£5 a pint being good value. God I’m old, I remember getting upset at a £1 a pint.
” It feels as if the pub has been here for years, but it opened in April.”
Come back to this pub in 5 years, if it’s still there.
A fiver for a pints shocking no?
The only reason pubs do food mainly is because of not having enough people/selling enough of the drinks.
If pubs were packed out, trust me, landlords would 100% prefer to just serve drinks. Serving food is a pain in the arse that requires staff, extensive cleaning and heightened hygiene,, licensing, and blocking off a large space of the premises.
So glad I live in the midlands where pints are under £3
TLDR For those not wanting to fart about with the paywall. It’s a pub that’s been open for 3 months, serves sandwiches, makes no mention of £5 pints and the rest of the article just lists other random pubs in London
I went to Berlin last month and the beer is better, cheaper and the pubs I went into didn’t do food. Same with Denmark.
So much better than the restaurants with bars that a lot of British pubs have turned into.
Don’t know if its a Scotland thing but pubs that only server drinks tend to be called Boozers sounds way less pretentious than ‘real’ drinking pubs.
> Holt reckons the drive for food has been partly driven by the need for tied pubs to buy beer from big breweries at high prices, reducing profit on drinks.
It’s funny that the headline doesn’t focus on chain pubs and breweries if serving food is just a symptom of failing pubs rather than the cause.
The Pocket is genuinely lovely tbf
I’m always a bemused when I hear people being aggrieved about spending copious amounts in the pub in London. I’m from London too and it’s obviously going to be more expensive in central and nearby areas. Once you go further out, the pubs are very much thriving and charging decent prices. The thing is, tourists or city workers (unless they’re from the suburbs of London like I am) obviously won’t really have a reason to visit these areas.
My local is a drinkers pub, mostly tradesmen and old boys who have 3-4 pints every day without fail. Plus darts.
Plus us oiks who like to come in and have a good few and chat to the people.
And I like that, I don’t like to feel I’m in a restaurant when I’m having a drink. I don’t like families with screaming kids trying to stop them running around mashing fish fingers into the woodwork.
They could do food, kitchen is huge, but they don’t need to. Occasional pizzas on a hot day or darts team sandwiches are all I’ve ever seen them do
That’s a rare thing honestly, most landlords couldn’t survive without it. It’s a brutal trade if you don’t have a steady crowd of drinkers
“the real drinking pubs” – Tome Morrisey-Swan ……not going where he drinks.
A lot of pubs in the Midlands at well under 5 a pint. Good cask ales, occasional beer festival, live band at the weekend, BBQ if sunny. Football crowd on a match day. No need for much more than simple pub grub and bar snacks in a place like this.
I guess I’m old then if I think £5 a pint is still a bit steep.
The relevant part of this story is ‘free from tie to pubcos’.
There are still a few pubs near me on ancient leases that can serve sub £4 pints, but once the landlords die the prices go up.
All the other cheap pubs were bought as derelict buildings and done up privately.
My local pub is drinks only, always absolutely packed. They recently completely re-did their beer garden so I can only assume they’re doing well financially.
I genuinely don’t care about them not having food. There’s plenty of restaurants and take-outs on the same road.
20 comments
£5 a pint being good value. God I’m old, I remember getting upset at a £1 a pint.
” It feels as if the pub has been here for years, but it opened in April.”
Come back to this pub in 5 years, if it’s still there.
A fiver for a pints shocking no?
The only reason pubs do food mainly is because of not having enough people/selling enough of the drinks.
If pubs were packed out, trust me, landlords would 100% prefer to just serve drinks. Serving food is a pain in the arse that requires staff, extensive cleaning and heightened hygiene,, licensing, and blocking off a large space of the premises.
So glad I live in the midlands where pints are under £3
Downside is living in the midlands
[removed]
In city’s?
https://archive.is/20250725114442/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/pubs-and-bars/pubs-serving-five-pound-pints-no-fancy-food-and-thriving/
TLDR For those not wanting to fart about with the paywall. It’s a pub that’s been open for 3 months, serves sandwiches, makes no mention of £5 pints and the rest of the article just lists other random pubs in London
I went to Berlin last month and the beer is better, cheaper and the pubs I went into didn’t do food. Same with Denmark.
So much better than the restaurants with bars that a lot of British pubs have turned into.
Don’t know if its a Scotland thing but pubs that only server drinks tend to be called Boozers sounds way less pretentious than ‘real’ drinking pubs.
> Holt reckons the drive for food has been partly driven by the need for tied pubs to buy beer from big breweries at high prices, reducing profit on drinks.
It’s funny that the headline doesn’t focus on chain pubs and breweries if serving food is just a symptom of failing pubs rather than the cause.
The Pocket is genuinely lovely tbf
I’m always a bemused when I hear people being aggrieved about spending copious amounts in the pub in London. I’m from London too and it’s obviously going to be more expensive in central and nearby areas. Once you go further out, the pubs are very much thriving and charging decent prices. The thing is, tourists or city workers (unless they’re from the suburbs of London like I am) obviously won’t really have a reason to visit these areas.
My local is a drinkers pub, mostly tradesmen and old boys who have 3-4 pints every day without fail. Plus darts.
Plus us oiks who like to come in and have a good few and chat to the people.
And I like that, I don’t like to feel I’m in a restaurant when I’m having a drink. I don’t like families with screaming kids trying to stop them running around mashing fish fingers into the woodwork.
They could do food, kitchen is huge, but they don’t need to. Occasional pizzas on a hot day or darts team sandwiches are all I’ve ever seen them do
That’s a rare thing honestly, most landlords couldn’t survive without it. It’s a brutal trade if you don’t have a steady crowd of drinkers
“the real drinking pubs” – Tome Morrisey-Swan ……not going where he drinks.
A lot of pubs in the Midlands at well under 5 a pint. Good cask ales, occasional beer festival, live band at the weekend, BBQ if sunny. Football crowd on a match day. No need for much more than simple pub grub and bar snacks in a place like this.
I guess I’m old then if I think £5 a pint is still a bit steep.
The relevant part of this story is ‘free from tie to pubcos’.
There are still a few pubs near me on ancient leases that can serve sub £4 pints, but once the landlords die the prices go up.
All the other cheap pubs were bought as derelict buildings and done up privately.
My local pub is drinks only, always absolutely packed. They recently completely re-did their beer garden so I can only assume they’re doing well financially.
I genuinely don’t care about them not having food. There’s plenty of restaurants and take-outs on the same road.
Its water and yeast farts, how is that £5?!
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