Wetherspoon's news of the day

[Aqualung]

Brilliant - is it in the latest edition?

Yes the October one, sadly no Real Ale Twats or Finbarr.

[Aqualung]

My local Spoons have raised their prices and have a new menu. Cask guests have gone up 5p so standard is now £2.10, premium £2.25 and super premium £2.40. .
The keg "Craft" Devil's Backbone beer from Banks's has been reduced by 4p to £2.75 and Dogspew's This Is Lager has been replaced by a Shipyard IPA at a lower price.
Some food items have gone up but not by a lot, typically 10-20p. Breakfasts are unchanged, although the cheap filtered coffee refill has gone up from 79p to 85p..
The Fish Friday has gone up by 34p, probably because fish is so ridiculously expensive.
The Mexican Monday remains unchanged, I've tried three of these and didn't really enjoy any of them that much. All I could think of was that film The Exorcist while scoffing it.

I imagine these rises are universal especially as there is a new menu but I won't be visiting any other old haunt Spoons until the festival next month.
From what I can recall this is the only price rise for at least two years unlike other pub companies. I look with horror at some of the prices posted on this site in Central and other parts of London for mediocre beers that are hardly worth drinking.

[hondo]

"company says it will invest £3 million"
http://www.theenquirer.co.uk/state-c...-wetherspoons/

[rpadam]

Spotted this news in the Pub Curmudgeon blog so posting it here as well in case you don't follow that thread.

http://www.propertymall.com/property...-on-the-market

[Quinno]

Spotted this news in the Pub Curmudgeon blog so posting it here as well in case you don't follow that thread.

http://www.propertymall.com/property...-on-the-market

Again, most of those I've been in are the weaker ones in their conurbations.

[Aqualung]

Spotted this news in the Pub Curmudgeon blog so posting it here as well in case you don't follow that thread.

http://www.propertymall.com/property...-on-the-market

I've been to 11 of these, some were truly awful and a few I thought were really good. This is on top of the 20 announced earlier in the year which were generally more Southern based plus the Cap in Hand at Hook underpass. I've not heard of any of these actually closing yet. This makes a total of 55 pubs they want to close and yet they seem to have spent a fortune on new outlets this year. The current new pubs list has a paltry three one of which is the already opened Mossy Well in N10, one in Hatfield and one in Helston. I really wonder if they are in financial difficulties.

[Aqualung]

Spotted this news in the Pub Curmudgeon blog so posting it here as well in case you don't follow that thread.

http://www.propertymall.com/property...-on-the-market

I've had a closer look at this. 14 of the 34 are Lloyds No. 1 outlets. Gloucester and Blackpool have new outlets nearby. A few have Lloyds or other Spoons close by. The Stirling one seems to be completely spurious. I've never stopped off in Trowbridge but they find themselves with BOTH Spoons earmarked to close and no real alternative.
Of the ones I've been to I'll miss the Picture Palace in Enfield the most. I've been there several times and Pondlife End has already seen most of its pubs closed, not that any of them were worth a visit. North London seems to be taking a bashing with these closures and it's not as though there are that many around.

[london calling]

I will be sad to see the Plough and Harrow Hammersmith go as its one of the few i use and the guest beer choice is better than the other one 300yards away.But the other one (name escapes me) is always busier,attracts a young crowd at night(so lots of shots)and has a bit of outside seating.Makes business sense really.Also they charge more for a pint and the Mexican deal is 50p dearer so more dosh for Tim.

[Aqualung]

I will be sad to see the Plough and Harrow Hammersmith go as its one of the few i use and the guest beer choice is better than the other one 300yards away.But the other one (name escapes me) is always busier,attracts a young crowd at night(so lots of shots)and has a bit of outside seating.Makes business sense really.Also they charge more for a pint and the Mexican deal is 50p dearer so more dosh for Tim.

The "other" one is the William Morris and is a Lloyds so when I went there one day in 2013 the Plough and Harrow was busier and looking at my reviews the prices were the same. The Mexican club rarely differs in price in the London suburbs. Just the fact that the beer prices are dearer may account for the higher price.
I suppose that the trouble with Hammersmith is that it's virtually Central London.

[Aqualung]

I've just received an email from JDW saying that their site has been hacked. I can't say I'm bothered as I'm sure my details are already available to all and sundry as my broadband is with Talk Talk! To be honest I think they were available before then but so what? There is a web site called 192.com that will provide all sorts of names and addresses if you subscribe.