A bit council (Vol 4)

[TuonoPants]

Dermot O'Logical said:

There's a 'Spoons in Lymington, a place which is most definitely un-council, and it's usually busy.

At around 10.30 every morning, you'll find at least three or four mobility scooters parked outside.

That sounds very council, maybe Lymington isn't all posh.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

hutchst said:

Ordered a nice meal and drink, had a couple of bites then went for a quick pee. When I came back they had cleared my drink and meal away.

Leaving the table to go to the loo. Council.

After all, it's not like you didn't know a) the food was coming shortly and b) you needed a pee.

[SpeckledJim]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

hutchst said:

Ordered a nice meal and drink, had a couple of bites then went for a quick pee. When I came back they had cleared my drink and meal away.

Leaving the table to go to the loo. Council.

After all, it's not like you didn't know a) the food was coming shortly and b) you needed a pee.

Not leaving the table to go to the loo. Worse.

[GOG440]

Dog Star said:

alorotom said:

So today, new office for a new client I started with last week. Meet one half of the team today that will.be supporting me and one chap mentions "you look like someone who enjoys a 'spoons" ... It came from nowhere, I was mid sentence about work!

I did a really laugh out loud but didn't know what to do or say. He was deadly serious too!

Talk about damning! Bloody cheek of it lol!

If I'm not working from home then you can find me for an hour every lunchtime in The Matthew Broderick 'spoons in Leeds, having my lunch and pint of Kronenbourg. Bloody excellent place - I couldn't get a sandwich meal deal sort of thing for that sort of money. Relatively scrote free too.

Its Cuthbert Broderick.

I would avoid it once the christmas market starts in Millenium square, since they stopped the bier halle in the middle of the market the world and his wife descend on that spoons for a drink or 12

[V8mate]

SpeckledJim said:

CharlesdeGaulle said:

hutchst said:

Ordered a nice meal and drink, had a couple of bites then went for a quick pee. When I came back they had cleared my drink and meal away.

Leaving the table to go to the loo. Council.

After all, it's not like you didn't know a) the food was coming shortly and b) you needed a pee.

Not leaving the table to go to the loo. Worse.

Which is probably the standard MO for most 'spoons customers.

[GOG440]

SpeckledJim said:

They take on interesting and historic buildings, and do a great job of restoring them.
Commissioning a unique, high-quality carpet for every single different pub.
They offer a superb range of proper beers, and keep them well
They do a good menu of competent, straight-forward food, and charge very fair prices for it.
They don't play music
They serve excellent coffee
There are very few (or none) fruit machines?
They keep very high food preparation standards, and toilet cleanliness

Not seeing the 'councilness', if I'm honest. Cheap: yes. Not posh: true enough. Unpretentious: absolutely.

Unfortunately they have that mouth breathing moron of a MD, I used to quite like a spoons breakfast every now and then and did occasionally eat there at other times but I absolutely refuse to give him a penny more, his moronic views on brexit and his insistence on promoting it in every pub have royally pissed me off

[Francois de La Rochefoucauld]

[/quote]
Unfortunately they have that mouth breathing moron of a MD, I used to quite like a spoons breakfast every now and then and did occasionally eat there at other times but I absolutely refuse to give him a penny more, his moronic views on brexit and his insistence on promoting it in every pub have royally pissed me off
[/quote]

You mean the founder, Tim Martin, worth several hundred million. That mouth breathing moron?

[otolith]

Francois de La Rochefoucauld said:

You mean the founder, Tim Martin, worth several hundred million. That mouth breathing moron?

Ah, you think so too, eh?

[Cotty]

SpeckledJim said:

Commissioning a unique, high-quality carpet for every single different pub.

I haven't been in enough to realise, but thinking about it the Crosse Keys has a blue carpet with crossed keys on it.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Cotty said:

SpeckledJim said:

Commissioning a unique, high-quality carpet for every single different pub.

I haven't been in enough to realise, but thinking about it the Crosse Keys has a blue carpet with crossed keys on it.

I didn't know that. Nice little fact.

[SpeckledJim]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

Cotty said:

SpeckledJim said:

Commissioning a unique, high-quality carpet for every single different pub.

I haven't been in enough to realise, but thinking about it the Crosse Keys has a blue carpet with crossed keys on it.

I didn't know that. Nice little fact.

It might not be much, but it's the sort of thing that appeals to me.

