things like that that publicans cannot think of. People outside bigger population centres do travel as well and also buy stuff like wheat beer in their offos and supermarkets.

Too many publicans are stuck in the past.

batistuta9

Zebra3 wrote: »

Schöfferhofer, half litre bottles, are on sale in Aldi for €1.49. Any publican looking to try something different could do worse than buy a dozen bottles and see what their regulars think of them.

It's simple things like that that publicans cannot think of. People outside bigger population centres do travel as well and also buy stuff like wheat beer in their offos and supermarkets.

Too many publicans are stuck in the past.

buying drink in aldi + selling it on is illegal is it not, well that's beside the point as pubs do things like this anyway

maybe the problem is actually they do think of it & realise it won't work. The biggest reason pubs will have only a few beers on tap/in stock is the the others won't sell.

Do you think pubs would stock something if only 1 or 2 drink it?

desertcircus

batistuta9 wrote: »

Zebra3 wrote: »

Schöfferhofer, half litre bottles, are on sale in Aldi for €1.49. Any publican looking to try something different could do worse than buy a dozen bottles and see what their regulars think of them.

It's simple things like that that publicans cannot think of. People outside bigger population centres do travel as well and also buy stuff like wheat beer in their offos and supermarkets.

Too many publicans are stuck in the past.

buying drink in aldi + selling it on is illegal is it not, well that's beside the point as pubs do things like this anyway

maybe the problem is actually they do think of it & realise it won't work. The biggest reason pubs will have only a few beers on tap/in stock is the the others won't sell.

Do you think pubs would stock something if only 1 or 2 drink it?

If Dublin can support three Porterhouses, three Against The Grains, Messrs Maguire, the Bull & Castle and Mulligan's (not to mention all the pubs that do a couple of craft and specialist beers like the Palace on Fleet Street and McSorley's in Ranelagh) there's got to be enough curiosity in an average Irish town to at least warrant doing a test run with bottles of two or three Irish craft beers to see if people pick up on it.

Zebra3

batistuta9 wrote: »

buying drink in aldi + selling it on is illegal is it not, well that's beside the point as pubs do things like this anyway

maybe the problem is actually they do think of it & realise it won't work. The biggest reason pubs will have only a few beers on tap/in stock is the the others won't sell.

Do you think pubs would stock something if only 1 or 2 drink it?

It's not illegal although obviously supermarkets wouldn't be happy about it.

The reality is most publicans won't even try it.

12 bottles of great wheat beer from Aldi would cost less than €18. If a publican is not prepared to try that, tough s**t if they go out of business.

JuliusCaesar

Turn off the effin' TV. Especially the LOUD sport. I'm not effin' interested, and I'm in the pub to talk with my friends, not to be DEAFENED by a commentary on some idiots kicking a ball around. If I wanted to know what was happening, I'd be LOOKING at the effin' tv.

When me and my friends no longer have anything to talk about, we won't be meeting up in pubs or anywhere else. Jeez.

YFlyer

old_aussie wrote: »

Get rid of the drink driving laws so everyone can get pissed and have a good time and not have to worry about driving home drunk.

Is that you Jackie?

batistuta9

desertcircus wrote: »

If Dublin can support three Porterhouses, three Against The Grains, Messrs Maguire, the Bull & Castle and Mulligan's (not to mention all the pubs that do a couple of craft and specialist beers like the Palace on Fleet Street and McSorley's in Ranelagh) there's got to be enough curiosity in an average Irish town to at least warrant doing a test run with bottles of two or three Irish craft beers to see if people pick up on it.

The average irish town compared to dublin are you serious

I said it might work for pubs in larger population centres - i meant dublin, cork, galway even, not your bog standard irish town with small populations

the pubs that are surviving are usually doing something about it anyway & are probably the best pubs in their area - far too many pubs in most irish towns anyway

emigrate2012

Lionel Messy wrote: »

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

yes,yes and a kick in the ball's for good measure.if your over 18 and still drinking that swill you really shouldn't be let into a licensed premises

fasttalkerchat

desertcircus wrote: »

If Dublin can support three Porterhouses, three Against The Grains, Messrs Maguire, the Bull & Castle and Mulligan's (not to mention all the pubs that do a couple of craft and specialist beers like the Palace on Fleet Street and McSorley's in Ranelagh) there's got to be enough curiosity in an average Irish town to at least warrant doing a test run with bottles of two or three Irish craft beers to see if people pick up on it.

Half the pubs in Dublin are running off van loads of Budweiser from the North. The few you mentioned are a rarity.