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why are there no J D Wetherspoon pubs in ROI?

dd972

You'd think with the boozing culture we have they'd have colonised our town and cities some time ago, plus costwise they'd annihilate the opposition paying through the nose for their Guinness and Heineken.

Only heard bit and bobs of rumour as to why there's no Spoon pubs here ranging from the fact that it's in the Eurozone and it doesn't fit in with their business plan and the Victuallers Association here are keeping them out by some means or other, anybody heard anything more substantial?

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12 march 1930

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Aongus Von Bismarck

Links234 wrote: »

They serve up absolutely fantastic British ales, probably the only real reason to set foot in a Wetherspoons tbh, and proper cask ale is hard to come by in this country. Hell, even going into some of the craft beer places these days, it can be dominated by Hoppy McHopperson's Hopped-up All-Hop IPA at 8% and the like, which is grand if you want to taste nothing but hop burn and alcohol.

A good pint of Adnams or Thornbridge on cask is fantastic

I find myself in London on a regular basis (too regular to be honest). We will often head to a Fuller's house, or a free house. I've tried many of the cask beers. Most of them tend to be that classic style that delivers more on the nose than it does in the mouth. Cask at 3.8% served up without much thought. From London Pride on cask to Adnams. All perfectly pleasant. But not worthy of the mythical status the cask beer movement in England would have us believe.

P.S. I'd agree with you on the hop overload movement.

dd972

Links234 wrote: »

The only criticism here against Wetherspoons I'd agree with is that the food is crap, but jesus are some people really going out of their way to bash 'em

This thread I've started is like the Das Boot of boards in how it resurfaces from the depths.

Oddly enough for me the food in Spoons somehow straddles a zone between rubbish and mediocre but is not quite either, you'd eat it with more thought given to the price and the lack of an alternative at the time for whatever reason.

I'd definitely head down to the News Cafe in the Rock over the Three Tun if seeking a quality breakfast .

Idbatterim

food at half the price of what you would normally pay not being of the same quality shocker :rolleyes: The question is, is what you are getting for the price you pay value and I would say yes, particularly when you get their meal with pint deal...

Aongus Von Bismarck

If the Irish Breakfast they sell is of the same quality as the English equivalent they sell in T5 in Heathrow then I'd be reconsidering the need for a fry.

Disgustingly cheap sausages that ooze out water. Rashers that could also find themselves left in the offcuts bag of pork in your local Lidl. Black pudding that never saw a hint of blood added to them. Eggs that arrived in trays ready for steaming. It's far worse than even the utter muck fired out to people queuing up for a carvery in the local of a Sunday. Food that is genuinely bad for you.

Links234

awec wrote: »

Food and atmosphere. The coffee shop / canteen style layout and atmosphere is just a bit weird for a pub.

Wetherspoons prices and selection in a proper pub and you've got the real deal.

Yeah that too, many of them I've been in are like drinking in a Starbucks. Still though,

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

P.S. I'd agree with you on the hop overload movement.

The thing is, I do like a good hoppy IPA, Jaipur is just gorgous or Jarl from Fyne Ales, nicely hoppy but not overload. But there's some breweries that are just loading their IPAs full of hops without any care for balance or anything, just pushing things out to see how hoppy they can get things. I remember Galway Bay Brewery were doing Voyager, something they called a New Zealand hopped IPA, and it was just horrible, by far one of the worst ales I've drank because it was just all hops you could taste and nothing else, it was nasty. If I could describe the taste, it tasted like "how to put someone who's never tried craft beer before off it for life"

No, there's way more flavours out there than just hops, tone it down already.

PS. Still think you can't beat a good cask ale

recylingbin

How f*cked up has the world become where JD Wetgerspoons, the poundshop of pubs, is getting discussed as a top, top drinking establishment by hipsters.

Don Kedick

What are you people? Smelling beer before you drink it, not liking a good carvery. Mental stuff all together.

