Bar Etiquette

Bar Etiquette

by | Jun 6, 2024 | Pub, Uncategorized

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 PUB PET HATES

There seem to be two new fads that seem to be creeping into the pub lifestyle that I find abhorrent.

The first is one that I have seen a number of times now, in the Silver Cross in Whitehall and the Dial Arch in Woolwich, and one or two other touristy pubs. This is the totally non-British way of getting served at the bar by standing in a queue waiting for the person in front to leave the bar before the next customer goes up to be served.

It seems to be done mainly by tourists than locals, but it has to stop. I have to call out this kind of thing before it starts getting normalised.

The British will queue for almost everything, from waiting for a bus (while the foreigners jump the queue and push in) to waiting in line at the post office, or waiting in line for just about any service you can think of. It shows a sign of respect and fairness.

There is one exception to this British rule and that is when we are waiting to get served at the bar of a pub. Up until this new fad crept in there were no single lines in a pub perpendicular to the bar.

The rules and etiquette of getting served at the bar in Britain have been the same for hundreds of years and served us well.

First you find a space at the bar. Yes there may be a few arrogant arseholes who like to sit at the bar and hog the bar space the whole night. You simply ask them  if you can get to the bar and usually that will do.

When you have access to the bar either hold up a tenner or twenty pound note to indicate you want serving or make eye contact or gesture to the barman to indicate service is wanted.

If the person next to you has been waiting longer than you, it is the polite and correct thing to do and ask the barman to serve them first. It shows you have manners.

It should be noted that some bar staff are a bit peeved off with this new queueing lark as well, and some have resorted to putting up signs asking people to not queue but simply step up to the bar instead.

Really good and  experienced bar staff you will find can multitask and will ask you what you want while still pulling the pints for the people that they have just served before you. This can be problematic when people are queuing up as it slows down the serving flow.

The other irritating fad that seems to be creeping in from America is the bar staff of certain pub chains expecting a tip every time I buy a drink or round at the bar with my card or phone.

If the staff, like in many continental countries came to our table asked us what we would like to drink and brought the drinks in a friendly and efficient manner to our table, then yes I would gladly give the staff a tip.

But George or Fred behind the bar pulling a pint as he is expected to do in his job description then no , he will not be getting a tip from me.

I even had a barman at a fancy high end Piccadilly hotel automatically add his tip onto a bill that I was given even though I had ordered all the drinks at the bar and was standing at the bar. I made him remove the tip from the bill.

In the States a Barman’s tip is expected as the wages due to employer exploitation and next to no labour protection laws. Their basic wages are shit and the pathetic $7.25 minimum wage that has not changed in decades, so without their tips they would not be able to survive.

In Britain we have a decent minimum wage and other benefits that their American counterparts cannot claim. There is no need to start bringing in a tipping culture into Britain.

If your old dad or granddad was asked for a tip by the barman to pull a pint years ago  he would have been telling the barman in no uncertain terms where to go, or be up before the magistrates for punching out a barman.

The price of a pint at present  is astronomical compared to just a decade ago, so the publican or landlord is getting generously reimbursed for the pint he is serving. There is no need or justification for tipping at the bar, unless you are being waited upon. The Landlord should be paying his staff accordingly unless he is of the greedy and exploitative type but that is a thing the employee should be sorting out with the employer, not expecting me to top up his wages.

Under no circumstance should we allow our pubs to be Americanised in this way. American employers have got away with treating their workers like shit, with exploitative labour laws that always benefit the employers, and slave wage rates that are as low as the employer can get away with. Thanks to EU workers rights and labour laws tipping for everything must not become the norm here.

I have also seen a separate card reader in some establishments at the end of the bar, or a jar of tips for the barman or barmaid. I have no problem giving a few quid in this way to the bar staff, if they give exceptional service or engage you in pleasant conversation or in some way makes your visit a nice experience. That saying, don’t expect a tip if you are a miserable barman making me feel like I’m putting you out or making me wait ages to get served at the bar.

What do you think? Give a comment in the comment box below.

Greenwich Park £10M upgrade

Greenwich Park £10M upgrade

by | Apr 20, 2024 | Greenwich Park

 

Greenwich Park has a new cafe located at the top of Maze Hill by the Flower Garden entrance, called the Ignatius Sancha Cafe it a named after a slave who elevated himself through self-education to the upper echelons of British society through his writing and music compositions.

