To think Toby Carvery is working class ?

[JoanneTeresa]

I went this week and was looking around at the likely demographic

I don't know as I've not been. But it's meant to be cheap and plentiful, so I wouldn't expect to see the aristocracy or emirati royal family dining there. But any one who likes roasts and a bargain and lives near one and likes the taste. So more than just working class people but certainly plenty. I'm guessing.

What is “working class”? Someone who works at a job? Isn’t that nearly everyone except retired people and SAHM?

I eat at Toby Carvery & shop at Harrods’ where does that put me then?

I dont know why people are disingenuous about what is working class and that basically its everyone who works. You know it isnt

It reminds me of that documentary that John Prescott did many many years ago and he interviewed a single mum, very young girl who was living on benefits and she said she thought she was middle class and he asked why and she said, well Im not working class because I havent got a job.

We are also more recently, certainly over the past 10 years or so, in the habit of calling people who are more accurately the underclass as the working classes. Then everyone else is categorised as middle class.

@Comefromaway lol, no idea. Ive only been to Harrods twice I think (decades ago) and never had a meal at a Toby's. Im probably an alien.

I dont think its helpful to put people into categories of that sort nowadays anyway - Traditionally WC means people that dont work but are not titled (ie upperclass). WC is everybody that is working (ie almost everybody!)

Obviously nowadays people use middle class to include people that do work but are not "however they choose to categorise working class as" which is generally insulting?

I don’t see why it really matters, but obviously it’s very cheap and you can pile your plate high, so it’s more likely to attract people who aren’t super rich.

My niece has worked as a waitress at 2 different branches and said the hygiene of the kitchen staff was the worst she has seen out of all the places she has worked as a waitress at. 🤢🤮

Hmm maybe. I was brought up working class. I was proud to be working class. But when I try to claim that now, people laugh. So I’m class confused. I guess the Toby Carvery question is the clincher and im Still working class. Hurrah.

People allowed to identify with the class that they feel based on their culture and upbringing.
Personally I cringe when I read the graspy attempts on MN to be middle class.

I assume you’re under that huge banner of “gen x/ millennials who were brought up working class but went to university” ?

They are on Uber Eats in my area - worth a check 😉

Are you missing Berni Inns?

Absolute rubbish - most of the veg is fresh, roast and mash prepped and cooked from fresh potatoes and yorkshires also cooked fresh. Turkey is UK red tractor. The food is excellent quality for the price and prepared fresh every day in their kitchens. It’s cheap because, if you get the business model right - which they do- it’s an efficient way to serve food. Oh and it’s owned by M&B not Whitbread

Im 58, went to an RG uni no less, I’ve run my own marketing business for 27 years erm, I’m trying to think of any other MC markers. I shop at Waitrose and John Lewis. I live in a “naice” city in the south east, mortgage paid off. I listen to radio 4 and read avidly. My kids both went to RG universities and now have professional jobs. But I like a Toby Carvery and have an accent from the provinces. I’m an enigma. And it just goes to show that class distinctions are basically ridiculous.

i have never been
it is not very appealing to me

We earn what Mumsnet would call mega bucks, top 1% etc. Think we would be MC, don’t really care. We love a Tony Carvery. In fact DS is coming back from uni next week so you’ve just given me a meal out idea.

We went to one once and it was singularly one of the worst eating out experiences I’ve ever had. I think it’s a pile it high, fill your boots, don’t worry about the quality sort of place. The place smelt of damp, the customers were mostly surly and fat. One table were wearing pyjamas. Food was swill. We left in a hurry.

Also goes to show you can’t shop your way out of the class system 😂

Very much so

Who cares?

My mum would have had the vapours about me eating at a carvery (she was a roaring snob). My OH (who comes from a working class background) loves it. I had never been before I met him.

I love it. What do you think it going to happen if you eat in a working class restaurant? Do you think you will suddenly start dropping consonants overnight?

Chill.

It’s not middle or working class. It’s just shit. My local one is overdue a refurb. It’s dirty and unkempt.
the staff seem to have given up.
where the food is served is always really messy too.

I’m working class (laboro, ergo sum).

Yet I have never been to, nor even seen, a Toby Carvery. I googled, there is but one 10 miles away.

The menu, looks er, interesting. I’m not a huge fan of roasts, but the alternatives sound somewhat repugnant and grammatically offensive. ‘Yorkie wraps’, ‘Bacon & Cheddar Loaded Roasties’, ‘Poppin' Chicken’?

I remain to be convinced.

Love a Toby Carvery! It is a good example of a place focusing on one thing and doing it well, in an affordable way.

If it is working class I'm good with that.

As long as it is a busy Toby Carvery so they keep the fresh food coming out - I wouldn't want to go to a quiet one.

Literally no one has the alternatives other than. If you don't like roast dinner going to a carvery would be like not liking rice and going to sushi restaurant - its just never going to suit you.

I don’t eat any meat that is “Red Tractor” assured. I would do a bit of research if you think this is a high standard of welfare.

Well yes I guess it probably is.

Although I don’t think it should matter and everyone should just go to places they enjoy. The concept of class is very blurred now anyway.

I always think I’m too foreign to belong to the class system but in reality a. I’m not actually that “foreign” as a couple of generations in now, and b. Most people would call me middle class.