Pub Scene in the UK

I`m new to this web-site, and Id thought Id give anyone who`s interested, an insight to the pub scene in the UK.

To sum it up, its dying. The pub is no longer a place where you can go and have a few beers with your mates/wife/girlfriend/mistress or the neighbours cat, you go there for a treat, something special.
The main reason for this is the cost. This is not going to be a rant about the current Government (well, actually it is) but, bare with me.
Approximatley 30% of the cost of the beer goes to the Government in tax. People just cant afford to go to the pub anymore. In-line with EU directives it is now illegal to smoke in British pubs. They (the Government) in their wisdom didnt give the landlord/owner the choice whether or not he/she would allow smoking, they just banned it. No, Smoking/No Smoking areas, just simlpy banned it. If you want to smoke you go outside. How is this acceptable to treat a customer.

There is a positive side to this post.

There are more and more regional micro breweries setting up, offering different types of traditional beers and ales. These tend to be more expensive than your mass produced beers, but much better in quality. You still pay 30% in tax.

TBC
johnnyboy

Prohibition killed the neighborhood bar in the USA and by the time it was repealed enough people had cars that there was no going back.

Price certainly enters the picture here. Taxes aren't that big a part of it, mostly it's the meal requirements. You can't have a brewery and a bar; it has to be a restaurant. Do you buy two pints or a six-pack?

Personally I like the smoking ban but then I'm not a smoker. We pay even more for pints here too. Looking forward to my trip to Scotland at the end of the month for some "Cheap" pints.

This is what the locals say about the UK drinking.


More pictures and comments @
http://forum.planet-f1.com/index.php?t=msg&th=82497&start=0&


UK town centres are in general something else on a Friday or Saturday night. You see drunkiness, violence and generally obscene behaviour that you don't tend to see anywhere else other than places where British people go on holiday, where if anything they act even worse.

Having spent evenings in city centres in places like America, Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium and the Netherlands the contrast to the scene in Britain is pretty extreme. Unfortunately the British have a rather large problem with drink, have done for years. Indeed even the Roman chroniclers noted the drunkiness of the British.
Unfortunately any attempt whatsoever to curb this behaviour will be met with lame cries of "Nanny state". These are generally the same sorts of people who object to be told that they can't break traffic laws when they choose to, or park where they like.

Just this week the British government have announced a load of useless initiatives like getting pubs to serve tap water, stop drinking games etc, whilst doing nothing at all to stop the number 1 problem. That the supermarkets (the chairmen of whom incidentally contribute towards the UK political parties) sell alcohol as a loss leader, to get people in the store. This leads to the nonsensical situation where you can buy alcohol for cheaper than you can water.
Hence people will often get "fueled up" on dirt cheap alcohol before they even leave the house, so that they get absolutely wasted that evening.

The UK remains the only country where I have routinely heard adults boast on a monday morning about how sick they were with drink over the weekend. Where getting blasted is actually considered a good objective for an evenings entertainment and where people will skip their evening meal so that they can go straight from work to pub and so the alcohol can get them drunk quicker.
You get this sort of thing in niche groups elsewhere (like the spring break crowd in the US for instance) but is widespread in the UK.[/quote]

Welcome to Britain.

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You'd better believe it!




















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That is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aside from the tax F the Government!

david_42 said:

Prohibition killed the neighborhood bar in the USA and by the time it was repealed enough people had cars that there was no going back.

Price certainly enters the picture here. Taxes aren't that big a part of it, mostly it's the meal requirements. You can't have a brewery and a bar; it has to be a restaurant. Do you buy two pints or a six-pack?

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Can you just clarify this for me.
Can you have a bar attached to a brewery?
If you brew beer on the premises you must sell food?
Must food be on sale in all bars?

I remember being in a bar somewhere inthe US and on ordering our drinks the waitress bought us over a beef sandwich (very nice). I said that we didnt order this food and she said that you had to have food to drink in that bar. I was a bit perplexed at this so she went and fetched the manager/owner over. He then went on to explain that to buy alcohol you also had to buy food.
"But Im not hungry" I said (halfway through this delicious sandwich).
"well dont eat it then" he replied

Was that the bar owners policy or was it US law?

Thanks Johnnyboy

Food/beverage policies vary state-by-state and even by city/county within the state. In Oregon, the laws are rather complex. To serve your beer at your brewery, your have to also have the ability to serve hot meals.

There are states where you can't just drink at a bar. And some places where even if you offer food, if too many people just drink, the bar can lose its license.

Here's another little weirdness: you can bring your own beer and wine into a restaurant here (Oregon). If you bring beer, it becomes the property of the restaurant and you cannot take the left-overs home. Wine, it stays yours and you can take what's left home.

david_42 said:

Food/beverage policies vary state-by-state and even by city/county within the state. In Oregon, the laws are rather complex. To serve your beer at your brewery, your have to also have the ability to serve hot meals.

There are states where you can't just drink at a bar. And some places where even if you offer food, if too many people just drink, the bar can lose its license.

Here's another little weirdness: you can bring your own beer and wine into a restaurant here (Oregon). If you bring beer, it becomes the property of the restaurant and you cannot take the left-overs home. Wine, it stays yours and you can take what's left home.

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Oh Dear, now Im really confused ( not hard being a Brit).
Can you walk into a bar and just order a beer, thing else, just a beer please

johnnyboy1965 said:

Oh Dear, now Im really confused ( not hard being a Brit).
Can you walk into a bar and just order a beer, thing else, just a beer please

Click to expand...

You can in Ohio, other states may differ as each state has it's own laws.

50 states and about 2000 sets of regulations. You don't have to order food in Oregon, but it has to be available. California (mostly), bars do not have to have food.

In my town they won't allow a restaurant to serve alcohol at outside dining tables. They don't want any kids passing by to see adults drinking responsibly with their meals.