why are there no J D Wetherspoon pubs in ROI?

Geuze

Beefy78 wrote: »

Best thing about it will be that it'll make drinking spirits in Dublin affordable. I'd expect a double gin & tonic or rum & coke to be €6-7 in there vs probably €13 in most places.

YES.

One of the downsides of buying rounds with women involved is the mixers, e.g.

gin + tonic, vodka + coke, rum + etc.

You might pay 4.20/4.50 + 2.40/2.60 = nearly 7.00 in total for a drink, versus 3.50-4.50 for a pint of beer

Whereas, AFAIK, in all JDW you get a free mixer - lovely.

Fratton Fred

Geuze wrote: »

It's true that English spirit measures are 25ml, yes.

It's 35.5ml here in RoI, also 35.5ml in NI


But the reference to 440ml is incorrect. Some cans in shops are 440ml in the UK.

That's right, some cans are sold in 440ml, but if you buy a pint in a pub, it is a pint and the glass should have the pint mark on it.

Mr Whirly

Links234 wrote: »

Try the Black Sheep on Capel Street so, they've 3 or 4 casks on rotation, and plenty of English ales available, I'd highly recommend it.

Excellent place to leave with an empty wallet. Stupidly over priced chain.

I have never been in a Wetherspoons but I'll definitely give it a go if they can provide decent booze at a decent price.

Lucena

First time I ordered a beer in a Chinese restaurant in England, they brought it to the table in a pint glass, with the beer about 4cm from the glass being full. I thought it was a bit cheeky and was going to ask for it to be topped up but my OH didn't want me to kick up a fuss, so I didn't.
Just as well, I'd only recently arrived in England and was yet to realise that sometimes cans come in 440ml. Obviously the restaurant was using cans.

I always wondered though, why 440ml and not 500ml? It doesn't seem to be the equivalent of any imperial measurements, can anyone enlighten me on this?

Beefy78

Lucena wrote: »

I always wondered though, why 440ml and not 500ml? It doesn't seem to be the equivalent of any imperial measurements, can anyone enlighten me on this?

Honestly? I'd guess it's the smallest they can make the can without it looking like it's a smaller can than it should be. I reckon a lot of people buying those cans still think that they're buying pints.

Beefy78

Fratton Fred wrote: »

That's right, some cans are sold in 440ml, but if you buy a pint in a pub, it is a pint and the glass should have the pint mark on it.

Indeed. It's the law. There's definitely no 16ox pints in the UK like you get in some countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pint_glass#United_Kingdom_law

Chinasea

Not getting all the begrudgery. Most pubs are closing down with many traipsing to the finish line swiftly behind them.

They can't even sell the joints, so when an 'English' chain dare to come over and invest, all we seem to hear is downright sniffiness, and the ridicules mentality that nobody knows how to run a bar like the Irish!!. Many of the current chain pubs in the UK were once 'auld Irish' pubs that died a complete death donkeys ago. Not saying that there is anything wrong with Irish pubs, but we ain't that unique.


Madness.

Allyall

Chinasea wrote: »

Not getting all the begrudgery. Most pubs are closing down with many traipsing to the finish line swiftly behind them.

They can't even sell the joints, so when an 'English' chain dare to come over and invest, all we seem to hear is downright sniffiness, and the ridicules mentality that nobody knows how to run a bar like the Irish!!. Many of the current chain pubs in the UK were once 'auld Irish' pubs that died a complete death donkeys ago. Not saying that there is anything wrong with Irish pubs, but we ain't that unique.


Madness.

800 years of oppression, now they want our pubs?

No way.

theholyghost

Great another soulless chain. A chain pub is the most un Irish thing I can think of.

discus

OldRio wrote: »

So, you attend the type of drinking establishments that dare not trust its customers with glass.

It's a local bye law in a lot of english towns and cities that drinks cannot be sold in glass, only plastic.

Beefy78

Wetherspoons are many things but soulless? I don't see it. Most of their buildings have a huge amount of character.

To be honest, I'd rather have the same pubs in every town than 50 different pubs all selling the same beer at the same price.

Zebra3

theholyghost wrote: »

Great another soulless chain. A chain pub is the most un Irish thing I can think of.

Most pubs in Ireland might as well be franchises.

Selling the same overpriced piss with Sky Sports on the tv and treating the customer like crap.

theholyghost

Beefy78 wrote: »

Wetherspoons are many things but soulless? I don't see it. Most of their buildings have a huge amount of character.
.

Fine. Im just sick of all the samey chains, retail parks and shopping streets where you cant tell what country you are in.

Fratton Fred

Lucena wrote: »

First time I ordered a beer in a Chinese restaurant in England, they brought it to the table in a pint glass, with the beer about 4cm from the glass being full. I thought it was a bit cheeky and was going to ask for it to be topped up but my OH didn't want me to kick up a fuss, so I didn't.
Just as well, I'd only recently arrived in England and was yet to realise that sometimes cans come in 440ml. Obviously the restaurant was using cans.