This is all part of the £10 Million upgrade that I wrote about a few years ago. If you look over the viewing area by the General Wolfe statue by the Royal Greenwich Observatory you will see that the hill flowing downwards has now been reconstructed in a step formation as it once was in the 17th century, when the park was a hunting ground for the royals and aristocracy alone, and us commoners were not allowed to be roaming or even have access to the grounds.

By the new cafe, you also have new unisex toilets and the smaller than originally planned ecology learning resource centre which was planned as a newly built high-tech facility, but due to cost restraints after the Covid pandemic, it was decided to use refurbished buildings that are currently still being used by the park rangers near the flower nurseries.

 

There are also plans to upgrade the bandstand in the park.

The Pavilion café has also just reopened after a major refit of the interior and the cooking facilities. In my opinion, it could not have come at a better time as although the new Ignatius Sancha café is a welcome addition to the park it is rather on the small side and does struggle to accommodate the large number of customers wanting refreshments from it.

The area on top of the viewing platform by the General James Wolfe statue seems to be being made into a better viewing area although at the moment I do not know how it will be done, but work is well underway on achieving it.

 

Another lost brewery.

Another lost brewery.

by | Apr 11, 2024 | Community

Brew by Numbers

With the looming demise of the Meantime brewery from the borough of Greenwich it is regret that we have also lost another brewery from the borough and that is the Brew By Numbers brewery, which last December reported that they were leaving their riverside taproom and brewery at Morden Wharf.

Having moved production and its taproom from the Bermondsey Beer Mile at Enid Street in May 2023 to Morden Wharf, it closed the Bermondsey taproom but kept the brewing production and taproom the Greenwich taproom at Morden Wharf last December and now all production this year will be going up North.


I used to love the beer festivals at the Morden Wharf site as it was the nearest yearly festival to me. Every weekend the taproom would be buzzing with people enjoying their beers and a pizza.


The Brew By Numbers which was originally based in Bermondsey and was founded by David Seymour and Tom Hutchings in 2011, and the Brewery became a mainstay component of the Bermondsey Beer Mile.


Having been sold to a private equity company the, Breal Group last summer production has been moved to the Black Sheep brewery, Masham, North Yorkshire. The Black sheep is another brewery that the Breal Group bought in May 2023.


Like the Meantime brewery, beers will still be produced under their brand name but will now have no connection to whatsoever to its London origins.
Having worked for a few companies that were bought out by private equity companies, I can state that it is never in the interest of the workers that make up the company.


First they strip the company down to the bare minimum, starting with the staff then the equipment then the premises. Text book action that has happened to Meantime, Brick and Brew by Numbers.

All that is left is a recipe and a brand name that is as valuable as the original company, that has now disappeared.
I suppose if the company is going under it’s always best to sell up, rather than go bankrupt and have a massive debt hanging over your head for years to come.


The craft beer and real ale brewing businesses were experiencing a boom time just a few years ago but what with the state of the economy and the cost of living crisis, many brewers are struggling and many are going under.
Another factor is as a result of the boom times we now have an over saturated craft beer market, and a shrinking customer base that is not drinking as much due to multiple increases in the prices.
The Brew By Numbers said they were hit hard by increased material costs following on from the pandemic.


Another brewery, the Brick Brewery which was founded in Peckham by Ian and Sally Stewart in 2013, also went into administration at the same time that the Brew By Numbers brewery went into administration and both breweries were saved by being bought up by the Breal Group, and production will also go to Masham, North Yorkshire.


While trying to find out more about the Breal group you will find it very hard. They have a website but it tells you absolutely nothing interesting or useful about the company, like what other companies it controls. Very cagey if you ask me.

Mural Wars

Mural Wars

by | Apr 7, 2024 | Business, Community, Uncategorized

Mural Wars

It has been going on for several weeks now, and it isn’t ending any time soon. The great Chip shop mural battle between an award-winning chip shop owner and the Ashburnham Triangle Conservation association, who enforce code of practice and legislation of the conservation area known as the Ashburnham Triangle. 

The owner of the Golden Chippy, in Greenwich High Road, Mr Chris Kanizi, has commissioned a painted mural advertising his business on the side of his property, and it would appear that a few people in the area have taken umbrage with his mural, and have reported him to the council. Any changes including painting murals on any property within the Ashburnham Triangle conservation area, must have pre-approved planning permission from Greenwich council. 

