Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

Forged is €4.10 in the Carlow one.

It's all personal taste but I've tried Forged and thought it was awful stuff.

Proper 12 is a close cousin to basic Bushmills.

Is your point that a settlement of, say, 60,000 people will be busier in Ireland than a 60,000 place in GB?

I often wondered why that is?

Limerick has 90,000 which puts it in the bracket of minor regional city in the UK whereas in Ireland it makes it the 3rd biggest centre and therefore in cultural terms the Manchester or Leeds of Ireland.

I have friends from Torquay and Carlisle which are roughly similar to Limerick and people there would never expect to have a major sports team or be upset when Bruce Springsteen doesn't choose their town.

The other difference is the chains have gutted the English high street and gutted the level of expectation of the customer. They think a Nicholsons pub and meat and veg from a Sainsbury's are quality to be cherished.

So Spoons probably think we can do great in Cork because we can do great in a Cork size city in England but a Cork size city in England won't have a Bierhaus, Abbotts, the Rising Sons pubs or the myriad of old local pubs Cork has.

When they're sold. Which nobody has any idea about.

Have they failed? The Forty Foot is always busy on a Friday/Saturday night and I've heard that Abbey Street is one of the most profitable pubs in the group.

They seem to appeal to the student demographic and people with not much disposable income. I can see why they're not doing so well outside of Dublin but to me their Dublin pubs appear to be doing well. Not so sure about Blanch or Swords mind you.

Yes they have. A small few have lasted but Spoons were supposed to take over Ireland. At best they have a tiny footprint which is unsustainable using their own model.

Obviously that wasn't profitable for them or that would have happened. If the pubs that are remaining open are profitable then it's been a success for them. It's like saying IKEA have failed in Ireland because they've only one store here even though that one store has been very profitable.

Blanch is probably the nicest of the lot in some ways, despite being a converted nightclub. Has the traditional "jacks are ten miles away" from the UK pubs though.

That said, I've not done the Old Boro and South Strand since converting over; I drank there when they were independent.

A lot of Spoons food is microwaved. Comes to the pub already packed in the portion sizes so the chef can't cost them with bigger portions.

It gives the food that reheated feel which I really hate.

Their expansion plans here have obviously been scaled back but I don't know if calling it an expensive failure would be accurate.

They made millions in profit on the Blackrock pub alone iirc, and their remaining pubs like Camden St and Blanch are by all accounts consistently very very busy and close to capacity, despite their large size. So its unlikely that they're burning money.

"Value" and cost are not the same thing.

With the very very rare exception my 6e pint in a good pub is better value than a 2e pint in a shte one which every Spoons I've been in except 1 has been (Rockingham E&C London).

In my own experience Carlow and Waterford don't work because in a town or small city there is only "the centre" and all options are there so people choose their favourites. It's a different type of drinking to Dublin where convenience comes in to it for many. You will also have tourists and transient people padding out the numbers which is important in bigger venues.

I go to the one in Blanch every other Saturday afternoon for pint of Strongbow. It's generally fairly busy. Price seems to go up 10c every time I go in. Was 2.75 a year or so back and now it's 3.89 - still great value tho. Price of the food seems to be creeping up a lot and it's not great at all. If it wasnt' for the free pint I wouldn't bother eating there but don't mind the pizza.

Interestingly enough, I interviewed Tim Martin back in the day when he was trying to get a foot in the door in Ireland and getting obstacles put in the way by all the usual suspects and he was an absolute gentleman.

The Waterford one is always busy, must be other reasons it's for sale. Maybe supply chain logistics of having 3 single bars different parts of the country isn't efficient enough.

I stopped in the one in Camden street a couple of Saturdays past to use the toilet.

Was busy enough (around lunchtime).

Can't see how anyone can call them a kip or soulless or anything like that.

Place was clean, very airy feeling. No loud music blaring or TV's showing racing or soccer. Pints probably at least half the price than the bleeding horse across the road.

Haven't been to any of the Dublin ones but they do look nice enough.

The reputation and my experience of them is from much older pubs than the Dublin ones and areas far more run down than a financial district or Camden St.

Most I have been to just looked very worn and neglected.

Money spent on any renovation in 2013 is a long sunk cost as far as the business is concerned by 2021, its irrelevant.

The point was by 2021 the valuation of the property was extremely high, to the level where the accounting equation for X amount of profit per year vs taking "in excess of €2.5mn" in cash instantly was a very different trade-off.

Economies of scale perhaps, only 1 pub vs how many in Dublin.

Irish people considering that a Wetherspoons expansion could completely kill the traditional Irish pub,

"Oró se do bheatha bhaile…."

Irish people after reading the drink prices,

"Rollll out the barrel!"

Yeah closed last Sunday. Reopened today as Broadstreet bar and grill.

Cheapest pints €4.50 Fosters, Beamish and Tuborg.

Are Cork and Carlow still open, or closed?

Are the six in Dublin strong? Likely to remain open over the long run?