Don Kedick

Links234 wrote: »

Yeah that too, many of them I've been in are like drinking in a Starbucks. Still though,

The thing is, I do like a good hoppy IPA, Jaipur is just gorgous or Jarl from Fyne Ales, nicely hoppy but not overload. But there's some breweries that are just loading their IPAs full of hops without any care for balance or anything, just pushing things out to see how hoppy they can get things. I remember Galway Bay Brewery were doing Voyager, something they called a New Zealand hopped IPA, and it was just horrible, by far one of the worst ales I've drank because it was just all hops you could taste and nothing else, it was nasty. If I could describe the taste, it tasted like "how to put someone who's never tried craft beer before off it for life"

No, there's way more flavours out there than just hops, tone it down already.

PS. Still think you can't beat a good cask ale

What the hell are you talking about?

Don Kedick

Hopping mad.

Links234

Don Kedick wrote: »

What the hell are you talking about?

Beer!

Don Kedick

Links234 wrote: »

Beer!

You've had enough.

Links234

Don Kedick wrote: »

You've had enough.

But we've not got around to drunked singing yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOo78-B1gf4

Don Kedick

Hang on then till I just pull down the blinds and lock these doors. LOCK IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *does tin whistle solo while dancing on the table*

[Deleted User]

recylingbin wrote: »

How f*cked up has the world become where JD Wetgerspoons, the poundshop of pubs, is getting discussed as a top, top drinking establishment by hipsters.

10+ beers and ciders on tap
a different 10 in bottles and cans
ALL of them under 3 quid
Spirits and a mixer (other than coke) for less than 4 quid
Make it a double for an extra 2 quid
A decent selection of curries of a Thursday
Last but not least, the most barmen I've ever seen serving people behind the same bar. Ever. There must have been 8 or 9 of them behind an average / standard Irish bar.

They're a breath of fresh air, tbh. Sure I've never seen Erdinger for cheaper than about 2.90 in most off licences. It's 2.95 in JDW. The likes of Against the grain, The black sheep etc have proven that people will flock to anywhere that isn't Guinness-Bud-Heino-Bulmers. And they charge DOUBLE what wetherspoons charge.

Idbatterim

How f*cked up has the world become where JD Wetgerspoons, the poundshop of pubs, is getting discussed as a top, top drinking establishment by hipsters.

Hipsters? LOL! yeah it is value, as opposed to what the ten a penny dump pubs charging over E5 for a pint of piss? Millions are spent on these spoons pubs and the drink is for nothing. 950 odds pubs, they must be doing something right.

ProudDUB

Idbatterim wrote: »

food at half the price of what you would normally pay not being of the same quality shocker :rolleyes: The question is, is what you are getting for the price you pay value and I would say yes, particularly when you get their meal with pint deal...

Thing is though, how they cook/reheat/present food matters a lot. Sometimes doing that properly, won't cost you all that much. I had their rack of ribs a few days ago (at Standsted) and they were utterly vile. The ribs themselves were actually very tender and were melt off the bone soft, just the way I like 'em. They were initally cooked to perfection. But they were utterly ruined by the time they made it to my table. They were served barely luke warm. They also had a disgustingly watery sauce poured all over them, that managed to be both disgusting AND tasteless, at the same time.

I don't expect something like a rack of ribs to be cooked from scratch, but a few mins more on the grill and they could have been served at a palatable temperature and built up a bit of caramelization or char, which is what makes ribs so yummy in the first place.

homerjay2005

Idbatterim wrote: »

food at half the price of what you would normally pay not being of the same quality shocker :rolleyes: The question is, is what you are getting for the price you pay value and I would say yes, particularly when you get their meal with pint deal...

exactly

€8.95 for a burger and a pint, sure you cant f*cking go wrong with that, yet people still complain.

on friday night,me and the missus had 5 pints, a glass of wine, 2 sirloin stakes, 2 side orders and it cost €45. have that anywhere else and it would cost about €65.

you really cant please some people.

fryup

is there an english feel to the place...

do they have poker machines ?? with chas & dave playing in the background? and a busty barmaid making innuendo whilst pulling pints of bitter?? allo darlin

Grayson

Idbatterim wrote: »

They are the first non Diageo pubs, that is massive here, where between themselves and the VFI, they have run a cartell for years! Of course they arent a charitable group, ryanair and aldi and lidl are not either, but thank god for them!

