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and the beer tasted like remnants from the drip tray that had been left out in the sun and then somone farted in the glass. Rank.

Doesn't help that I studied in bournemouth and there were so many of them there. I've mostly lived in a bunch of small towns so adjusting to not having small town, actual pubs is weird for me.
Do appreciate spoons for cheap drinks though.

I just don't have pints from there. You can get sub £3 drinks from their world beer section that are nicer and bigger

When they first opened it was just called a generic pub name but they were deciding whether to have spoons or not in their place. And thats how they came up with the name wetherspoons.

Leaving aside snobby ale bants about generic beer, Wetherspoons establishments easily have the highest shit pint/good pint ratios of any pubs I've frequented. You put up with it precisely because of the price.

I think it's a shame that so many people would rather go to some generic plastic shit house and save 20p on a pint than go somewhere nice.

but hey ho.

Chap who lives in London who has programmed himself to think cheaper is always worse. Get him in the van.

It just sort of happens, due to convenience or late opening or whatever.

Insert your own humorous analogy here. I'm in the midst of post-lunch slump.

from the guest ale section. Whereas all the 'proper' old men pubs, where you'd expect there to be a decent bit of ale, are hampered by shitty, feckless brewers and poor maintenance.

Because Scottish beers.

and wanted a pint of BITBURGER PLEASE

(actually I wanted a pint of a different fancy German wheat beer next to it but couldn't be arsed to pronounce it)

So the barman repeats "...Bitburger..." to himself and pours THE OTHER ONE. Fine, whatever. But after pouring the entire pint he says "this was the one you wanted, right?"

Urgh. Yeah cool story bro

I'm going to stick with my original statement

is that they buy their beer in later than everyone else - just before it's due to expire?

Which is probably why I find that most of their pints are hovering on the verge of being off.

they have improved MASSIVELY over the last ten years.

They used to pretty much exclusively serve stale beer and microwaved, plasticy food, but they seem to have made a real effort to improve both. The steak nights, curry nights, breakfasts, etc, there are really good. Course, you could pay four times what they charge and eat somewhere fancier, or twice what they charge to make the same meals at home and sit on the internet alone like a ted, but what's the point?

They'll never shed the bad image completely, but people who get snobby about stuff like Wetherspoons nowadays really are utterly, utterly boring cunts. The only criticism i have of them nowadays is they're too busy. I like a quiet pint, and being served quickly, and you can't really get either of those things in most Wetherspoons.

Different pubs, different needs, innit. When i want to read the paper, or try a few new ales, or am having a quiet drink with one or two pals, somewhere nice is better. If you're in a bigger group, or it's near the end of the month and things are a bit tight, or you just want a bit of cheap, decent-ish grub, Spoons is more than alright.

HERE'S THIS GUY WITH HIS OPINIONS AGAIN.

because i've never had anything approaching a decent pint in one.

in fact, I had a mate who worked for one and they sacked him for not pouring the beer right.

Tim Martin (the founder) has a serious bee in his bonnet about quality. It's why they have those temperature gauges on the bar sometimes.

If you look at WETHERSPOONS Backwards it is;

SNOOPSREHTEW
or
SNOOP SREHTEW
SNOOP STREETVIEW

They couldnt quite work out what SREHTEW was at the time (bad decryptor machine probably, and the fact Street View (by Google/Zoogle (zionist-google)) never existed yet)So now (present day) we should listen to the warning.

Street View is Snooping (spying) on us.

it was Tim Martin's old maths teacher or something Mr wetherspoon and he liked the name. BORING FACT.

They've had to- as much as the image of Spoons as divey hell holes has persisted, the truth is that they're increasingly the opposite. A lot of them are basically family restaurants with a pub tacked on now, using the vacuum in affordable restaurants as a way to get around how pubs are struggling generally.

Still think you get, on average, more farty end-of-barrel pints from there than you would anywhere comparable mind.

Elaina Casserole isn't it?

It's about the drink. They have loads of choice and they're always well kept / poured (in general).

what's not to like? They also offer warmth to the elderly in a safe environment which they may not find in their own homes.

and its more like saving 2 pounds per pint, not 20p

with few decent pubs serving cask in the town centre for a number of years. And it was massive and you could always get a seat, and it was cheap. Plus you can usually buy shome cheap hooky goods if that's your thing (although that may be mainly the Blackburn one)

I tend not to get pints if I go there too. Mostly good if you're in a big group or after going canvassing or something.

you have to bear in mind that they'll simply shift a LOT more ale than anyone else.

