Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

Chelon wrote: »

Seen they were putting up the signage at Keavens Port last week

I passed it yesterday and they've done a great job on the brickwork, it looks like a brand new building.

Read an article last week saying they are ready to pounce on small drink only pubs in city centre London whenever they go tits up because of the pandemic. Its a departure from their usual model but obviously Tim smells blood and will be taking advantage. I doubt they will be doing the same here though, you see suits in London knocking back pints at lunchtime whereas those days are gone here since the turn of the century.

Did the pub in in the former HQ Bar and Restaurant, in Hanover Quay, Grand Central Square ever open?

I note that the pub on Camden street is due to open in August 2021.

https://ittn.ie/ireland/news/jd-wetherspoon-buys-building-near-temple-bar-to-develop-into-three-storey-superpub/

I'm guessing its the USIT building.

Aston Quay will be a pretty good location for them and that is a sizeable building as well.

Its also remarkable that it will be just a 2 mintute walk from a host of bars in Temple Bar charging 7-8 euros a pint while Spoons will be charging 4 euro upwards. Fitzgeralds next door to it wont be able to compete, its always been a bit of a dive but now it'll be a dive serving expensive beer relative to whats next door.

Then the food factor, that area has lots of fast food outlets that are barely a couple of euros cheaper than Spoons for a meal and a drink but offer far less comfort for eating in, theyll do a fair trade from people shopping along Henry St and surrounds and its not far from Grafton St either. Would also think that pubs like Doyles and Cassidys who are reliant on students from Trinity are going to feel the Spoons pinch too, if a pint is 2 or 3 euros cheaper in Spoons then thats where the students will flock to.

Would imagine their next move now will be to try find a location half way between Aston Quay and the new one on Camden St that will allow them be close to the drinkers of the Sth William St area and shoppers from Grafton St looking for a bite to eat.

BeerNut wrote: »

That's like saying Fallon & Byrne can't possibly survive with Dunnes selling cheap food across the street. Different product, different market. If Fitzgerald's loses the clientele who are actually looking for the JDW experience, they'll find people to replace them, no problem.

Wouldnt agree, you cant compare Fallon & Byrne selling imported specialty ingredients to Dunnes selling pasta and rice for 99c. You wont find much in F&B for 99 cents.

Spoons and Fitzgeralds will both be selling several of the same products, except Spoons will be a fair bit cheaper and a much more comfortable place to be sitting in. Its not like Fitzgeralds is exactly a hopping pub to begin with, introduce a Spoons next door selling the same drinks but for cheaper and its business will drop away imo.

Like Spoons does a vodka and coke for 3.95, Id guess Fitzgeralds next door would be around 7-8 euro for the same thing. Glass of chardonnay 4 euro compared to 6+ euro in pubs then theyve pints of beer starting at 3 euros upwards compared to 6+ everywhere else. Fitzgeralds will be hit badly from that and I cant see a new bunch of customers emerging who are happy to pay over the odds to sit in what is a very dark,dingy and outdated pub. Id say a lot of the current clientele in Fitzgeralds are pretty price sensitive and if they can save themselves 20+ euro over a drinking session then they'll be straight into Spoons next door. .

Don't forget 1.95 ale or ghost ship for 2.65. can't beat spoons for beer. Or jug of godfather.

They have Beamish. I'd wager the vast majority of Irish drinkers wouldn't be able to tell the difference any more than between Pepsi and Coke.

Sure just look at the "surger" thread, people discussing at great length and no small expense not a beer, but the head on a beer. What it looks like seems to be the most important thing. But one does not drink the head!

Hilarious video on that thread where a blindfolded "Guinness Guru" cannot tell the difference between a widget can, a draught double pour and a "fast pint". Diageo bolloxology exploded

I see Keavans Port is due to open Monday. Anyone hear if there will be any training days in advance of it opening?

Already active on the app, 2.95-4.75 a pint.

Yeah, it appears to be the same prices as Abbey st, but with a pound sign......

Yeah the place will be wedged at those prices on Camden St. Other pubs on the street will still do a good trade but Spoons opening up in the busiest drinking area in Dublin is a serious bit of competition. Same with casual dining among groups of friends, Spoons will be doing a pint of beer/glass of wine and a main course for around 13 euro whereas the same would cost around 23-25 quid in the restaurants along the street.

