Hard Times

I had a long chat with one of my local landladies last night. In the best pub in town, on a Saturday night about eight o'clock, there was perhaps fifteen customers, so she had plenty of time. She tells me her trade has slumped since July, though she had previously been doing well. Weather is one possibility, but she reckons even in our somewhat down market town, it's the recession. Those with money are paying off debt and those "working class" people that are still employed, are doing their sums and buying at the supermarket. As she said to me when we worked out my four pints and E's four halves would have bought a bottle of cheap vodka and four cans of cooking from the supermarket, "for a lot that's a no brainer."

She is a manager running a tied house, so all is well for her at least? Not really, as she, rather than go with the company's standard menu, opted to rent the kitchen and do her own food. She has tried all kinds of meals and deals, but for her, it isn't working. Her salary subsidises the food operation. My advice? Hand that back to the company before the losses become unsustainable. She wants to hang on until Christmas though and her latest wheeze is a carvery. Good luck there.

This is an optimistic lass that knows what she is doing. She is not new to this game and should know about food, as she ran a restaurant in Ayrshire for six years, but you can see she is worried. Tenants are even more worried. It is a world away from £6 thirds of Brewdog at the Rake and drinking fancy dan beers at home and pontificating about them on blogs. This to me is the reality of drinking these days and I don't like where we're at.

For me beer and pubs are synonymous and I know whose side I'm on. I'll keep going to the pub and do my bit, but as I said in my title, these are "Hard Times".

One of the good things about going to London is, despite the general (but improving) lack of good beer, is that there is still a significantly better pub going attitude. It's partly geographical, but it's mostly about money. Still makes for a better pub experience in some ways.