Also, given the reputation of the brand, they probably have a higher turnover of staff, subsequently pay lower wages and therefore lower job satisfaction than better boozers.

Most of the pubs around me are new pubs staffed by beardy numpties who think they're in bands, and are full of Guardian-reading veggies, so they sort of have to look after their beer a bit better for several reasons, but mainly because they can't verbally or physically hold their own against anyone demanding a fresh pint.

but they're just just as likely to serve a pint on the turn as anyone else. Doesn't matter how well they're kept (and I believe Spoons keep them very well), at some point they'll go. Of course, it's up to the punter to mention this to them and get a replacement, but, in summation, I have been served a bad pint in a Spoons more than once.

In a day and age where we could possibly have a girl being heir to the throne before the first born son, you sicken me.

You've got it wrong. Its definitely the spoon story.

as they are one of the few places in that london that you know you can get decent cider in as opposed to that mankners crap or worse, wrongbow
proper westons cider

mind you aspalls has been a bit more prominent on my last few visits so maybe other pubs are learning

it was positively grandiose inside, felt like I should have worn a tie.

Coffee was good too. Chairs were comfortable, the atmosphere relaxed and the burger was tasty and reasonably priced. You should go there.

:DDD

The girl spent ages dithering around the bar, then came back to me and asked me if it was a wine. I told her it was a beer and had to play the 'up, down, left, right' game as she hovered infront of the fridge.

There was a fair amount of dithering going on with this guy actually. The woman before me wanted "rose, with some ice" (wtf) and he initially forgot the ice and when she mentioned it he put ONE cube in :')

:D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_D_Wetherspoon

I think it's called the Peter Cushing because perhaps Peter Cushing is from there. Also it used to be a cinema i think and perhaps they would show Peter Cushing films there. There were a few pictures of Peter Cushing in the Peter Cushing too.

Always a decent selection of ales, I've never had a bad (off) one. I like how decent their spirit selection is and their prices too. None of this ordering a large Jack & coke and paying over a tenner - you can get some weird 50% abv rum and coke for less than a fiver.

real ale people are still boring

you could do a lot worse out of a chain that has a pub in pretty much every town and city in the UK.

Each time I got something completely different.

The highlight was getting a bottle of 7.3% Erdinger Pikantus (+ a pint of Staropramen) for the incorrect price of £5.50!

no more boring or interesting than anyone else. Maybe a touch more interesting than someone who has a pint of Carling wherever they go I suppose.

not very indie, is it

Outside of that they can use their size to push prices down - but the only reason they got to that size is because of the late purchasing.

Where I've had to leave before I come to naked ripping the intestines out of the dickhead barstaff with my bare teeth

I needs me some strong continental wheat beer STAT

Not a very good beer for a Sunday, though.

most peoples start working ale-wise in their early or mid-twenties.

Is that indie enough?

That's a great great pub

we've all done the whole being 'indie' thing to death, so being un-indie is the only way to be indie.

most people do.

Fucking hell, so boring. Talking about toffee notes and a hoppy taste then sneering at people who enjoy lager, whilst chattign to their equally snobby mate about some fucking boring pint of dishwater they had somewhere in on the south coast.

Oh man, those cunts are boring. BORING BORING.

even indie hipsters have make cut backs somewhere

Or as my dad says, 'I'll have a pint of Safety please.'
Safety lager. I can't wait to get my face round a pint of T. FIFTEEN DAYS.

http://www.hipstersuck.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/london-hipster-playing-vinyl.png

Pretty low really.

I think it's a fair bet to say it was probably in Whitstable.

Some of them are awful.

I'd rather pay a wee bit more for somewhere with a nice atmosphere and interesting clientele because that matters more to me. I hate chromw city bars for that reasons- full of dullards and generic mate-market tendencies. Wetherspoons- full of people that are there for the cheap booze.
Independent bars or decent brewery pubs- just tend to be a bit better.

you should've naturally progressed off beer onto ale long ago.

don't tell me you're one of these househusbands who shares a bottle of pinot grigio with the Mrs whilst she watches X-Factor?

