Wetherspoons, the pub chain that just keeps on giving.
tinyurl.com/5e8khzxt
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Sounds like they are desperate. Four in Norwich and I would go near any of them. I guess a lotofpeople feel the same.
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>> Sounds like they are desperate. Four in Norwich and I would go near any of
>> them. I guess a lotofpeople feel the same.
>>
Quite right Mr Norfolk.
I agree with you, I would go near - in fact inside - any of them.
'spoons is a very successful pub chain which sell wells kept beer and good reasonably priced food.
I am so glad you have seen the light and come on board. Do you ever travel to civilised parts of the UK? You could buy me a drink if you do.
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I have to agree with Duncan. I have been to several 'Spoons and most were fine.
Unfortunately my two locals 'Spoons are not the best.
There is a decent but pricy Marstons 1.2 walking miles away but it's nearly all up hill. The advantage is that it's nearly all downhill on the way home :-D
It's under 1 mile away if public footpaths are used but the council and police had actually put signs up that read "Enter at your own risk" - basically giving up on crime in that area!
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>> I have to agree with Duncan. I have been to several 'Spoons and most were
>> fine.
All the Wetherspoon's I've been in were also fine. Mind you, I think there have been only 3.
The Moon in the Square, Bournemouth.
The Lord Wimborne, Poole Quay.
The Hatchet Inn, Newbury.
Drink prices lower than other pubs I've been in. Great food, and again, very well priced.
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I like Spoon's, I want nice food at a reasonable price. Too often, going further up market, one gets neither. Spoon's scores at least 1, and although the food is a lottery I never feel there is much at risk and it is usually edible.
I've also found some of the better located outlets handy for the morning coffee, especially as I abjure Starbucks, Costa etc.
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I think they sell alot of coffee from their pubs, in top 5 aren't they for selling coffee?
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Enjoy them while you can. They are in trouble financially. Share price halved last year.
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I think they'll be going for quite some time.
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>> I think they'll be going for quite some time.
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Expect them to sell off a lot of their properties this year. They expanded too quickly and COVID, cost of living crisis and somewhat ironically Brexit has made their business model unviable.
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Businesses do expand and contract depending on the economy, I would think.
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I enjoy a pint, several in fact, but can’t remember the last time I went in a ‘Spoons. Probably the Devonshire in Skipton, but when there are several excellent pubs in Skippy selling my preferred beers why should I.
Went in one in Carlisle recently, whilst awaiting a rail connection to take me down the coast of Cumbria, and probably been in a few in Leeds and York.
I’ve never eaten in one, nor had the opportunity....but I do know two ‘Spoons in the Aire Valley which have less than salubrious clientele and one visit was sufficient. Drive past them regularly and small groups of scratters fagging away outside every time continues to put me off.
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I was in one earlier this week, for a couple of pints of something I can't remember. It was exactly the kind of beer I enjoy, pale, hoppy and citrousy.
The grub was also cheap, but meh, you get what you pay for and the only place that could match them for price nearby was Subway.
I confess my daughter managed some for several years. I saw how the ales were kept and was very impressed. As long as they keep to the rules, you could easily find a worse pint. I doubt if you'll find a pub with a choice of different ales at the price - £2.39 locally. Although (if you're desperate) they had ruddles at 99p!
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We had one in the middle of Wokingham till two or three years back. It got sold to another chain, lick of paint, not even new carpets but beer suddenly twice the price.
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>> We had one in the middle of Wokingham till two or three years back. It
>> got sold to another chain, lick of paint, not even new carpets but beer suddenly
>> twice the price.
That will be the reason they sold it then. Not making any money.
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Their business model is all wrong. Depends on large sales of cheap beer to the masses. With disposable income dropping rapidly at the lower end of the income scale they are in deep trouble
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Isn't anything mass market and discretionary going to suffer? The opportunity for Spoon's for now is people trading down. A pub lunch for two has started to look like a luxury over the last 12 months.
Perhaps their food promotion is a smart move to get trial and add new customers.
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Yes it will. Former Weatherspoons customers will buy their cheap lager at Lidl or Aldi and stay at home. I can’t see the middle classes substituting their gastro pubs for a night out in Weatherspoons though.
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I visited two Spoons quite recently. A perfectly decent one i Dovercourt, Harwich (whilst en-route to the Ntherlands) for a couple of beers (respectable Conwy Larger) and a pretty decent breakfast on the way home. Then more recently the one in Oswestry en-route to the Bike Show (the usual stop at nearby Table Table was too busy). Not somewhere I'd go for a night out but certainly not bad places.
