Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

Tabnabs · 31-08-2013 2:41pm #1

Cheap and cheerful or souless and bland. You'll get to decide at a location near you soon enough.

The company, which is listed on the stock market in London, is set to acquire Tonic Public House in Blackrock, Co Dublin, The Irish Times has learned.

Contracts are set to be signed next week, with the British group expected to remodel Tonic under its own brand.

According to sources, Wetherspoon could spend up to €1 million on buying the freehold to the pub and in fit-out costs.

The property is currently being advertised for sale by estate agents Morrissey’s and Bannon, whose website says terms have been agreed on the premises.

Wetherspoon already has nine pubs in Northern Ireland, and is believed to scouting other sites in Dublin. One source said it could open up to six premises here.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/retail-and-services/british-pub-chain-wetherspoon-set-to-acquire-dublin-bar-1.1511162

Losty Dublin · 31-08-2013 2:48pm

I predict the debut of Dutch Gold on draught if this happens.

irish_goat · 31-08-2013 2:54pm

Losty Dublin wrote: »

I predict the debut of Dutch Gold on draught if this happens.

They'll probably just have Heineken instead.

I would be in the "cheap and cheerful" category. It's the only place in Derry where you can get a nice range or beers and the only place you can find cask. Plus, with CAMRA vouchers I can get a pint for £1.40. The beer would cost more to buy in the offy!

Zaph · 31-08-2013 3:02pm

I was in a couple in Derry, and whatever about the range of beers there, the lack of atmosphere made them some of the grimmest places I've ever drunk in.

Louche Lad · 31-08-2013 3:11pm

In an airport or main rail station, a 'spoons is usually very welcoming - they do improve such places. But in town centres they can be either bland or a bit rough (attracting all day drinkers).

lord lucan · 31-08-2013 3:28pm

Yay, fruit machines!!

Heroditas · 31-08-2013 3:33pm

The place used to be a dump when it was the Missing Swan.
Looks like it'll be going back to its roots if Wetherspoons take over!

Slaphead07 · 31-08-2013 3:42pm

I suspect they've got the wrong location for a long term investment but I'm not inclined to tell them.

teotihuacan · 31-08-2013 3:46pm

will they be serving food like the Wetherspoons in the UK? I spent the summer in Coventry and often went there for dinner and a pint. While the bars were a bit bland, the food was amazing and ridiculously good value

KTRIC · 31-08-2013 3:47pm

I've been in a couple in England, great value. Nice for lunch and mid-day pints.

dharma200 · 31-08-2013 3:49pm

Yeah, if you like eating fish finger sandwiches..... I have been in many wither spoons, each as soulless and depressing as the next....

teotihuacan · 31-08-2013 3:52pm

dharma200 wrote: »

Yeah, if you like eating fish finger sandwiches..... I have been in many wither spoons, each as soulless and depressing as the next....

Contradicting yourself there. to say you've been in many wetherspoons and then surmise the food as merely 'fish finger sandwiches', you clearly didnt eat there. More of a drinker i take it?

Geuze · 31-08-2013 3:57pm

The arrival of JD W into the Irish market will be interesting.

How may the RoI suppliers react?

Will JDW use their own UK supply chain?

Or will they buy off local RoI suppliers?

What will their pricing strategy be like?

In their pubs, they have offers like burger + pint for 6-7 stg, that should mean 10 euro approx......

Steak night, curry night - curry + pint for 10 euro???

Will they sell cask ale?

They have a double offer on spirits, I think it's an extra 1 stg to get a double...........

Tazz T · 31-08-2013 3:57pm

The Vintners Association won't be happy about this. Hopefully, this will be the start of the Wetherspoon invasion.

Cheap pints and meals all the way.

teotihuacan · 31-08-2013 4:00pm

Tazz T wrote: »

The Vintners Association won't be happy about this. Hopefully, this will be the start of the Wetherspoon invasion.

Cheap pints and meals all the way.

