Why don't Irish pubs sell snacks?

I'd like having the option.

Disliking pubs that do food is a peculiarity weird Irish notion.

Probably more hassle then it’s worth. Might not be a need for a chef but you’d need a few more lounge staff to take care of microwaving the food, serving it with cutlery, cleanup etc…..

a lot of effort for maybe not a whole heap of profit.

Probably the much higher foot-fall. Real caveat is which parts of the UK and Ireland are you comparing?

Edit: Maybe it is because pubs in UK tend to be part of chains whereas in Ireland they are not. @L1011 has encyclopedic knowledge of licencing so can verify/debunk this guess..

The sausage/chicken and chips still requires a kitchen and those places evolved in to doing other food.

Toasties (and maybe soup) as the only food is still fairly common in Dublin pubs.

Bout 25 odd years ago I worked in a small rural pub where we done those awful microwave burgers and quick but very nice toasties.

Biggest issue I remember is when one person ordered, everyone got the smell and wanted one. If you were only staff on, it was a pain.

I'm only taking guesses here. About to head over to Kings Cross so will keep eye out for drinks-only pubs 😁

Plenty of pubs in ireland do food though so you have the option surely?

Once you do food you have to adhere to food safety regulations and they are a pain if you are only doing a small offering.

The positive side is the regulations are strenuous and very strictly enforced with HSE visits any time of the day and evening, hence you can be fairly confident of good practice in any food serving establishment

Never ever serve food that people pay for from a microwave

+ 1 on that.

The hipster “aul man pub”.

I’d heard so much talk over the years I specifically went to there for a pint of Arthur and a toastie.

The pint? - yeah, decent.

The toastie?

Nothing special whatsoever.

The toasted sandwiches are literally slice pan, mild Tesco/Dunne’s cheddar, packet ham.

no doubt some hipster will be in to say

“exactly, the mundanity is the point bro. We love paying a tenner for them when you could make for 50cent at home.”

It's ridiculous really. Toasted sandwiches were standard in almost every Irish pub back in the day. Enter the HSE to solve a food safety problem that didn't exist.

On the subject I do wonder how many sales those pringles machines make in pubs if there is a lack of food.

The HSE quote EU standard regulations. But go into a bar in Spain and it's interpreted a lot more leniently.

The regulations are not onerous if you are doing a half decent trade in food. Even €1000 a week food sales would be worth it.

But for a sideline, the sales are not there and you'd have a fair level of food waste and add in the regulations and you have a loss making sideline

I would think €1000 a week is a sideline. You may need to hire extra staff for serving and cleaning, even 3-4 hours a day by a wage cost of say €15 per hour would well eat into that €1000-and NO PUN INTENDED!

Exactly, even doing €1,000 a week on very basic offering of sandwiches/ pies (we don't really eat pies here) and a gross margin of 65%, it would most likely be loss making

You did I will admit. I am coming from a rural, local pub perspective. Generally one staff on. If anyway busy, one staff is not enough to serve drink and do minimal food preparation and service and clearing of tables. Again I will note there are posters from large urban areas and their pubs (generally quite large) and those of us in rural Ireland.

I'd say the regulations have a lot to do with it. A pub near me used to do a good trade at lunchtime, selling soup and fresh sandwiches etc. They decided to stop doing them after a visit from some sort of inspector. The choice was to either spend thousands upgrading the existing kitchen or stop doing the lunches they had been selling. They started doing a cut down version of lunch for a while (might have just been the soup) but then they stopped.

It's a real shame. It'd be lovely to have the option of going to a tapas bar or similar. I guess bar owners aren't willing to take a chance on it, knowing how much it'll cost to get going. There's no guarantee it's a viable business model either.