My nephew and niece both worked (hard) at their local Spoons when they were in University.
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>> Yes it will. Former Weatherspoons customers will buy their cheap lager at Lidl or Aldi
>> and stay at home. I can’t see the middle classes substituting their gastro pubs for
>> a night out in Weatherspoons though.
The gastro pubs are the narrow top of the pyramid. There are more pubs between Wetherspoon's and the gastro market, most serving food no better than Wetherspoon's at 2 or 3 times the price. And round here in reasonably leafy west Herts many of those don't even open every weekday lunchtime any more. My own favourite food pub still does lunch but has dropped evening meals altogether.
Wetherspoon might yet drop the ball but they won't stand back and watch the business crumble.
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So where do the go? Their business model demands volume sales and if their traditional customers abandon them either because they can no longer afford them or have changed their drinking habit they are in a difficult place.
They may well survive but as a much smaller business. They have recently sold off around 40 pubs. Expect more to follow.
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>> So where do the go? Their business model demands volume sales and if their traditional
>> customers abandon them either because they can no longer afford them or have changed their
>> drinking habit they are in a difficult place.
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>> They may well survive but as a much smaller business. They have recently sold off
>> around 40 pubs. Expect more to follow.
They go after what business there is. Looking down the other end of the telescope, there is a rapidly diminishing choice of places for customers to go. I drink very little, as a health choice, but it's no good taking a tenner, or even £20, down the local now for a couple of hours social drinking and a sandwich. And the local is shut most of the week anyway.
From what I hear, the tenant of the best localish village pub has thrown in the towel this week and the owner has come out of retirement to run it pro tem. Pubs round here are dropping like flies.
Provided JDW can manage the cash for a while I'm inclined to think they'll 'wether' it. Especially ifthey are prepared to cut the worst performing outlets.
There's takeover talk too.
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>> Yes it will. Former Weatherspoons customers will buy their cheap lager at Lidl or Aldi
>> and stay at home. I can’t see the middle classes substituting their gastro pubs for
>> a night out in Weatherspoons though.
>>
...it's quite an achievement to shoehorn so much bourgeois sentiment into so short a post...
...chapeau!...
;-)
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>> I can’t see the middle classes substituting their gastro pubs for
>> a night out in Weatherspoons though.
One would hope the middle classes knew how to spell Wetherspoons correctly ;)
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>> I can’t see the middle classes substituting their gastro pubs for
>> a night out in Weatherspoons though.
>>
Well, they can and do.
Of course it depends upon the middle class individual, the gastro pub and the Wetherspoons, doesn't it?
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Norfolk - when you were young, did nobody ever tell you about the birds and the bees and the tinyurl app?
tinyurl.com/app
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Don't think we're bothering with that any more.
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I had an excellent lunch in Wetherspoons today.
The Hamilton Hall in Liverpool Street station. steak and kidney pudding, chips, peas and gravy. excellent! £9.10 including a soft drink. The place was packed!
I have just had one of my brilliant ideas! How about a Car4play works outing to a 'spoons? First round on Zero.
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>> www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/23274671.jd-wetherspoons-39-pubs-sale---see-full-list/
Had quite a few evenings down the years in Penderels Oak, Holborn, which is on the list. It was our go to for staff reunions for a while. Last there in May 16 for a retirement do.
Used to be government offices I think. Both the Shakespeare's Head (Kingsway) and Knight's Templar (Chancery Lane) are other Wetherspoons a hop, skip and a jump away.
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I used them 3 times last year. Twice in Dovercourt (Harwich) and once in Oswestry - both times were fine. The nearest one is in Rhyl (5 miles away) not for me ;-)
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Our local one is The Sedge Lynn, its a former Temperance billiard hall with a roof like an old Nissen hut from the war but much bigger and more ornate. Only been in once.
The name came from the big Victorian house next door, demolished to build a cinema.
Ted
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>> I can't see the middle classes substituting their gastro pubs for a night out in Wetherspoons though
>> Former Wetherspoons customers will ... stay at home
Which makes their pubs slightly nicer places to be, I've found recently. The types who can afford to go out on the town are mostly frequenting the stylish, higher priced places now.
That, or our local 'Spoons will be included in the next round of closures (it's not in the current one).
