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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be disappointed that more and more village locals are being turned into "fine dining" gastropubs?

55 replies

Beerlovingwalker · 28/04/2021 15:12

I live in a fairly nice part of South East England. Sometimes I'm out on a walk and fancy popping in the local for a pint, wearing my muddy boots and sporting very windswept hair. I step in, to find that what was a great local watering hole has turned into yet another pretentious fine dining "gastropub". They all state that one can still walk in for a pint, but it's really actually an upmarket restaurant disguised as a pub and - judging by the lack of locals at the bar - no longer a place where the average joe feels comfortable to pop in for a casual drink.

If I decide to book for a meal once in a while, the portions are absolutely miniscule, and the prices don't have pound signs in front of them! Just a number. ("Duck confit with braised cabbage - 9"; that sort of thing). The prices are always extortionate. Is pub grub no longer in fashion?!

I love food and meals out as much as the next person, but it saddens me that local residents are being deprived of a decently priced local pub, for drinking and socialising purposes as much as eating. I wouldn't be so bothered if there was a good balance of all types of establishment, but it seems to be happening more and more where I'm from.

AIBU to feel this way?

OP posts:
BuyYourOwnBBQGlenda · 28/04/2021 15:14

Agree completely! I want a pint and a matter, maybe crisps and a sandwich, at a pub. But the UK tax on beer is crippling and I think this is the only way some of them can survive unfortunately.

HesSpartacus · 28/04/2021 15:18

In some ways it makes me happy. For years, so many pubs served rubbish food - you'd see the same catering company dropping the same cheap meat etc at all the pubs in the local area. Meals were frozen chips with poor quality pies / sausages/ etc.

At least the food is repsonsibly / locally sourced and of a better standard once his type of upgrade happens. However - you do have a point re: muddy wellies and general cosiness. Serving good food shouldn't automatically mean making the place into a full on restaurant. People want something in between!

Original poster
Beerlovingwalker · 28/04/2021 15:19

@buyyourownbbqglenda I totally agree with your point about the tax and think it must be very challenging in this climate.

However, to me a pub should be exactly as named - a public house - where all walks of life can enter and buy a drink and feel relaxed. There shouldn't be a dress code and the emphasis should still be on serving a really good pint at the bar, otherwise to me it really is just a restaurant!

OP posts:
Original poster
Beerlovingwalker · 28/04/2021 15:21

@hesspartacus Yes I agree, something in between would be wonderful!

The best pub I ever went to in the 1990s served up turkey broth and nothing but, ha ha. I'm not asking for that level of "basic-ness" but I guess more emphasis on the pub side of things - that cosy, welcoming feeling when you walk into the bar area.

OP posts:
milinhas · 28/04/2021 15:21

I actually like this type of food a lot Blush

But agree messy hair, muddy boots, dogs and children should be encouraged!

GappyValley · 28/04/2021 15:22

Pretty sure this has been well documented since the implementation of the smoking ban and the steady rise in alcohol duty.

The profit on the ‘wet’ side of sales is now so minimal that nearly all pubs relay on the profit margins from diners to stay open.

And the combination of alcohol duty plus cheap supermarket booze eroded the ‘locals propping up the bar’ years ago so more space gets turned over to attracting people coming for meals

It’s a bit strange to take issue with the type font on the menu though...

Oenanthe · 28/04/2021 15:22

Sometimes I'm out on a walk and fancy popping in the local for a pint, wearing my muddy boots and sporting very windswept hair.

I don't know of a single pub that would turn its nose up at a walker with money to spend on beer. Honestly. It's all in your head. If there's a bar and a row of pumps it's your birthright as a proud Englishwoman to perch on a stool and chat shit with the landlady. No one is judging your hair.

Original poster
Beerlovingwalker · 28/04/2021 15:24

It’s a bit strange to take issue with the type font on the menu though...

I'm sure I sound petty but just find it irksome - a pound sign in front of the price just is nicer to read to me, and a lack of one only seems to happen in the more upmarket places!

OP posts:
GappyValley · 28/04/2021 15:27

And also, I live in a ‘naive’ part of south west London where it’s only gastropubs serving £25 roasts and named-boat fish

It’s bordering on illegal to go to the pub without a dog now! So wellies, windswept hair and a soggy hound is practically obligatory to get a table
Most of them advertise that they have dog treats on the blackboards outside, so important it now is to most customers

But they know that their average customer wants that - they wouldn’t dare turn people away for muddy boots because they wouldn’t last a week

maybe it’s the expectations of your neighbours for sanitised restaurant feel that the pubs are responding to, rather than the pub imposing it on the clientele?