I always wondered though, why 440ml and not 500ml? It doesn't seem to be the equivalent of any imperial measurements, can anyone enlighten me on this?

If the menu said a pint then you should have complained.

Fratton Fred

theholyghost wrote: »

Fine. Im just sick of all the samey chains, retail parks and shopping streets where you cant tell what country you are in.

Welcome to globalisation.

Mr Whirly

Most pubs in Dublin are chains with different names over the door.

jjll

Is there anything stopping a person openning a jd witherspoon style pub in there town but with life and soul in it

jimgoose

WesternZulu wrote: »

Thank god there isn't!

They've the same identical soulless pubs serving crap beer and food all over the UK.

Heh. A few years ago I spent a couple of days in Dortmund doing a bit of a job in a basement machine-room belonging to Deutch Telekom. Now, if the Ruhr Valley area is a toilet, Dortmund is the S-bend. I flew into Heathrow afterwards, where I was so grateful to be served beef-and-porter pie and chips by a snippy little Indian gal wiv an Eastenders accent annat innit, in the Wetherspoons in the terminal that I almost cried. I'm home! Well, nearly.

dd972

jimgoose wrote: »

Heh. A few years ago I spent a couple of days in Dortmund doing a bit of a job in a basement machine-room belonging to Deutch Telekom. Now, if the Ruhr Valley area is a toilet, Dortmund is the S-bend. I flew into Heathrow afterwards, where I was so grateful to be served beef-and-porter pie and chips by a snippy little Indian gal wiv an Eastenders accent annat innit, in the Wetherspoons in the terminal that I almost cried. I'm home! Well, nearly.

chacun a son gout

jimgoose

dd972 wrote: »

chacun a son gout

Quand tu seras à Rome...

Menas

I have no problem with an English chain opening up pubs in here. It should at least be different to what we already have here and if they are good enough they will stay, if poor then they will fail.

As pointed out earlier, the variety of draft beers on sale in most irish pubs is depressingly similar. Guinness, Bud, Carlsberg, Heineken and Smithwicks are the staples with one or two others on offer (Coors etc).

English pubs have a much larger variety, in particular those free houses. One thing I love about smaller English pubs is wandering in to a free house and sampling their wares before deciding which one to buy.
Wetherspoons while not a free house, will bring something different. So lets see how it pans out. Don't like it then don't go there.

munchkin_utd

Trigger Happy wrote: »

<snip>
English pubs have a much larger variety, in particular those free houses. One thing I love about smaller English pubs is wandering in to a free house and sampling their wares before deciding which one to buy.
Wetherspoons while not a free house, will bring something different. So lets see how it pans out. Don't like it then don't go there.

Weatherspoons has a massive selection to be fair to them. And last summer they had a ciderfest with over a dozen different varieties.
And all at a very modest price.

It will be very interesting to see how it pans out, but their combination of middling food at a reasonable price and wide range of beer at an affordable price could well take off in the suburbs.
It will definitely be an alternative to Tesco ready made meal deals or whatever they are calling them these days.

And THAT is what Ireland is sorely missing. Establishments which have a large focus on food but arent restaurants with their uppedy pricing and atmosphere.

Links234

Three other UK pub chains look into opening in Ireland

MadYaker

If pints are going to be €2 then I'm all in favor of it!

Geuze

jjll wrote: »

Is there anything stopping a person openning a jd witherspoon style pub in there town but with life and soul in it

YES.

The Irish brewers charge Irish pubs way more than they charge to their UK customers, so it would be nearly impossible to run a JDW-style operation.

JDW have scale and huge purchasing power to drive down material input costs.

Also, you would need to acquire a pub licence, which are fixed in quantity.

reprazant

Geuze wrote: »

Also, you would need to acquire a pub licence, which are fixed in quantity.

There is roughly a pub closing a day at the moment. I seriously doubt that a pub licence is difficult to get.

Geuze

munchkin_utd wrote: »

And THAT is what Ireland is sorely missing. Establishments which have a large focus on food but arent restaurants with their uppedy pricing and atmosphere.

YES, I want to buy a "dinner" for 6-8-10 euro, but I don't want fast food, and I don't want a formal restaurant.

In Germany, most pubs serve dinners, e.g. for 7-12 euro.

Here pubs serve dinners from 12-2pm, ok fair enough, but it's hard to get a dinner for 8-10 euro at 6-10pm outside of Dublin. Not impossible, but not easy.

Geuze

MadYaker wrote: »

If pints are going to be €2 then I'm all in favor of it!

They won't be. Maybe €3 if you're lucky.

Geuze

reprazant wrote: »

There is roughly a pub closing a day at the moment. I seriously doubt that a pub licence is difficult to get.

True. What is the going rate for a licence? It's not zero.

Menas

W. G. Grace wrote: »

Would you like a list of all the pubs in Dublin selling craft beer? You are never far these days

I don't doubt that there are. What I am saying is that there is still a lack of variety and the more variety the better for those of us who don't like drinking the same old dribble.
And whilst Dublin has some pubs that sell craft beers, this picture down the country is much sadder.