The people who took over the pub, who were from the local area, invested a massive amount of money in the refurbishment, and you can now rent a room, either upstairs, or in what used to be the skittle alley, for about £120 a night. They argue that their investment has to be repaid somehow, hence the high prices and the desire to cater to the more well-off in the community and beyond. I would argue, as you say, that the point of a pub is to cater to everyone, and lower prices would easily be rewarded by higher volume of sales. They are a free house, and can buy where they like, so they offer a good range of local real ales which I guess they get for around £1 a pint. The cheapest bitter is sold for £4, with lagers £4.50 and upwards. The food is OK, but portion-controlled so that a main course alone doesn't fill you up, and very pricey as well. The other pub in the village, a Wadworths house, has itself just changed tenants and reopened after a tidy-up and redecoration. Although the real ales are limited to Wadworth's own, they are all around 3.50 and are excellent. My wife and I had Sunday lunch there the other day and could hardly stand up afterwards. £34 for 2 courses and drinks for us. I wonder which pub has the brighter future?
I suppose the pub that has gone up-market has done the research into its catchment area.? As for your other pub in the Village, if it is going to come from a single brewery it could be an awful lot worse than Wadworths.
They are trying to extend the catchment area to include Bath and Bristol, as far as I can see. And yes, you can get a lot worse than Wadworths. Their Swordfish is particularly tasty.
Get down the Guide Dog in Southampton. On Saturday they had seven beers on for £3 a pint. The other four varied but were as much as £3.60, the thieves. Every one of the beers is gorgeous and kept by a true connoisseur. They also had enough bar staff that in a packed pub it was a two minute job to be served. Food? Pork pies only, so you're not stuck behind someone ordering "steak pie and chips but can they have beans instead of peas because grandma's teeth don't get on with peas and little Johnny's asked for Mickey Mouse shaped chips and if you wait a moment I'll pop over to the table and find out what they all want for pudding but it might take a while because Grandad's forgotten his hearing aid again and..." The place is generally stuffed to the brim from 5pm to closing. Vin
Yes, my Rambler friend has been asking me so often to get to The Guide Dog in the past two years, and I simply haven't got around to it, that he's finally given up. I'm going to do it though, if only to acknowledge the amount of time he spent telling me how good it was. I had a bad pub experience at The Guide Dog something like 25 years ago [wrote about that on this thread earlier], with a previous landlord, and it's about time I got over it. Especially as they've probably gone through several landlords in that time. Clean slate - get to The Guide Dog.! Probably better if I phone Trevor too so that I can buy him a pint.
One of its positional problems is that it is fairly well hidden. And parking isn't great. You get some exercise.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39512637 Eta announce they will diasarm today. This is surely a good step.
Wondered if anyone on the way to the match on Wednesday night also saw the large bird of prey that was flying high above the park and causing alarm amongst the seagulls? My initial reaction was that it was a buzzard but it did not have the fan-shaped tail and it was clearly much larger with longer wings. The tail shape was wrong for a kite albeit these birds have been steadily encroaching urban areas. Did anyone else notice this bird and have any suggestions?
Quite possibly a red kite (v shaped tail?), although there was a note a few days ago that a handler had lost a Harris Hawk in the Emsworth area, so it may have been that.
Never seen them as far south as Southampton but saw one in chandlers ford the othe day, so I wouldn't be surprised .....
There are stacks around Andover, at the hawk conservancy - they have attracted wild birds too and they have spread out from there. They actually out-compete buzzards and are growing in numbers and spreading rapidly. Great spectacle when they are playing in the updrafts in groups.