Had this conversation at the table in a Wetherspoons with four other irish people. We all agreed the Irish market has a gaping hole for a Wetherspoons style establishment. Cheap good food and pints. its a winner.

Geuze · 31-08-2013 4:05pm

I've been in the two in Derry.

The one on the Diamond, ok, it is a bit soulless.

And, yes, at night, it may fill up with "price-sensitive" people drinking a lot.

The food is ok, a cynic might say it's designed or made in a factory, and heated up in a microwave by a "cook" on the min wage.

dd972 · 31-08-2013 4:10pm

Sacrilege, nothing against Wetherspoon coming here per se, but wouldn't Tallaght or Finglas be more up their street?, even to keep some riff raff out of town.

jetsonx · 31-08-2013 4:13pm

At long last, after nearly 500 years the Irish pub industry is going get some decent competition.

Lets see how well the arrogant Irish sleeveen publicans who have taken their customers for granted for so long deal with this one.

It will also a kick in the @rse for Guinness and Heineken who have had it way too cosy in the Irish market for too long.

I can see them being a massive success in Ireland. In fact, ironically I can see them giving a huge stimulus to pubs in the surrounding areas where they locate. People are getting a fresh new concept. They will have reason get off their sofas. And yes there will be the naysayers that talk about the decline of the traditional pub - there is no reason whey they cannot co-exist in the same way that you can have a McDonalds across the road from a traditional slow-food restaurant.

jetsonx · 31-08-2013 4:15pm

dd972 wrote: »

Sacrilege, nothing against Wetherspoon coming here per se, but wouldn't Tallaght or Finglas be more up their street?, even to keep some riff raff out of town.

They are probably using Blackrock as a pilot store for their Rep. of Ireland operation. Will they be in Tallaght and Finglas in 4-5 years time...probably.

djfattony2000 · 31-08-2013 4:21pm

Blackrock is like a ghost town to go drinking in now a days.

blueshed · 31-08-2013 4:25pm

good to see them over here, being in a few in the UK and suit me and my mates perfect. I like to drink ales and cask even better plus my mates like there lagers.
food is cheap and cheerful, burgers, curries etc or all day fry up.

Geuze · 31-08-2013 4:29pm

When I order spirits + mixers, which is very rare, and always for somebody else, what kills me is the price of the tonic or cola.

Example: rum + cola = 4.20 + 2.60 ?? = nearly 7 euro.............CRAZY.

JDW give free mixers with spirits.

Next is coffee. I have seen it for 69p in Enniskillen during the last few years, although I think I've seen 99p more recently.

Sensible prices, say euro 1.30 - 1.50 for coffee.

Cola - they use the syrup gun, not bottles - price is around 1.60stg for a fairly large glass, say 2 euro, not like 2.60 euro here for 180ml or 200ml

Losty Dublin · 31-08-2013 5:29pm

Geuze wrote: »

The food is ok, a cynic might say it's designed or made in a factory, and heated up in a microwave by a "cook" on the min wage.

Thats because it is just as you described; made in a factory and heated up.

Caonima · 31-08-2013 5:31pm

It's just a pissheads paradise

hfallada · 31-08-2013 5:34pm

Has anyone considered that maybe they arent going to follow the British Business model. They obviously have undertaking market research and know Irish people dont want a ****ty beer in a pub even if its cheap. Also that Irish people have greater expectations of food.

Caonima · 31-08-2013 5:35pm

hfallada wrote: »

Has anyone considered that maybe they arent going to follow the British Business model. They obviously have undertaking market research and know Irish people dont want a ****ty beer in a pub even if its cheap. Also that Irish people have greater expectations of food.

And that Irish people, presently, are piss poor and have been drinking manky Budweiser and Heineken from time immemorial

drumswan · 31-08-2013 5:36pm

hfallada wrote: »

Has anyone considered that maybe they arent going to follow the British Business model. They obviously have undertaking market research and know Irish people dont want a ****ty beer in a pub even if its cheap. Also that Irish people have greater expectations of food.