Its gone from one extreme to another here and it is fantastic IMO. Its gone from a total anti consumer VFI Diageo stranglehold, to a pub chain so big coming in here, that they have the power to totally dismiss them, the Schadenfreude I am deriving from this is next level!

yep. I've mentioned it before in this thread but the VFI showed their colours when they torpedoed the cafe bar legislation. We had a chance to have small venues that open late where you could have a beer or two but it was shot down by the VFI and FF backbenchers. Apparently 1/3 of FF back benchers owned a pub and they didn't want their to lose a few customers that they could rip off in their little money making machines.

Beefy78

This story has now made the UK press. I hadn't realised that Heineken UK and Heineken Ireland are different (obviously related) businesses. With the UK JDW business being worth £60m a year to Heineken it seems clear that this is a play to get the Irish company to cop the **** on.

I'll be spending Christmas Eve in a Wetherspoons pub in Essex and I'd not be surprised if they're back selling Heineken by then.

kooga

Beefy78 wrote: »

This story has now made the UK press. I hadn't realised that Heineken UK and Heineken Ireland are different (obviously related) businesses. With the UK JDW business being worth £60m a year to Heineken it seems clear that this is a play to get the Irish company to cop the **** on.

I'll be spending Christmas Eve in a Wetherspoons pub in Essex and I'd not be surprised if they're back selling Heineken by then.

happy days, enjoy

kooga

new draft menu

Beano

kooga wrote: »

new draft menu

jeez those prices are ridiculous.

syklops

Beano wrote: »

jeez those prices are ridiculous.

Good ridiculous though.

Caliden

Beefy78 wrote: »

This story has now made the UK press. I hadn't realised that Heineken UK and Heineken Ireland are different (obviously related) businesses. With the UK JDW business being worth £60m a year to Heineken it seems clear that this is a play to get the Irish company to cop the **** on.

I'll be spending Christmas Eve in a Wetherspoons pub in Essex and I'd not be surprised if they're back selling Heineken by then.

It seems that Heineken Ireland we happy to gouge Irish punters so long as every pub played ball, glad to see someone like JD Weatherspoons show them they're not calling the shots.

The fact that a larger company is calling them out means that the smaller pub could benefit.

Beano

syklops wrote: »

Good ridiculous though.

oh indeed

anncoates

It's blindingly obvious that some of the people in here slating JDW have a) not been in a lot - if any at all - of them b) have a agenda whether it be industry related or political ("Brit" chain oppressing True Gael pubs etc).

wilhelm roentgen

anncoates wrote: »

It's blindingly obvious that some of the people in here slating JDW have a) not been in a lot - if any at all - of them b) have a agenda whether it be industry related or political ("Brit" chain oppressing True Gael pubs etc).

Spot on

Larbre34

Caliden wrote: »

It seems that Heineken Ireland we happy to gouge Irish punters so long as every pub played ball, glad to see someone like JD Weatherspoons show them they're not calling the shots.

The fact that a larger company is calling them out means that the smaller pub could benefit.

This indeed.

Its cracking the marble of the pub cartel, might cause some publicans to break ranks and get innovative on pricing in their own areas.

And as for hipsters, thats nonsense, its just ordinary people looking for good value, why wouldnt they go?

flas

kooga wrote: »

new draft menu

Even the spirits list is spot on and with pricing as well. Some people won't be happy about it though, which is hilarious. It really shows the complete lack of choice in the vast majority of irish pubs and how we have been taken advantage of for so long!

Take for example the vodka, 4 different types here all at good value, but you will still have people complaining "sher there is no smirnoff, where's the good stuff?" And I know this for a fact, as i work in a pub in dulin cc with a bit of an middle aged customers and a few months back we got in absolut to start selling as our vodka. We had smirnoff as well but were told to start selling the absolut as our main vodka, cue countless middle aged women and men getting really angry when they ask for a vodka and were given or seen you pouring the absolut into their glass they start giving out they want "the good stuff" I.e smirnoff or that we are trying to rip them off by giving them something other than smirnoff red label!! Its a complete lack of awareness on their part and is something that has been drilled into that generation that it won't go from them any time soon!

As long as they're around the vinters will be happy, but its twenty years down the line where the vinters will have real problems and the ones who have adopted will flourish, the ones who stay peddling inferior products and calling them premium and charging premium for them will go under and it will be good riddens.