The hotel is charging 150 euro a night for a double room with breakfast, theres some photos of the rooms here https://www.booking.com/searchresults.en-gb.html?aid=318615;label=New_English_EN_IE_20153711665-SQOXN9lTaltDgtjqic7llwS77620569145%3Apl%3Ata%3Ap1%3Ap2%3Aac%3Aap%3Aneg;sid=16f34a139e5468317d166017f0e897b5;checkin=2021-12-17;checkout=2021-12-18;city=-1502554;highlighted_hotels=7528835;hlrd=with_av;keep_landing=1;redirected=1;source=hotel&gclid=CjwKCAjwx8iIBhBwEiwA2quaq9HKRDsHqtOM_bmGWP9SASKEoKoHwOWumYmT-eC2Ngw-1hGZq5K2YRoCR8gQAvD_BwE&room1=A,A,;

Im guessing it is now the biggest pub on Camden St by a fair margin. Does anyone know the capacity of it? Its probably not far off the size Cafe en Seine, its definitely in the superpub category

I was about to post that €150 a night seems expensive but those rooms actually look very nice. And a great central location too.

I'd be curious as to the pub capacity too, I'd say its much smaller than Cafe en Seine though. Wetherspoons pubs don't usually have huge crowds of people standing around like Cafe en Seine has, its all tables, which should limit it comparatively.

Any reports from the new Spoons? Isn't it due to open today?

I'll pop in in a few weeks, have spoons ever had a smooth launch? Always seems to be issues with stock, or ice, or staff (mostly staff)

Went in yesterday evening. Service was brutal. 15 minutes from ordering food and drink before drinks arrived. Food arrived about another 15 minutes later.

Had to send one dish back, and waited so long for a replacement we just decided to leave.

Spoke with the manager, and he said he was literally thrown in at the deep end, with all untrained staff.

They would need to get their act together fairly quickly, or they will be tarred with a terrible reputation that will be hard to turn around.

Not really.

Perhaps among beer snobs, but they are a hugely successful business.

You could copy and paste this for every spoons that's ever opened, has never effected the business.

100% agree on the cask and craft beers!! Because they are not beholden to the major breweries (cf. Wetherspoons v Heineken), they are free to stock what they want rather than what they are allowed. In the UK they publish monthly (quarterly? can't remember!) craft beer newsletters showcasing different smaller breweries.

Now I have no doubt that they drive a very hard bargain on supply and price otherwise they wouldn't be so cheap, but they put most traditional Irish pubs to shame with the range of beers on sale. From a punters point of view, the more 'Spoons the better if only to get up the noses of the vintners who have had it so good for so long.

Aye the more soulless UK chain pubs the better. I'm no fan of the VFI or any other lobby group but harping on for more bottom barrel pub chains from the UK is gas . The pubs in the UK are shite for a reason. Decent ones with decent staff are few and far between

Yeah and not to forget that during the Celtic Tiger years publicans went mad with frequent price increases and then when the crash came they were one of the very few industries that never dropped their prices. Collectively they had an attitude of what we have we hold, it was cartel like behaviour IMO. All the other sectors of the hospitality industry like hotels, restaurants, tour operators dropped prices to get people in and spending whereas the publicans took the opposite approach. That didnt happen by accident, it had to be by design. So the price of a pint now is already coming off a very high base set during the Celtic Tiger years. For those reasons alone Spoons are welcome to create a bit of price competition.

The Camden Street venue will be a bit of an eye opener for many. No longer can publicans trot out the oft used excuse that prices are so high because of rent, rates, insurance, etc when Spoons has those same costs. I dont think they'll be admitting that they are engaging in collective price gouging anytime soon but thats how it will look to many people who try out Spoons on Camden St.

And as you say its the cumulative effect of how many pints you are drinking. Four pints in Spoons on Camden St could set you back 12 or 13 euro whereas four pints in the Bleeding Horse across the road could run to 25 or 26 euro, thats a huge difference.

But I don't pay 6 quid for a pint. Thanks though .