Irish people have shown for decades they don't care about beer quality. The beer in wetherspoons is better than the beer in your average crappy Irish pub,

Krusty_Clown · 31-08-2013 5:42pm

blueshed wrote: »

I like to drink ales and cask even better plus my mates like there lagers. food is cheap and cheerful, burgers, curries etc or all day fry up.

You should try The Dark Horse in Blackrock (around 300m from the future location of this Witherspoons). Plenty of ales on draught, cask beer, and cheap and cheerful food. No slot machines, but they do have a pool table.

ButtersSuki · 31-08-2013 5:43pm

djfattony2000 wrote: »

Blackrock is like a ghost town to go drinking in now a days.

True, but I'd imagine a JDW will pack in UCD students 4/5 nights a week when college term starts.

Until I twigged that I was seriously questioning the choice of location. Proximity to UCD should give then footfall.

I'd imagine despite the protests of the LVA, VFI and local suppliers they will use their UK supply chain. I'd expect a lot of anti-JDW (mis)information to also come from these quarters in the coming months depending on the success of the model here. Or if they use local, I can really only see one winner (Molson Coors) in this.

They won't really be seen as a threat with one outlet, what all the stakeholders will fear though is critical mass through further expansion and the erosion of their cosy cartel through competition in a nationwide basis.

To listen to Padraic Cribbin again and again spout the agenda-driven nonsense he comes out with in the face of all available evidence is beyond laughable at this stage. That he continues to get airtime on national airwaves is almost as comical.

dd972 · 31-08-2013 7:36pm

Caonima wrote: »

It's just a pissheads paradise

Wonder why they're coming here then ? :pac:

Wonder what they're pricing policy could be ? If they knock out pints for €3 odd then a couple of the pubs in Blackrock like The Breffni could struggle.

Caonima · 31-08-2013 7:41pm

dd972 wrote: »

Wonder why they're coming here then ? :pac:

Wonder what they're pricing policy could be ? If they knock out pints for €3 odd then a couple of the pubs in Blackrock like The Breffni could struggle.

Guess as long as they abide by the laws they'll be okay. Haven't been to a JPW in a while (~2008) - how much does a scoop go for?

Hootanany · 31-08-2013 7:50pm

I'm almost sure I had a pint & a Steak for a fiver in Brum last year.

Caonima · 31-08-2013 7:52pm

Hootanany wrote: »

I'm almost sure I had a pint & a Steak for a fiver in Brum last year.

Holy jesus :eek:

Heroditas · 31-08-2013 8:19pm

ButtersSuki wrote: »

To listen to Padraic Cribbin again and again spout the agenda-driven nonsense he comes out with in the face of all available evidence is beyond laughable at this stage. That he continues to get airtime on national airwaves is almost as comical.

Funnily enough, what he says on the airwaves is very different to what he says to the vintners themselves!

Anyway, regarding Wetherspoons, they should rent out the ground floor of the disused Montrose Hotel and slap a large bar into it!
A university across the road with no bar.... Bingo!

Drkitkat · 31-08-2013 8:27pm

Caonima wrote: »

Holy jesus :eek:

That sounds about right we used to get two steak meals and a bottle of wine for a tenner. You couldn't make it as cheap at home.

Caonima · 31-08-2013 8:35pm

Drkitkat wrote: »

You couldn't make it as cheap at home.

Yep, unless running at a serious loss.

Not sure how it'll work vis-a-vis regulations in Ireland, but if they can weigh in for a steak and a pint around e8, people will be interested. That said, the southside is an unusual place.

Well, best of luck to them. Bit of long-overdue competition in town. 加油

Colonel Sanders · 31-08-2013 8:42pm

drumswan wrote: »

Irish people have shown for decades they don't care about beer quality. The beer in wetherspoons is better than the beer in your average crappy Irish pub,

+1

In my experience Wearherspoons are bland enough places but at least they have selections of cask & fridges full if world beers

pconn062 · 31-08-2013 8:48pm

If it increases competition and maybe brings the Irish publicans back down to earth bit then I am all for it. I was in one on England before and would probably never set foot in one again, but if their arrival means the pubs here have to buck up their ideas then that can only be a good thing.