He should have known this as he previously put up an adverting hoarding against his shop a number of years ago, and was ordered to remove it by the council for the very same reason, 

Because the mural features a fish holding a Union Jack flag next to a bag of chips, with the words ‘A Great British Meal’ it has caused unnecessary racist anger, and stupid reactions from people who love to go through the internet looking for racist clickbait in order to find something to be angry about. 

As soon as a mural with the British flag was ordered to be removed by the council after it had been reported by someone, then the witch hunt for the woke lefty antagonists was on. 

Chris Kanizi the Cypriot owner of the Golden Chippy has vowed to oppose the council order to remove if and he has backing and support from many of his neighbours. 

One or two said it was a tacky eyesore, but most supported him. 

When you consider that while this mural battle was going on in Greenwich another artist who describes himself as a political street graffiti artist going by the name of Banksy, throws green paint over the side of a council owned building, Christie Court in Finsbury Park without the residents of the building knowing about it, and what happens? 

The council there cover the side of the building with plastic sheeting and cover the grass area beneath it with hoardings to protect it. 

What would happen if Banksy defaced the side of a building within the Ashburnham Triangle area. 

Come on Banksy give it a go and let’s see what happens.  

Meantime Brewery

Meantime Brewery

by | Mar 16, 2024 | Business, Uncategorized

Meantime Brewery.

At one time the Meantime brewery was poised to be a long lasting Greenwich success story, bringing back long dead and forgotten recipes of beers brewed long ago.

With their Meantime lagers, stouts and my favourite, their Yakima Red ale they were, and still are to some extent an omnipotent present all over London.

The meantime brewery started with small, humble and local routes in a lock up opposite Charlton Athletic football ground in 1999 by a man called Alistair Hook, who studied brewing at the Technical University of Munich.

Eventually production levels facilitated the need to move to bigger premises, so production was relocated to what is now the Old Brewery pub within the Old Naval College grounds.

Eventually even this location was not big enough, so a new brewery was built in 2010 on it’s present location in Blackwall Lane.

In 2015 the Meantime brewery was bought up by the South African multinational brewing company SAB Miller, but apart from a small part of the production being temporarily moved to the Dutch brewery Grolsh to keep up with the demand for their beers. The vast bulk of the production remained at Greenwich.

In 2016 the Belgium brewery giant Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NA or AB InBev for short bought up SAB Miller, but one clause in the purchase contract meant that they had to sell off the Meantime Brewery.

The company that bought Meantime was the Japanese beer giant Asahi Group Holdings. You will often see Asahi beer sold in Fullers pubs as they bought Fullers in January 2019.

Unfortunately Under Asahi is where it all goes wrong. Not for Asahi, but for the borough of Greenwich and us amongst us that like a true rag to riches local success story.

The Meantime Brewery had two pubs and a taproom in Greenwich. There was the Old Brewery, where for a while they brewed their beers, then there was the Greenwich Union in Royal Hill, which was next door to the Richard the first pub, which is a Youngs pub, and finally you had the taproom attached to the Brewery on Blackwall Lane.

The Old Brewery and the Greenwich Union were sold to the Youngs brewery. The Old Brewery still displays the old brewing equipment used in it’s brewing days when Meantime owned it but the equipment is not used for production anymore.

The Greenwich Union Pub was closed and the pubs internal walls knocked down so the old Greenwich Union pub became part of an expanded Richard the First pub.

They still have the taproom in Blackwall Lane but a recent announcement in March 2024 has delivered devastating news and will see the end of Meantime brewing in Greenwich.

Asahi has stated that the Meantime Brewery in Blackwall Lane will be closed and production of all the Meantime beers will be moved to the Fullers Brewery at Chiswick.

So, there you have it a wonderful Greenwich business success story, ruined by multinational corporations who have no understanding and just don’t care about local history or business and the lost to the local community, economy and jobs.

So now the once great Meantime Brewery of Greenwich have now lost their pubs, lost their brewery and now are just a brand name, to be bought and sold and moved to any brewery As long as the brand name keeps selling then the beers will keep being produced and sold, which I suppose is a plus.

Kind of reminds me of another great London brewing entrepreneurial success stories of the 1980’s called the Firkin brewery and pubs chain. Started by a man called David Bruce, the Firkin company  was also swallowed up and destroyed by the beer industry big boys, and now no  longer exists.

Lets just hope that they don’t start tweaking with the recipe or quality of these great beers.

I know that if I was one of these brewers and a multination company waved millions of pounds under my nose, I know I would also buckle under and accept it. Money is money at the end of the day, and we all want it. It’s just a pity it will affect local jobs and take with it a successful local brewery.