A cynical corporate 'hospitality' sausage-machine owned by a Private Equity Fund that speaks entirely in accounting metrics would not do that kind of thing.

(and how many of those kinds of horrible cynical bullst hospitality businesses with a 'concept' are in huge trouble at the moment, whilst JDW continues to grow?)

[Bullett]

The are often in really nice buildings as well, old cinemas, banks etc.
Nicely updated with respect to the original or previous use of the building and its history.

[Cotty]

Bullett said:

The are often in really nice buildings as well, old cinemas, banks etc.
Nicely updated with respect to the original or previous use of the building and its history.

The Crosse Keys on Gracechurch Street, London is definitely a old bank. It has a high ceiling and huge marble columns.


Carpet

[Etypephil]

GOG440 said:

SpeckledJim said:

They take on interesting and historic buildings, and do a great job of restoring them.
Commissioning a unique, high-quality carpet for every single different pub.
They offer a superb range of proper beers, and keep them well
They do a good menu of competent, straight-forward food, and charge very fair prices for it.
They don't play music
They serve excellent coffee
There are very few (or none) fruit machines?
They keep very high food preparation standards, and toilet cleanliness

Not seeing the 'councilness', if I'm honest. Cheap: yes. Not posh: true enough. Unpretentious: absolutely.

Unfortunately they have that mouth breathing moron of a MD, I used to quite like a spoons breakfast every now and then and did occasionally eat there at other times but I absolutely refuse to give him a penny more, his moronic views on brexit and his insistence on promoting it in every pub have royally pissed me off

Unless you are more successful than he is, you may wish to reconsider who has the moronic views.

[Rod200SX]

V8mate said:

SpeckledJim said:

CharlesdeGaulle said:

hutchst said:

Ordered a nice meal and drink, had a couple of bites then went for a quick pee. When I came back they had cleared my drink and meal away.

Leaving the table to go to the loo. Council.

After all, it's not like you didn't know a) the food was coming shortly and b) you needed a pee.

Not leaving the table to go to the loo. Worse.

Which is probably the standard MO for most 'spoons customers.

Funnily enough when I worked in a wetherspoons about 9 years ago, we had someone to that exact thing. That wasn't overly fun to deal with!

I always find discussions about wetherspoons funny. They are under no false identity, everyone knows they are cheap and cheerful but most are run very well. Cleaning is kept on top of to a very high standard, be it floor, bar or kitchen. The variation of alcohol is massive and usually served well. Yes the food isn't anything amazing but have many folk spent time behind the scenes in your average private pub? You'd never eat in many of them again if you saw behind the scenes.

A friend worked at a pub in town with us, in dependant, generally very well regarded and visited by mainly middle/Upper class, he found out their beer lines hadn't been run through for at least 2 months at one point, kitchen wasn't ever deep cleaned aside for inspections etc. This is massively common in heaps of pubs.

Yeah you might end up sitting at a table next to Charmaine and her kids, Taylor, jaylor, braylor and Nobrayner but you'll typically get a meal cooked that won't make you ill, a nice pint and a pleasant surrounding for <£10 and I can't argue with that.

[Jim the Sunderer]

Nobrayner

[FN2TypeR]

SpeckledJim said:

It might not be much, but it's the sort of thing that appeals to me.

A cynical corporate 'hospitality' sausage-machine owned by a Private Equity Fund that speaks entirely in accounting metrics would not do that kind of thing.

(and how many of those kinds of horrible cynical bullst hospitality businesses with a 'concept' are in huge trouble at the moment, whilst JDW continues to grow?)

Life is rubbish, people need to get pissed on the cheap

[kowalski655]

Etypephil said:

Unless you are more successful than he is, you may wish to reconsider who has the moronic views.

Why? Are the rich & powerful the ones who automatically know the right thing? Should we just tug our forelocks and doff our caps to their great intellect?
Us plebs must know our place!

[Captain Raymond Holt]

Being inappropriately dressed for heavy rain, when heavy rain has been forecast.

[Centurion07]

kowalski655 said:

Etypephil said:

Unless you are more successful than he is, you may wish to reconsider who has the moronic views.

Why? Are the rich & powerful the ones who automatically know the right thing? Should we just tug our forelocks and doff our caps to their great intellect?
Us plebs must know our place!

Indeed. That orange stgibbon Donald Trump is worth considerably more than me (although probably nowhere near what he says he is) and I'm damn sure I could speak more intelligently on just about any subject you care to mention.