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44877000/jpg/_44877165_080717martin512b.jpg

look at that mullet

I doubt ANYONE on the IOW has heard of Staropramen :')

makes sense

They've always a top selection of interesting drinks (the Rochester Castle in Stoke Newington has EFES on tap BOSH)

Also my brother works for them. He's had a pretty colourful life, he's struggled to get work for long periods, suffers from really severe dyslexia. Anyway, since he's been working there it's like a different person. He's on route to becoming a manager, and they've even paid for him to take maths classes and resit his GCSEs in the Heathrow Academy. Frankly they've invested more in him than the three schools he attended. They get the thumbs up from me.

once you're over 30 it's not really the done thing to be drinking that

WOuld be a good website for making mew friends on.

Do they put other pubs out of business? Not good one, I would think.

Not massively relevant anyway, is it? That patriotic pint was a bit embarrassing but otherwise it's not a major issue.

Doesn't that depend on whether we serve desserts or tea & coffee sir?

Stick to the agenda godammit!

It went something like:

Peter Cushing is from Whitstable
I have seen him on a bicycle
I have seen him buying vegetables
Peter Cushing lives in Whitstable.

there's crap ones and there's really atmospheric ones (including one near the City that had all sorts of junk as furniture, wonder if it's still open)

long as they have cheap bottled cider (and they will) I'm happy tbh

not a vital one to nail yr colours to the mast about, really, tho the service can be a bit impersonal if that's what you care about

(SIXTEEN DAYS)

solely from an economic point of view, rather than a social and cultural one, from what I've read.

As a result, I've never found much to complain about in what he says about it.

remember bar italia? somehow WORSE than the spoons crowd

and they even put opera on occasionally

but if you are then yes I am guessing you will be sorely disappointed as they ignore your attempts at small talk by moving on to the next customer, what a shower of bastards.

The sort you get on the edge of trading estates - Sizzling pubs, Fayre & Square, 2 for 1 etc. Generally the only problem I have with them is that they attract mouth-breathing scrotes who spend the whole time glaring at you for the heinous crime of you not being a mouth-breathing scrote like they are. Oh and they always have News 24 showing on a big screen so you end up with half the place staring slack-jawed at it reading the hopelessly inaccurate subtitles

Best: The Sedge Lynn http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-sedge-lynn

Only because it's so close to my old house I used to be able to sit there eating my breakfast whilst picking up my home WiFi. That felt comforting.

Worst: Moon Under Water (http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-moon-under-water-manchester)

Pretty much the worst place on earth.

...tedious as ever.

Almost as tedious as the answer I always give: Wetherspoons, overall, perform a positive function within the British pub landscape (which is diverse, multi-purpose and varied).

Most of the time I want to base my evening around going to a lovely pub which serves cracking beer. For this, Wetherspoons isn't an option.

Some of the time I want to pass through somewhere, grab some food, grab a pint and not be charged through the arse for it. For this, Wetherspoons provide an excellent option.

Also, I don't think you can discount money from the equation. Some people are poor, but want to enjoy going to the pub. For some, Wetherspoons are one of the only options. Sad but true.

The Back of Beyond (Bobs, if you will): http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-back-of-beyond, huge, quiz on a Wednesday, mostly students rather than your normal 'Spoons clientele cos it's on the edge of town

Worst: ummmm. The Monks' Retreat: http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-monks-retreat. Stupid l-shaped layout, really busy with USUAL "spoons types" and the bar staff are rubbish.

...Wetherspoons ale always has a drab, stale taste. And it all tastes the same.

Personally I think they just pour every single keg of ale they have into one big bucket underneath the pub and link all of the taps/lines to that...

At least it's in a weird cavernous building with internal balconies and hidden alcoves and stuff. You could get lost in there. The good 'spoons are the ones with weird buildings, for me.

Here's my nomination for worst: http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-up-steps-inn/

Best:
The Waterhouse - nice building, decent row of pubs, less riff raff, clean toilets.

Worst:
The Bishop Blaize - full of gobby Professional Redz. Only ever been in there to shit.

The Sedge Lynn - Brings down the tone of the otherwise friendly area. Full of skegs. Waste of a nice building.

Tim Martin released a limited edition "veto" ale.

That was pretty annoying.

worse than the Spoons crowd.

No offence. Not saying you're lying, just think it's not true. Chinese whispers or summit.

and not just the headline?

