What makes a great pub great.

Andrew00 · 25-07-2019 7:14pm

MuffinTop86 wrote: »

Good live music
No tvs
No food
No bores sitting at the bar
People in their mid 20s+

The occasional group of gals where one always cries after a few merlots, cos it’s fun to laugh at

Jesus.

Stovepipe · 25-07-2019 7:27pm

Good pub? Clean, uncluttered, clean jax, no loud music especially from jukeboxes or gaming machines and the ability to hear conversations, no smoking (from punters standing in the door), no drug dealing or consuming of drugs going on....

Rothko · 25-07-2019 7:33pm

Nice staff and atmosphere to the place
Cheap pints
Pool table
Jukebox with a good selection of music

loveroflight · 25-07-2019 7:35pm

What makes a great pub great?

A fantastic Blues Band like 'Left Right & Centre'
Ed Deane, Noel Bridgeman, Tommy Moore

Thursdays in Ryans, Queens Street

Pauliedragon · 25-07-2019 7:40pm

MuffinTop86 wrote: »

Good live music
No tvs
No food
No bores sitting at the bar
People in their mid 20s+

The occasional group of gals where one always cries after a few merlots, cos it’s fun to laugh at

Fun to laugh at or you'll be in there quick to "console" her and tell her she's beautiful and to forget what everyone else thinks. Next thing bang her knickers are on the bedroom floor.

El_Duderino 09 · 25-07-2019 7:54pm

Stovepipe wrote: »

Good pub? Clean, uncluttered, clean jax, no loud music especially from jukeboxes or gaming machines and the ability to hear conversations, no smoking (from punters standing in the door), no drug dealing or consuming of drugs going on....

LOL. Alcohol free bar.

Strumms · 25-07-2019 7:55pm

Staff - they will set the tone for the atmosphere and punters. If they are efficient, easy to deal and get on with, can put their foot down all be it *softly but firmly enough* if anything or anyone gets out of hand and indeed before that happens , enjoying being there and their work.

Locals / Regulars - can be friendly towards new faces but ultimately can enjoy their day or evening without being obtrusive and interrupting your evening especially if you have company.

Comfort - clean, well maintained and you ain’t pulling half eaten bags of crisps from behind the seats and seats are not stained.

TV - on if there is a match and low enough volume but if it’s a load of auld ones hollering at Marty Whelan for pulling the same balls out, no thanks. Should only be turned on for prominent sporting occasions.

IAMAMORON · 25-07-2019 8:00pm

Loads of loose young nurses... and a few trainee physio's and doctors, just for variety like. The odd loose female bar fly, whose like a total bear in the sack and the whole pub knows it.

Strumms · 25-07-2019 8:05pm

IAMAMORON wrote: »

Loads of loose young nurses... and a few trainee physio's and doctors, just for variety like. The odd loose female bar fly, whose like a total bear in the sack and the whole pub knows it.

Ok, name the pub

Speedsie · 25-07-2019 8:08pm

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

LOL. Alcohol free bar.

There you go... https://thevirginmarybar.com/

IAMAMORON · 25-07-2019 8:11pm

I forgot to add it is a bonus if the owner goes on a great big foooking mad one every 8-9 weeks for about 3 full days. Like a dogs double push through... might even pull a few pints for an hour when he is stotious drunk at tea time one evening, like on day 2 of his mission, before a staff member joins him and he forgets what he is doing and starts at it again. Throwing the odd bit of abuse at regulars etc, total Jekyl and Hyde stuff.

Always a charm to any venue,

Atlantic Dawn · 25-07-2019 8:12pm

Guinness, Heineken, Bulmers, Corona, Red Bull and Coca Cola sold, alternatives can be sold alongside but these 6 must be available, no cheapo 'it's the same thing' rubbish.
No cocktails sold to delay me getting a pint
Air Con
No loud music
Toilets with ultra powerful hand dryers that will nearly rip your skin open

Stovepipe · 25-07-2019 11:57pm

Not a bit.... a good local pub was ruined because the son was allegedly dealing.

hawkwing · 26-07-2019 12:17am

One that you can get to and home from and hasn't shutdown in the last 5 years.Thanks Shane Ross:rolleyes:

branie2 · 26-07-2019 8:59am

Great drink

Beechwoodspark · 26-07-2019 8:59am

Drink and plenty of it !!!!

Former Observer · 26-07-2019 9:05am

No television, or at least an area that is television free. Soft lighting or candles. Place with a bit of history and a few nooks and crannies. Open fire in the winter. A few paintings on the wall (Not just Navy Cut ads). An old wooden bar. Architectural quirks. Toilets that are flushed and kept clean. A lack of pricks.

ILoveYourVibes · 26-07-2019 9:31am

Nice airy surroundings. A beer garden perhaps.

Perhaps a beautiful facade on the entrance.

