A jaundiced view of life from the darkest recess of the saloon bar...
…when you read the fateful words that a Swiss chef has taken over a pub in Cheshire and relaunched it as a restaurant under the same name. Even worse when it’s the Highwayman at Rainow, of which you have fond memories of when it was a proper pub bursting with character.
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"The era of big, bossy, state interference, top-down lever pulling is coming to an end." (David Cameron, 2008)
"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." (H. L. Mencken)
"The final nails have now been hammered into the coffin of the freedom to smoke in enclosed public places. This piece of legislation must be one of the most restrictive, spiteful and socially divisive imposed by any British Government." (Lord Stoddart of Swindon)
"Raising taxes on alcohol to prevent problem drinking is akin to raising the price of gasoline to prevent people from speeding." (Edward Peter Stringham)
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." (C. S. Lewis)
"People who deal only in 'craft' beer do not care about some dirty old pub and the dirty old people who are in it and the dirty old community that it holds together." (Boozy Procrastinator)
"The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies." (Robert Conquest)
"A Puritan is someone who lives in mortal fear that somewhere, sometime, someone is enjoying himself." (H. L. Mencken)
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a Ride!" (Hunter S. Thompson)
"No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home at Weston-super-Mare." (Kingsley Amis)
"When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves,
For you will have lost the last of England." (Hilaire Belloc)
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Any proposals of marriage will be given serious consideration - there must be some cash-strapped drunk cat ladies out there!
If you have a blog that links to this, and is at least vaguely on a political or beer-related theme, drop me a line and I'll add it to my blog list, even if I don't agree with you on everything.
He doesn't seem to have a good track record where business is concerned, does he.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as the comments to my previous post suggest, that's probably not the right location for a poncey gastropub.
ReplyDeleteFrom your previous post the pub was boarded up, now someone's making a go of using the commercial premises for commerce. Surely a good thing?
ReplyDeleteNow he may succeed or he may fail, as is the nature of enterprise.
Not all business succeeds, failure is as important as success for the successful operation of a market economy. Capitalism works on the basis that the profit motive results in the most efficient form of capital allocation. The pub failed, now it becomes a restaurant that might succeed.
Hey, if he fails, the gaff might get knocked down and turned into something that does work.
You may prefer the old pub, and lament its passing, but it was already gone before this guy arrived.
Why be sentimental? It's only a pub. The things to care about are yourself, your missus & any kids you've got.
Businesses open, businesses close, that's life.
"Why be sentimental? It's only a pub."
ReplyDeleteCruel words for a blogger who has "Pub Curmudgeon" as his moniker...
A pub, particularly a historic pub that has been in existence for hundreds of years, is far more than just another business. On a smaller scale it's like saying "Tatton Hall, just another house. Knock it down and build an estate of executive detacheds instead".
ReplyDeleteEven if it's not economically viable (which I am not convinced of) it is still sad to see it go.
Tyson, did you mean Cooking Lager? Anyway Cooking, I don't believe that Curmugeon was being "sentimental" just as I am not being "sentimental" because there now is no smoking in public houses. There is room for every type of establishment that happens to sell alcohol to vie for the market share but the market is being eskewed by legislation to favour 'gastro' pubs unfairly.
ReplyDeleteI also believe in falure as a means to make one stronger but if you fail at the same thing often enough you have to think that maybe you should change your career, you never know, you may find your true vocation.
This is nothing to do with buisness finding it's level, it's about political dogma that deems that the working man should come up to another level, hell or high water.
PC
ReplyDeleteActually I'm not convinced that it isn't economically viable, either. As we know, often it just needs the right management. The new venture seems destined to failure by the looks of it.
There are ‘gastro pubs’ and ‘gastro pubs’. Not sure you can tar them all with the same brush. I’ve had some really good ale in true ‘gastro pubs’ – often better than traditional boozers. There are only really two sorts of pubs: those that serve well kept ale and those that don’t.
ReplyDeleteI'm all in favour on knocking down Tatton Hall. I'd prefer a Tesco Express.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I went in there (a few years back) it had already turned into an attempt at a gastro pub. Poshed up decor, menu and prices. Shame we found the service not very good and the food a bit better than average.
ReplyDeleteWe'd called in about a year previous to that and it seemed like a proper pub then with people just drinking as well as those like us eating there that evening.