...I don't think such trite political statements belong in pubs. But I won't even begin to pretend I understand all of the complex arguments for and against Cameron's actions around the EU table on that day so I'll abstain from commenting on the wider issue there.

last year debunking the myth that drinking is bad for your health. Seriously. Like actually po-faced arguing against science. Amazing.

They do have an actual career chain to be fair.

is the 'do we need spoons' meeting.

1. Watching that cockroach slowly twitch in expiration , culminating in an almighty shudder and... death
2. me falling down the stairs and braining myself.

who told me i wasn't from that area because i was posh and english. Aye, dollface.

Weirdest place!

If they don't need spoons, they're probably cutting down on a lot of costs! You need to work out if you're having spoons or not because that means you're not having stuff that would cost money to eat with a spoon! JESUS. Do you guy's know NOTHING about setting up a cheap pub chain?

another thing you didn't mention is its excellent location. really handy for a quick drink when moving across town

Stuff that will go off tomorrow - but a big Wetherspoons can sell a keg of lager in one day easily enough. Might not be too nice but there you go: that's one way they keep prices down (another is just economy of scale).

Percy Ingle ftw

http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs

how many Wetherspoons are there within a mile of where you live?

7 for me.

but only with each other. I have never come across one discussing the malty notes of their ale with a Carling drinker.

I used to live in a pub, read the trade press. It works better with drinks in pressurised kegs (lagers, most ciders, Guinness) as that stuff is less prone to going bad anyway. Doing that with real ale (anything in a barrel, drawn by vacuum pump) is asking for trouble, but apparently it happens, or happened. JDW probably sell a lot more stuff from kegs than barrels.

But given the size of the company, they probably save more money with economy of scale, and their size and influence, than by fiddling sell-by dates. I'd say it certainly has happened in the past, but I doubt it does anymore - or to the same extent (like buying beer that goes off in two days). Now they seem to care about their reputation a bit more.

Individual pubs get their beer etc from the company (not the brewer), so if the company isn't buying end of line stock, then no pubs are getting it - an individual manager can't decide where to get his stock from and how old it will be. So if you have a bad pint in one JDW but not another, it's probably not because of end of line stock. There are lots of reasons why a pint might be bad - beer lines not cleaned is the most common.

never been in any of those though

Which I don't have

still works

reliable, init.

Like I said, good beers, cheap, big selection. Fuck awful atmosphere.

I was in a Wetherspoons for 'lunch' the other day rather than the usual "quick cheap pint while waiting to meet someone", and remember thinking how varied and cheap the menu is, and most of it's decent grub, plus you've got a proper choice of draught stuff, bottles, spirits and wine. It's like the supermarket of pubs.
Also, The Montagu Pyke is mentioned above and their Curry night is marvellous. Proper Indian cooks and proper chutney.

Pretty much the only thing I dislike about Wetherspoons involves the daytime crowd of old men who have that old man smell, and any night where it's a sea of fake tanned legs and shit perfume.

they are vile approximations of cider

mankners for example is made from a belnd of 23 different apples & still manages to taste nothing like an apple

Lots of bars with lots of different drinks and a balcony which over looks the sea, great for a summers day. some of them are awful though

This will never get read. I will text.

Yeah they're often devoid of atmosphere and I hate how they look like a Travelodge bar, but they usually have a really good selection.

I JUST REMEMBERED THE MAP I MADE AFTER ANOTHER ONE OF THESE THREADS

http://goo.gl/maps/r1srS

freshly updated with the terrifying Leith one

I actually miss them. The only ones I can think of having visited that I don't really like, are the one in my home town (The old Gaolhouse, in Winchester) and Central Bar in Cardiff. All the rest I can think of happy occasions in.

A pint of Heineken (I know that it's expensive kit, like) will set you back about £4.10.

It does in the White Swan anyway.

always a bit busy though.

Which is now deleted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_mark

but a mixed grill for steak club tuesday prices makes me not care at all

that is all

is in airports. If there's a big wait for a flight I can normally fit in a 3-4 pint session. Expensive in airports though but it is just about the best option most airports.

Brilliant

but by coincidence was in the Montagu Pyke yesterday. Have to say it seemed like one of the better ones. My half of Asahi was well nice.

constantly go to the nearest approximation of a spoons in dublin but it's NOT THE SAME. <3 Spoons

Fucking mods. Going mental.

don't be silly

not been to one for years

when i was at uni we used to go down on sunday evening for a pudding and some deal or no deal machine action