Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

Prices hadn't changed in Blackrock as of 11.20 this morning, I was having coffee and a sausage bap btw although there were a few having liquid breakfasts, and looked a bit rough.

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

So do you know which beers are still available for €2.50? Any of the nice ones?

All cask afaik, but that's as rare as a dodo in the 40ft :-)

So in just about every other pub in the land the cask would be classed as a "craft" offering and offered at a higher price than the regular lagers etc.

Wetherspoons are raising the prices of the keg stuff and keeping the cask pegged at €2.50. Not sure why they're doing that but have to love them for it.

Only one Spoons opening in Cork now. The planning application in Douglas has been deemed withdrawn as they didn't respond to the F.I request within the requisite time.

JohnK wrote: »

Seems odd they'd just drop it; I presume there's nothing to stop them reapplying again? Or has anyone heard anything about it?

They can reapply all they like. The FI was a bit ridiculous and in any event the design of the bar was ****ty enough.
Roll on September 8th, hopefully sub €3 Beamish for the first time in years.

Anyone been to the Old Boro?

Been to the Great Wood. Lovely spot, but major teething problems with food especially.

n97 mini wrote: »

Anyone been to the Old Boro?
.

Yes, was there at the weekend. Busy but not at all mental... no real problems in terms of queues at the bar. Managed to get a "booth" style table when we went in about 21:00.

I had about 4 pints of "Doom Bar" off the cask - they had none of the other casks available, which was disappointing because I was looking forward to trying Hobgoblin, which I like from the bottle.

Doombar is grand, very easy to drink and I find my pint disappearing very fast without really noticing. Moved on to "Shipyard" I think - a quite citrusy IPA, was serve very cold and I have to say I quite liked it and it hit the spot - a real thirst quencher - reminded me of Canterbury Jack (red ale) which I love.

My wife was a bit peckish and ordered a baked potato around 22:30 - wasn't great, was luke warm as well. The food menu has a lot of variety but between my wife's snack and seeing some of the other food served, I wouldn't be too pushed to try anything other than a light snack.

Table/waiting staff were all very pleasant. The bouncer was a little bit much... wandering around the venue, standing around staring at tables - there didn't appear to me to be any rowdy bunches... Mostly an older 30+ clientele.

There was a duty manager behind the bar at one point and she was atrocious... very pleasant but didn't seem like someone who had worked behind a bar before... A customer in front of me asked for a Jameson and White and he was asked "sorry, what's a white?". Prior to that she had told him that they didn't serve Jameson, but he pointed out that he had been drinking it all night. She had then said they ran out so he ordered JD but she came back to say that they had "just" received delivery of a few boxes of Jameson (seemed strange after 23:00 on a Friday night)...

All in all, a fine experience, would go back, but it won't replace my regular(s).

Update from Blanchardstown last night; was at the steak club:

Pros:
the steak itself is decent. Nothing gourmet, but for €14.50 for a 14oz Angus rump steak with a pint, hard to go wrong.

Good bottle/can selection, had the Rogue mocha porter which I couldn't get last time I was out in Blackrock - also got charged €2.45 for my bottle, but a friend later got charged the €3.25. Had everything on the menu I think (can/bottle-wise), including all the Sixpoint cans.

They have Leann Follain down on the menu as a 330ml bottle (thus €3.25, whereas 500ml bottles are €3.75), but in the fridge they have 500ml bottles . A 500ml bottle of Leann Follain for €3.25 (50c cheaper than O'Hara's stout) - pretty good.

I like the layout. Fairly spacious, and with huge amount of glass/windows and tall ceilings I think it's nicer than TTT (which I'd find a tiny bit cramped) - never been to 40ft.

Cons:
Absolutely no cask ale at all. Considering it's the only thing left on the menu that's supposed to be €2.50, a tad annoying. They did have quite a few cider taps on for the cider festival, but I'm not much of a cider drinker.

Steak was overcooked. Friend asked for medium, I asked for rare. Mine was medium, friend's was well-done (completely cooked through). Also, another friend joined us later on and asked for the same steak, realised he was charged €2 less than we were (which would be for the 8oz steak) - went back to them to correct the order, they said no it was the 14oz steak he was getting, and 20 minutes later he's served up the 8oz steak. At least this one was cooked properly though (thicker steak and was cooked rare as asked).

Service was shocking at one point when (slightly) busy. Was waiting 10 mins to be served, there was a family asking about the food/cider taking up one member of bar staff, grand. There's another staff member dealing with someone else. Then there's one putting glasses away, and two from as far as I could see twiddling their thumbs at the end of the bar, while a small queue is starting to form where we were. I can only assume staff are told to stick to their area and not jump in behind the bar even when needed.
Didn't help that a friend of the staff member serving drinks started talking to them as they were just about to serve me.....and no problem to them at all looked after their friend first after they skipped the queue that was forming.

There was a pretty big fight/commotion at one point too, but this should probably go up in the pros section as the staff/manager dealt with it as best they could, and the Gardai were called fairly quickly.

So yeah - I'd pretty much echo what a lot of people are saying, there's definitely some teething problems, and without the cask ales you're not gonna be saving a massive amount on your drinks, but I do think there's a time and a place for it, so I'll be back, just not as regularly as I would've been had it kept the old pricing model.

Geuze wrote: »

I am a fan of JD WS.

But I do hear a lot of stories like this, I'd say it's down to UK-style corporate training?<snip>

not sure.

I visited their pub in downtown Reading and the lad behind the bar was more than happy to go through their range of beers and give me a sample of any I was interested in.

I was impressed enough (first time in the chain) that I made sure to plan a visit when in London later in the week with the family for lunch.
Also had no problems there, down by tower bridge for a very busy sunday lunchtime.

Geuze wrote: »

Min-wage untrained staff, or with little training, maybe.

I went into an O'Neills pub in London and asked the barmaid, who was leaning on the Guinness tap, for "three pints of stout please" - only to be informed that they didnt serve stout. OK, I said, Ill have three pints of Guinness then.

Ipso wrote: »

They seem to do ok in the UK, most likely an Irish problem.

Not a Northern Irish problem. Had lunch in The Linen Hall, Enniskillen. Pint of Doombar, hot food, great service, plates were cleared off table when finished.

Lucena wrote: »

Any pub which has the 'Cask Marque' (which I think most or all Spoons do) label MUST provide free samples for anyone who asks, that's one of the obligations.

Didn't know that, great stuff. Was in the Porterhouse Central at the weekend. An eye watering €6 for their cask, and it was chilled to within an inch of its' life - a flavourless rip-off.

Say what you like about JDW, but they generally have some available (I've been lucky here, but have been in dozens inc 3 Irish ones and never had a problem) and well kept and all at €2.50 a throw.