Technocentral · 31-08-2013 8:55pm

Tabnabs wrote: »

Cheap and cheerful or souless and bland. You'll get to decide at a location near you soon enough.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/retail-and-services/british-pub-chain-wetherspoon-set-to-acquire-dublin-bar-1.1511162

Can't be worse than the 90% of pubs in the country that just sell lager piss and Guinness, with maybe Budvar as a half decent option if one is lucky.

Geuze · 31-08-2013 9:53pm

Hootanany wrote: »

I'm almost sure I had a pint & a Steak for a fiver in Brum last year.

"Steak night" price is more like 8 stg for steak + pint.

No prices on JDW website, as prices vary across pubs.

I found this:

https://www.shesaidbeauty.com/va7cyc/blog/tuesday-means-steak-night-at-wetherspoon-267628

Two steaks + bottle of wine = 19 stg

Geuze · 31-08-2013 9:55pm

Drkitkat · 31-08-2013 10:02pm

I'm going back a couple of years Weatherspoons in Cheam used to do two steaks and a bottle of wine (not 2 glasses) for 10 quid. It was grand.

Colonel Sanders · 31-08-2013 10:51pm

I once had "steak" in a Weatherspoons in Cheltenham

The quotation marks say it all....

coylemj · 31-08-2013 11:16pm

If it shakes up the local market then good luck to them, Tonic in Blackrock is long overdue a major refit. There are too many bland pubs in the suburbs with not much to recommend them. I can't see JDW not buying from the local suppliers because until they have a decent size chain of pubs here it won't be economic to ship in barrells of beer or crates of minerals from the UK to a single or small number of pubs.

n97 mini · 01-09-2013 12:09am

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

I once had "steak" in a Weatherspoons in Cheltenham

The quotation marks say it all....

I once had a steak in a Dublin pub for €24. "WTF!!!"

The quotation marks say it all....

Cienciano · 01-09-2013 12:28am

The people make a pub. Head into any pub with a group of friends and nowhere is souless. I hope we get a few more around town. The food is hard to beat at that price and they have an excellent selection of beers. And they don't have those rip off little glass bottles of coke, they have a dispenser gun.
Whatever you think of them, it can only be a good thing for the customer in Dublin.

teotihuacan · 01-09-2013 1:39am

Not a steak man myself, but my old fella had a steak each time we went there (three times in 3 weeks). He knows his steak. He reckons it's the best steak he's had anywhere. So the quotation marks around "steak" aren't fully justified. I had the burger, couldnt fault it. And as a UCD student i'll surely head down to scope the place

anncoates · 01-09-2013 1:54am

What a snob fest this thread is.

dd972 · 01-09-2013 2:42am

Wetherspoons food is edible, cheap and not quite rubbish, that's the best you could say about it, in the UK the pubs tend to reflect where they are, go to one in Norwich or York and it'll be civilized and relaxed and a magnet for mature punters, students and tourists, go to one in Slough or Luton and it'll be a fairly dismal experience, full of Sun readers getting bladdered, just about a step up from a Foster's swilling cesspit with a pool table.

Some of the better ones in better places are fairly ornate and pleasant places for a drink.

Caonima · 01-09-2013 4:10am

n97 mini wrote: »

I once had a steak in a Dublin pub for €24. "WTF!!!"

The quotation marks say it all....

You lads are mental, eating steaks in pubs all the time. If I want a decent steak, I go to a decent restaurant. If I want beer, I go to the pub. I lack this Venn diagram of "beer" and "steak" that ye seem to operate with.

Creamy Goodness · 01-09-2013 6:16am

if pubs were to copy only one thing from JDW, please copy the contactless payment terminals. more dublin pubs NEED these.

Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

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