Recently I have been listening to the various arguments about all day pub opening on the today programme and each commentator was saying that a change in culture was what is required to control the 11 o'clock kick out tension and violence in Britain's city centres.
This is true, I feel, a longer slower drinking pace will mean that people will not get drunk as quickly. However I feel that this emphasis solely on the opening hours misses the point a bit. Most of my French, Italian and Spanish friends are amazed at the post work pint phenomenon, office and shop workers drinking 3-4 pints with only crisps as accompaniment. The quality and cost of British pub snacks is often woeful. Too much frozen food into the fryer, everything seems to either be full of fat, like potato wedges or not fresh, like the pub nachos, straight from the packet and onto the plate, then into the microwave. Promoting the place of the kitchen in the British pub seems to be an important aspect of this cultural divide, the majority of places that the the rest of Europe drinks in are cafe-bars, where the place of food and decent coffee is already well established.
Something else that I feel makes us differ is the volume of beer we drink as a standard measure, a pint is quite a lot of beer to drink compared to a 330ml bottle. In France, often the standard measure for bottles or for draft is 250ml or 330ml. The pacing factor is often the time it takes for round buying, if this is pints at a time with no food as opposed to half or third of a litre with food, then it is no wonder the British are seen as drunks.
Moving to the smaller measure would not be as big a shock as it seems, many people already drink bottles of beer in preference to pints, or they drink gin and tonic. The half pint is seen in a poor light, so getting the publicans to serve ales and lagers in 330ml glasses would be of benefit to society. I cannot see the average drinking male in the UK going for it thought, the manliness of pint drinking is too well ingrained. Pity for the ale drinker, then as he or she is comdemned to insobriety or ridicule or lager.
Can we please have sensible sized amounts to drink with food in bars where you can hear yourself think, or is that too much to ask ? I mean we have got beyond wine being a choice of red or white and there are plenty of pubs with decent cask ales, some even have nice food. Still the standard British pub is a place devoted to drinking copious amounts of lager with the music too loud to have a conversation and not quite enough chairs, all designed to encourage you back to the bar, we as the customers need to take back control of the situation.
all day pub opening, pints and food
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First of all, Hi, I'm new to this site.
I was reading Gavin's comments about pubs and drinking. I think that ( if you can forgive me for being so generalising) there are 2 types of pub. The city centre (basically the bar) and the village (pub). I agree with the drinking situation in city bars and think that it is out of hand and a lot of the time it feels a hostile place to socialise. Maybe smaller measures would be the answer but the fact remains that the sort of people who go out drinking to get drunk and have a fight will still do that. Why not put more responsibility on the bar owners to refuse service to people who are too drunk?
The flip side of this argument therefore is that when people talk about drinking in pubs, lets not forget that there are lots of great local pubs in villages with an often larger range of beer, and better food. Where pride is taken by the owners in both these areas. I live in a village and have found that the local pub is often neglected by commuters who don't actually get involved in village life. This is a sad state of affairs and goes back to the old argument (which is worth saying again)that people should be supporting their local shops and farms. Also, if you are craving "hearing yourself think" then these village pubs are the places to do it. Try it! you might like it.
I do prefer pubs in the country, smaller cities and towns are usually much better. The good pub guide and its ilk are helpful in this regard, finding nice places to eat and drink as I travel around the UK has become a bit of a quest.
However the main point that British culture is focused on getting drunk at the weekend is still valid, thankfully there are places where this is not true
Yeah fair enough. That does seem to be a culture thing and especially for singles. We have a high disposable income in the uk which may be something to do with it?
In terms of finding pubs on your travels... I'm the same. The quest for a good pub lunch! I've been doing quite a bit of travelling around gloucestershire recently with the good pub guide in hand, and have been very dissapointed with the standard of pubs. However, 2 weeks ago, I found a really great pub. So, if you're in that area go to the Queens Arms in a village called Ashleworth!
I had to move to Florida from East Sussex to get a job!! (made redundant from Gatwick) It's a nice place to visit but boy it's sucks to live here.I could murder a Pint, a Curry and going to the local for a chat and some atmosphere, cos there is naff all out here.