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Original poster

Drinkers in Spoons

570 replies

TheDaringOliveNewt · 14/02/2026 09:40

I'm away and at spoons having breakfast.

Every single table apart from mine has pints going, at 8.30.

Aibu thinking it's weird?

OP posts:
Rizzz · 14/02/2026 10:44

Thepeopleversuswork · 14/02/2026 10:30

Nothing to do with snobbery: Spoons is just not a nice environment. Food can be OK but all the furnishings and fittings are icky, everything seems tired and cheap and there are always, without fail, annoying pissheads in there when you are trying to eat. Plus the man who owns it is an exploitative right wing twat.

What’s wrong with a greasy spoon if you want a good cheap breakfast?

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This is entirely your own opinion presented as 'fact' 😳

There are over 800 Whetherspoons in the UK.

If you've visited every single one of them, I'd say you're the one with a drink problem 🍺

DenizenOfAisleOfShame · 14/02/2026 10:43

A few years ago I had a holiday in rural France and used to go to the village cafe for breakfast. There were loads of farmers and farmhands in there every morning from early drinking coffee and calvados before work.

I imagine that because it was in La France profonde many MNers would regard it as natural, acceptable and ‘oh so French’.

But a pint of lager in Spoons at 8am is shocking. 🙄

MargaretThursday · 14/02/2026 10:43

If I have breakfast in Spoons then I have a pint of cola. In the dark gloomy depths of Spoons I doubt you can tell the difference.

NorfolkandBad · 14/02/2026 10:41

Thepeopleversuswork · 14/02/2026 10:30

Nothing to do with snobbery: Spoons is just not a nice environment. Food can be OK but all the furnishings and fittings are icky, everything seems tired and cheap and there are always, without fail, annoying pissheads in there when you are trying to eat. Plus the man who owns it is an exploitative right wing twat.

What’s wrong with a greasy spoon if you want a good cheap breakfast?

Show quote history

Perfect example of looking down your nose snobbery.

treeowl · 14/02/2026 10:37

snowmichael · 14/02/2026 10:34

What's weird is commenting on other people's lives

I keep seeing similar comments to the above. How would MNs exist if people didn’t comment on others lives?!

Thepeopleversuswork · 14/02/2026 10:35

snowmichael · 14/02/2026 10:34

What's weird is commenting on other people's lives

If people didn’t comment on other people’s lives AIBU wouldn’t exist

zingally · 14/02/2026 10:35

It's Spoons, so yeah, fairly normal.

I personally think there are a lot more functioning alcoholics out there than people realise...

BoredZelda · 14/02/2026 10:35

Thepeopleversuswork · 14/02/2026 10:30

Nothing to do with snobbery: Spoons is just not a nice environment. Food can be OK but all the furnishings and fittings are icky, everything seems tired and cheap and there are always, without fail, annoying pissheads in there when you are trying to eat. Plus the man who owns it is an exploitative right wing twat.

What’s wrong with a greasy spoon if you want a good cheap breakfast?

Show quote history

Not everywhere has a greasy spoon.

Weatherspoons my local city is where you find offshore workers coming off shift after two weeks on, having breakfast and a pint. It’s close, convenient, quick and not too discerning.

snowmichael · 14/02/2026 10:34

What's weird is commenting on other people's lives

AmusedShark · 14/02/2026 10:34

Not weird for 'spoons.

They're like airports, breakfast-time drinking is standard.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 14/02/2026 10:34

sittingonabeach · 14/02/2026 09:45

@PollyBell but at breakfast time?

But as a pp said, maybe they’ve been on night shifts…

Tulipvase · 14/02/2026 10:31

Google suggests that apart from airports, most Wetherspoons don’t serve alcohol until 9. Not that it’s much later.

Thepeopleversuswork · 14/02/2026 10:30

Allthatwegotisthispalebluedot · 14/02/2026 10:23

I agree with this comment - it’s the snobbery that gets me. It’s just because it’s cheap and poor people are doing it that it’s worthy of a post on mumsnet in faux horror.

Drinking in the morning can be fun, but only if you’re middle class like me and you mix your vodka with tomato juice, Tabasco, a stick of celery and pay £16 for it in a fancy breakfast place.