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One closing shortly is the Knights Templar in Chancery Lane. My office local for many years and before it was a 'Spoons both my own bank and where we paid in the office's 'takings' - mostly solicitors' cheques for our fees;
www.lawgazette.co.uk/obiter/legal-london-loses-its-spoons-/5115134.article
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Went there last night for their saint Valentine's day special (where else can you get in and not be charged a fortune) with grandson playing gooseberry, because it's half-term and we're babysitting. A perfectly acceptable sirloin, with a couple of pints of JHB to wash it down - £32 for three adult meals and drinks.
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>> Went there last night for their saint Valentine's day special (where else can you get
>> in and not be charged a fortune)
Being a tight wad, kind of dilutes the ethos of valentine's day, goes down as well as filling station flowers
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>>Being a tight wad, kind of dilutes the ethos of valentine's day, goes down as well as filling >>station flowers
Flowers? Flowers?? Have you seen what they charge for them on saint Valentine's day?
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Cheaper today, claim you forgot and had left them in the garage
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Careful. Even if bought from a florist the words “flowers” and “garage” should never appear in the same sentence.
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I was out yesterday for lunch with a couple of mates at a newly refurbed gastro pub. It's only just up the road from my regular local, which in my experience seems to rarely have a bitter on tap.
Oddly enough, they didn't have any bitter on tap either.
They've tarted the place up somewhat and employed some rather more attractive staff than they previously had, but the food was very mediocre (chicken burger and chips were, I think, £16.95, a pint of the only cider they had on tap, which was some premium stuff came in at over £5.50 a pint, could have been over £6, not sure).
I am already a Wetherspoons fan but really, that experience did make me think what is the point of trying out new places when I know I can get a decent beer and a half decent meal for peanuts. And with none of the snobby clientele the other place seemed to attract! :-)
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 15 Feb 23 at 16:01
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Years ago when we were canalling we had a period of looking for a suitable pub for an evening meal every night. When you do that you become very familiar with the Brake Brothers reheats, and aware that nearly all pub food, cheap or dear, is very much based around the freezer, microwave, deep fryer and griddle. There was the occasional gastropub with proper cooking (as there were before the term "gastropub" was invented), but they were rare and expensive.
Although the idea had been to avoid cooking for ourselves, we soon decided we enjoyed it more.
Wetherspoons is predictably not brilliant, but how often do you get "brilliant" with a random pub meal?
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I had to survey the Tally Ho pub in Finchley about 5 years ago, which at the time was a Wetherspoons (since sold I think). Their 'kitchen' was a bank of freezers and a bank of microwaves, with an east European acting as 'food jockey' while listening to thrash metal at full volume!
Mind you, a friends' son worked in our local Ivy (in Cobham) and apparently their kitchen works on the same basis - all the food is pre-cooked off-site and thawed to order.
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>> Mind you, a friends' son worked in our local Ivy (in Cobham) and apparently their
>> kitchen works on the same basis - all the food is pre-cooked off-site and thawed
>> to order.
Been there, its deffo not spoons grub. The staff are also excellent. I like the way they are not minimum wage dependent on tips, but on catering career paths, with qualifications and training. I'll pay extra for that.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 15 Feb 23 at 17:19
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>> previously had, but the food was very mediocre (chicken burger and chips were, I think,
>> £16.95,
Seriously any place that has "chciken burger" on the menu is a warning siren.
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Here's their menu. Bear in mind the food was supposed to be incidental (for me, at least) so I didn't want to pay top dollar. I'd have sooner had a bag of ready salted! :-)
gkbr-p-001.sitecorecontenthub.cloud/api/public/content/120c10fb36fd449cbb2e1a746a81bcf1?v=e3fff776
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 15 Feb 23 at 18:38
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Will be interesting to see if one of the other chains such as Nicolson's take over the the KT. It's always been pretty busy when I've been in whether for a lunchtime pint or an after work 'sesh' and is part of the Legal London scene. Or at least it was before Covid.
The line fed by 'Spoons to the Gazette about two other places nearby is, I think, referring to Penderel's Oak on High Holborn and Shakespeare's Head on Kingsway. As mentioned upthread Penderel's was previously slated for closure too.
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On Tuesday I had a Wetherspoons mini pub crawlette. I thought you would like to know.
Met one friend at Waterloo and after the statutory argument we travelled via Northern Line and Central (was it?) to Holborn and walked to The Penderel's Oak in High Holborn. Where we met friend number two.