Boood · 28/04/2021 15:27

Wait until your pub turned fine dining gastropub is flogged off to a chain and the lovely menu of home-cooked stuff is replaced by an endless list of Brakes Bros frozen crap. Then you’ll know pissed off.

Blacktothepink · 28/04/2021 15:29

Yanbu...I hanker for scampi and chips in a basket!

Original poster
Beerlovingwalker · 28/04/2021 15:31

BTW perfectly happy to be proven wrong/put in my place. I do see the value in having a variety of different options for dining, but it's the sheer amount of it all going the same way in my area that is making me sad!

OP posts:
stackemhigh · 28/04/2021 15:34

However, to me a pub should be exactly as named - a public house - where all walks of life can enter and buy a drink and feel relaxed. There shouldn't be a dress code and the emphasis should still be on serving a really good pint at the bar, otherwise to me it really is just a restaurant!

I'm teetotal so don't often go to pubs but we have turned up to a gastropub after a day out at a pig farm and they didn't care!

It's no good saying pubs need to be relaxed and serve pub grub if they don't make money that way. They operate to make money, not offer a community service.

If I decide to book for a meal once in a while, the portions are absolutely miniscule, and the prices don't have pound signs in front of them! Just a number. ("Duck confit with braised cabbage - 9"; that sort of thing)

Nothing wrong with that. Do you really need the £ sign?

CoastAlong · 28/04/2021 15:35

Even worse are the places that have Duck confit with braised cabbage - 9.5

That's just pretentious cockwomblery. What's wrong with good ole £9.50

SynchroSwimmer · 28/04/2021 15:36

I agree with the lack of pound sign being irksome, same in our pub/gastro restaurant.

As someone legitimately asked: is the number “9” referring to the Weightwatchers/Slimming World points?

osbertthesyrianhamster · 28/04/2021 15:39

YANBU. Don't get me started about food that's not on a plate!

stackemhigh · 28/04/2021 15:40

As someone legitimately asked: is the number “9” referring to the Weightwatchers/Slimming World points?

Sorry but you only need to common sense to work out it's a price. It's their menu, they can stylise it how they want, not worry about SW/WW.

Slub · 28/04/2021 15:44

@osbertthesyrianhamster

YANBU. Don't get me started about food that's not on a plate!
Oh yes! I find those long thin wooden 'cricket bat' boards the worst. Just use a goddamn plate!
shouldistop · 28/04/2021 15:45

Yanbu. It's happening even in Glasgow Sad I love a proper pub with a fire, maybe even a juke box or a local band on at the weekend maybe. I'm not interested in bloody gin cocktails or food served on a piece of bloody slate.

BarbaraofSeville · 28/04/2021 15:48

I always think that they omit the pound signs to try and trick into forgetting that it's real money you're spending.

But from the £50 a head BBQ thread, it seems that there are a lot of people who think that this is how much it should cost to eat out and sod anyone who can't or simply doesn't want to pay that much.

I haven't been for a muddy boots pint since last Sept/Oct, but I don't think its happening here just yet.

Or at least, anywhere that fancies itself as being a bit Gastropub, usually has two sections, one fancy and expensive and a bar where you can still get a pint and some chips if you want that.

Best one I can remember is Osmotherly on the NY Moors that has a fish and chip shop inside one of the pubs, so you can get a portion of fish and chips in a box, for normal fish and chip shop prices, which is about £7 around here to go with your pint. Happy days.

Milkshake7489 · 28/04/2021 15:54

I much prefer a gastro pub to a traditional 'local'. The atmosphere is usually much better IMO (though this might be dependent on area).

In fact I actively avoid traditional pubs but would happily go sit in a gastro pub even if I wasn't eating.

Milkshake7489 · 28/04/2021 15:55

I hate beer and love a gin cocktail too!

Angrypregnantlady · 28/04/2021 16:05

Well those poor locals don't provide enough of an income coming in for a pint every so often. Whereas a trendy gastropub brings in enough money.
I far prefer gastropubs, they're more welcoming to everybody but the local buddies. I hate going into a pub and realising it's a "local" and you're not wanted there.

KrisAkabusi · 28/04/2021 16:07

There must be demand for these types of places though, or no-one would ever visit and they would close. If there was demand for places with crap food, sticky floors and warm beer, they'd still exist.

MrsMackesy · 28/04/2021 16:11

Or turned into a supermarket or expensive apartments.