Show quote history

Nothing to do with snobbery: Spoons is just not a nice environment. Food can be OK but all the furnishings and fittings are icky, everything seems tired and cheap and there are always, without fail, annoying pissheads in there when you are trying to eat. Plus the man who owns it is an exploitative right wing twat.

What’s wrong with a greasy spoon if you want a good cheap breakfast?

BoredZelda · 14/02/2026 10:28

FourForksSake · 14/02/2026 10:02

You should try the airport spoons at 7am. They have Bloody Marys on tap.
we used to live near an airport and spoons was full of shift workers having a pint at breakfast time.
Breakfast and a pint en route to Saturday’s match.
We met in a spoons before a funeral, lots had flown in from Ireland so it was a fry up, pints and whiskey.
Lots of reason OP.

We were amazed that in spoons at the airport at 10am, we could have ordered a pint but couldn’t get a bowl of chips for my daughter.

Flomingho · 14/02/2026 10:24

Standard spoons. Do like their breakfasts though but too early for drinking so stick with coffee

Allthatwegotisthispalebluedot · 14/02/2026 10:23

Rizzz · 14/02/2026 10:08

My local Spoons does an absolutely lovely breakfast.

You can also get a refillable tea/coffee so it's good value too.

Well over half of Mumsnetters are chugging down booze at 6am on Christmas morning, so 8am is nothing to many people 👀

Show quote history

I agree with this comment - it’s the snobbery that gets me. It’s just because it’s cheap and poor people are doing it that it’s worthy of a post on mumsnet in faux horror.

Drinking in the morning can be fun, but only if you’re middle class like me and you mix your vodka with tomato juice, Tabasco, a stick of celery and pay £16 for it in a fancy breakfast place.

SpikeGilesSandwich · 14/02/2026 10:22

Ours is usually full of mothers and babies on a morning as it’s cheap coffee and space to not completely bung the place up with half a dozen prams. Most little independent coffee shops just don’t have this amount of room.

HighLadyofTheNightCourt · 14/02/2026 10:21

NewGoldFox · 14/02/2026 10:11

Drinking alone is for alcoholics…

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Not always.
I travel with work frequently and I’ll happily go for a pint or glass of wine on my own if I feel like it.

LakieLady · 14/02/2026 10:21

Seagullstopitnow · 14/02/2026 09:54

I've had a pint with breakfast on rugby trip days. It's part of the day.

We don't sit there getting wasted

I've had a pint with breakfast on a boating holiday, when we had to have a very early start because of tide times.

It was 11am though, so not mega early.

GreenCaterpillarOnALeaf · 14/02/2026 10:20

I used to work there for many years, and in Scotland we can’t serve alcohol before a certain time unless it’s with food. On old firm days we would get hundreds of orders for bacon rolls and sausage rolls all that would come back untouched so the could get on it as soon as. Really pissed me off wasting all that food - just have a fucking pint at home!

Also once got a glass thrown at me because I wouldn’t pour some tourist a pint at 9am even though he was bladdered. Dodged it though because I was very nimble back then.

BlackCat14 · 14/02/2026 10:16

Maybe they can afford it and are sick of sitting at home and just feel it’s nice to get out?

LeedsLoiner · 14/02/2026 10:15

On high days and holidays a Spoons full breakfast with a coffee and a pint of Guinness is the breakfast of champions!
Where do you stand on having a “Prosecco Bottomless Brunch”?

treeowl · 14/02/2026 10:12

HQ of alcoholics everywhere

this

Rizzz · 14/02/2026 10:12

Thepeopleversuswork · 14/02/2026 10:11

Fair, I guess. I can think of nicer places to have breakfast though and Spoons is notoriously a magnet for pissheads so it seems odd to be surprised to find them there!

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True about the pissheads but as with any big chain, the area is everything.

Thepeopleversuswork · 14/02/2026 10:11

Rizzz · 14/02/2026 10:08

My local Spoons does an absolutely lovely breakfast.

You can also get a refillable tea/coffee so it's good value too.

Well over half of Mumsnetters are chugging down booze at 6am on Christmas morning, so 8am is nothing to many people 👀

Show quote history

Fair, I guess. I can think of nicer places to have breakfast though and Spoons is notoriously a magnet for pissheads so it seems odd to be surprised to find them there!