Went for a quick drink with a pal the other night, it was to a pub that I hadn’t been to for a while.
He wasn’t there, so as is my usual habit I went to the bar and ordered a pint of the black stuff.
The pint was poured correctly and placed lovingly in front of me.
And then came the shock.
“Three Pounds Eighty please” sayeth the Bar Tender
At first I believe I was so stunned, it just didn’t compute, so I handed over £3.10 in coins thinking he had said £3.08, a bit pricey I thought but we are in an upmarket area.
But no.
“Sorry” he spake again “ It’s Three Pounds Eighty” enunciating more clearly, with particular emphasis on the ‘Eighty’ proffering back to me the 3 pound coins and 10 pence piece I had so recently placed in his palm.
To which in a haze, I meekly removed the 10 pence piece in his hand and replaced it with a mumbled “Sorry” and another pound coin. I was rewarded momentarily with 20 pence in change.
I stumbled away from the bar (careful not to spill a drop of the precious, precious liquid).
My chum showed up soon after and made his way to the bar, I practically threw myself in his path to stop him before he did something his wallet would regret.
“We’re not staying” said I
And we didn’t.
So a word of advice, if you intend to have a beer in The Bulls Head, Chislehurst take a bank loan.
Never in my drinking life have I paid that for a pint of beer, not even in the West End.
They say that the most expensive liquid in the world is now Ink-Jet Printer Ink, I think the Guinness at The Bulls Head could soon give it a run for it’s money
How the pint should have appeared for that price
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10 comments:
Don't go to the theatre. Four SMALL glasses of wine cost me £28.50.
Truly the costs are going outof the real world.
I remember declaring that I would give up the bevvy when a pint got to a quid.
The Royal Albert Hall serves bottles of Old Speckled Hen, but not the normal bottles - half pint ones.
I sent the missus to get me a pint with a tenner while I went to the khazi and she came back with £2.80 change.
Boy, did I savour that drink!
That's one of the reasons I don't like to go to the Theatre, having to pay a fiver for a bottle of warm Becks, during a 15 min cattle crush on top of the tickets which by any stretch are not cheap
@Rab
I remember saying the same thing and again at £2.00
The £3.00 barrier however was breached only with a sense of resignation, not anger and only when forced to by circumstance
i.e West End pub,
or a particularly fine local boozer The Rose at the end of a night (£3.25), after a session at the cheap place The Golden Lion(£2.25 for the Guinness there)
I remember when the Bulls Head used to be a proper pub with 2 bars, separate restaurant, not the poncey sofa filled place it is now. If you're up that way again, go to the Sydney Arms or the Ramblers Rest or go a bit further on to Bromley and go to the Bricklayers Arms. The purpose built smoking area is on 2 floors and is almost as big as the pub itself!
The Impy was always one of my faves in Chislehurst. The Bull was always a bit pretentious.
Guiness is £1-99/pint in my local Wetherspoons on a Monday night. As long as you can put up with the local chavs/students its not too bad. At least you leave at the end of the evening without feeling like your wallet has been violated.
The Sydney is a decent pub
Always found the clientele in the Ramblers too up themselves
The Impy, too many Old Boys that I didn't actually like at school to make it tolerable.
Favourite always used to be The Tigers Head , before they turned it into a bloody steakhouse
@Jim
our local Spoons is cheap, but the Guiness has a funny taste at times and gives you the shits , I don't think they clean their pipes properly and/or enough and so is avoided.
Ashtrayhead said:-
When I grew up in Chislehurst, my local was the Gordon Arms, next was the Queens Head and the Fox and Hounds. Now I live in Belvedere and have to travel to go to a decent pub. First stop is usually the Robin Hood in Bexleyheath (same landlord for as long as I can remember).
I can also remember back to when the Tigers Head was a real pub. Great location as is The Crown. Shame that they've been ruined.
Rab: "I remember declaring that I would give up the bevvy when a pint got to a quid."
Not that I want to get into a Four Yorkshiremen-style competition, but I remember the Olympic-class whingeing that went on at the Black Friar (near Blackfriars Bridge, funnily enough) in the mid-1970s when the price of a pint bitter went up to 30p.
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