The P.O. is very pleasant and quite busy. We commented on the complete mix of ages, genders, races etc. Coffee in there - no alcohol. Then we walkled along High Holborn and down Chancery Lane to The Knight's Templar on the corner of Carey Street. A very nice steak with all the trimmings and honey glazed sauce with a pint of best bitter for fifteen quid. We relaxed in the K.T. for some time before dragging ourselves along Carey Street and into Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Wonderful! It's like going back in time. No wait - it is going back in time. It is a superb location. Do you know that you can get a burger and a beer in the JCR (Junior Common Room?) in Lincoln's Inn Fields for £16 - in the middle of London - and it's not 'spoons! After a number of blind alleys and an argument, we made our way to Kingsway. The original plan had been to go to The Shakespeare's Head in Kingsway - another 'spoons, but the elderly gentlemen were getting tired, so agreed to go to Starbucks coffee bar in Kingsway. The students from the LSE were admired and then we trudged to Embankment tube, parted company with one, to Waterloo and home.
You do know that it is often cheaper to just use a contactless credit or debit card rather than buy a ticket on TFL, don't you?
A successful day. I fancy The Crosse Keys next.
Last edited by: Duncan on Sat 4 Mar 23 at 09:12
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I was in the Flying Horse the other day, which is in Gatwick south terminal. Not quite as cheap as those outside the airport - the cheapest ale was, I think, £4.50 and the coffee may have been £3 or more (with free refills of course) but I had a Miners Benedict (poached eggs on black pudding and a muffin) which set me up well for the flight.
On another note, SWMBO alerted me to a Mail article yesterday reported a former Wetherspoons "chef" "spilling the beans" about some of their food.
"...the beef burgers were 'made from scratch' and not frozen, but was less impressed with chicken and vegetarian/vegan burgers.
"...when it came to eggs, they were either fried on a flat grill, or scrambled/poached in the microwave. He added the poached eggs are delivered to the kitchen already poached and heated up to order. "
None of this surprises me as a lot of these fast food places, and many pubs, use at least some partially or fully cooked/prepared ingredients - mainly to ensure consistency but there is no way many pubs have skilled enough staff or large enough kitchens to cook everything from scratch at the required speed.
Full article here for those who can stomach DM articles -
www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11815815/Wetherspoons-employee-reveals-best-worst-dishes-menu.html
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>> On another note, SWMBO alerted me to a Mail article yesterday reported a former Wetherspoons
>> "chef" "spilling the beans" about some of their food.
>>
>> "...the beef burgers were 'made from scratch' and not frozen, but was less impressed with
>> chicken and vegetarian/vegan burgers.
There was a programme on'telly couple of nights ago
www.channel5.com/show/wetherspoons-how-do-they-do-it
No big secret. Extensive use of microwaves and 'keep hot' cupboard.
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I missed that, will try get it in catch up. Had minor TV issues here so far in Portugal. One telly packed up after the first night. Now been given a new smart telly but their internet is so overloaded it had trouble streaming 5 least night.
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Wetherspoons is selling beer for just £2.15 a pint from this week.
From Wednesday, March 22 to Sunday, April 2 punters will be able to grab a £2.15 pint from a selection of 30 ales.
www.thesun.co.uk/money/21775106/wetherspoons-selling-beer-for-2-15-this-week/
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Yes but you have togo in in Wetherspoons. What if someone sees you?
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Tue 21 Mar 23 at 17:09
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Wave and ask if they would also like to have a vfm pint?
Or
www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/296815431663868628/
Depending on your viewpoint.
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>> Yes but you have togo in in Wetherspoons. What if someone sees you?
I'm sure they'll still let you in, even if you have a stutter ;)
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Lunch in the Herbert George Wells in Woking today. No little green men, but Ruddles Bitter at £1.71 a pint. Doom Bar - that and London Pride are my favourites - was £2.58 a pint.
I enjoyed - you will be pleased to know - Steak and Kidney Pudding with chips and peas and a glass of Pepsi for £7.63.
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>> I enjoyed - you will be pleased to know - Steak and Kidney Pudding with
>> chips and peas and a glass of Pepsi for £7.63.
Yesterday in a bistro pub in a historical Surrey village,I had two pints of Hells camden lager, a minced beef burger with prime back bacon and ementhal cheese, french fries, and it cost me sweet fanny adams.
Mark, late of this burgh, paid.
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Wetherspoons - The Pub chain you love - CGNorwich