I hate bad lighting in a pub. I can't stand it small pokey and dark. It should be light and airy. Maybe some art and pleasing interior. Comfortable seating.

A good selection. Good staff.

Good company of course.

branie2 · 26-07-2019 9:37am

A carvery

ILoveYourVibes · 26-07-2019 9:41am

branie2 wrote: »

A carvery

Oh of course I never thought about the food!

FIVE STAR CUISINE!

Andrew00 · 26-07-2019 9:43am

Twas in the pub, they drank their sub, and up in the Spike you'll find them. They sweated blood and they washed down mud with pints and quarts of beer

the beer revolu · 26-07-2019 9:54am

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Guinness, Heineken, Bulmers, Corona, Red Bull and Coca Cola sold, alternatives can be sold alongside but these 6 must be available, no cheapo 'it's the same thing' rubbish

Serious question.
Of the hundreds of brands available to a bar, why have you singled out these particular brands as being "must haves"?

26-07-2019 10:00am

If it has a smoking hot girls area

theteal · 26-07-2019 10:15am

My standards for what makes a pub great have slipped considerably since moving to England. For the most part, the choice of beer is excellent but the pubs just leave a lot to be desired. In saying that, I have been in one or two village pubs that have made me think of home.

I was back in Dublin last week and met a couple of mates (who I'd not seen in the guts of a year) in the Dame Tavern. Fcuk me if I didn't find my happy place when I sat down. Small, reasonably busy but a few little stools available. Comfortably unclean but by no means dirty. Decent Guinness imo but not really something I'd frequently imbibe. Kerry/Mayo on a little telly behind the bar, not on too loud. Ended up having a chat with the owner who it turns out has links to where we're from and actually knew my mates auld fella quite well. Being a foreigner now, I do enjoy finding little pubs like that around Dublin on my trips back - although considering I've been in the Stag's Head facing it at least 50 times, I defo should have found it before last week.

El_Duderino 09 · 26-07-2019 10:15am

the beer revolu wrote: »

Serious question.
Of the hundreds of brands available to a bar, why have you singled out these particular brands as being "must haves"?

They're the most generic, bland, brand leaders. People tend to associate brand leaders with quality rather than assessing them for themselves. It's just a quirk of human Nature.

Former Observer · 26-07-2019 10:17am

Some of the suggestions in here are ungodly. Beer gardens, plenty of air, flat screens, bottles of corona with a wedge of lime. You absolute philistines, it was a long way from that you were rared.

Pubs should have that worn-in feeling, a little grime, faint smell of urine from the men's room, populated with eccentrics, pintsmen and wastrels.

I particularly hate these new metropolitan, Germanic-style beer hall yokes that we are cultivating. The Germans wouldn't know how to design a bar if a gun was put to their head. That's why they come over here.

tastyt · 26-07-2019 10:23am

The villager in chapelizod.

In a nutshell

theteal · 26-07-2019 10:23am

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

They're the most generic, bland, brand leaders. People tend to associate brand leaders with quality rather than assessing them for themselves. It's just a quirk of human Nature.

Yeah, maybe I'm doing it wrong but when I walk into an unknown pub I like to have something I've not sampled before. I've been accused of being a beer snob before (jokingly, by the wife) but I just liken it to restaurants, I'd have my favourite meals but I'm not going to order the same every time.

Another thing, over here, Tuborg will be more expensive in pubs than Carlsberg. How many Irish people think Tuborg is the cheap Carlsberg equivalent? It's all just marketing.

theteal · 26-07-2019 10:26am

tastyt wrote: »

The villager in chapelizod.

In a nutshell

Always liked the look of it. Every time I'm home, I drive by it at least twice a day (and think I must go in at some stage), families spread between Walkinstown and Coolmine. Never been inside though

El_Duderino 09 · 26-07-2019 10:45am

theteal wrote: »

Yeah, maybe I'm doing it wrong but when I walk into an unknown pub I like to have something I've not sampled before. I've been accused of being a beer snob before (jokingly, by the wife) but I just liken it to restaurants, I'd have my favourite meals but I'm not going to order the same every time.

Another thing, over here, Tuborg will be more expensive in pubs than Carlsberg. How many Irish people think Tuborg is the cheap Carlsberg equivalent? It's all just marketing.

Exactly that. Very few people order the exact same meal every time. But lots of people order the exact same drink every time. Variety is the spice of life.

I don't know where I would put tuborg TBH. Completely agree on marketing.

Think fosters as an aussie lager. Australians have good lagers. Fosters is just a cheap generic with great marketing.

I watched the 6nations match between Scotland and Italy and there was loads of Tennants sponsorship. I presumed it was because Tennants sponsor Scotland, right? Wrong. Tennants sponsored the Italian team. It's a premium trendy lager in Rome these days apparently. Marketing is key.

I don't think I've ever had a good lager on draft in a pub. It's all generic bland stuff.

What makes a great pub great.

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