Fagan's, Sheffield

What's Fagan's good for?

Fagan's is good for grub. Fagan's is excellent for grub. Get yourself down to Fagan's at lunchtime for an All Day Breakfast (you're likely to be astounded by it) or, even, better... a pie.

A steak and ale pie or a meat and potato pie... these things are pretty huge, they're sourced from a local butcher and they're served with chips, gravy and peas (the default, but you can have beans if you ask)... and a pint of Moonshine.

Yeah... a pint of Moonshine.

I like Fagan's. They have nice green VAT receipts for my outings too.

But don't forget to try the All Day Breakfast at least once.

25 Nov 2010 16:27

The Devonshire Cat, Sheffield

I often fancy a trip to the Dev. Cat. It's big enough to handle larger groups and it's never too noisy with music or anything. I take people new to Sheffield there so we can bask in the number of beers on offer, always with a local selection on draught.

If only it was closer to my office in the city centre... it's one of the longer treks to get to the Dev. Cat for us, but it's worth it more often than not - and then it's not too far a walk to either BB's or Bulters Balti.

The only criticisms of the Dev. Cat I could even think of would be the following 1) the staff seem to turn over quite regularly, so it's not easy to build up relationships that mean anything, and 2) they used to have this really nice smelling almond type soap in the bathroom... that's gone now.

Oh, last time I was there the Moonshine was off... drat! ;-)

25 Nov 2010 15:41

The Red Deer, Sheffield

Been going to the Red Deer for about 18 months, taking customers there for a bit of entertainment (Tuesday night quiz, the board games they have) and the real ales they serve.

Always enjoyed my time there, and got good reviews from customers, but I had always thought it had a major inconvenience - the continuing inability to take credit cards and set up a tab. When you're out for the night, you really want to have this convenience factor built-in... but the Red Deer still doesn't allow this. Setting up a tab involved handing over loads of cash... actual notes... and putting them behind the bar. It's manageable but if you forget to load up with cash you have to go to Tesco... a pain when it's really chilly.

Anyway, the other night I was there with a colleague and five customers, so I'd put �100 behind the bar. We were on our third round and my colleague went to the bar to get the next round in and the barman quite seriously told him that he had to drink a pint of water, otherwise he'd be asked to leave.

I'd never heard this before. I'm all for responsible drinking, but this felt much more like the barman was in a bad mood and he was taking it out on one of his customers by being vindictive... my colleague was very obviously not drunk after his third pint.

My colleague took it in good humour and drank the pint of water he had had forced on him. We continued our drinking session. By the time it came to the next round it was my turn, so I went to the bar and got the round in - this would be the order for our fifth round.

The barman said to me "if your friend doesn't finish the pint of water, I'll ask you all to leave" - I said "what?" - he said it again, as I thought he might have been joking - turns out my colleague had left just under an inch of water in the pint glass.

I decided enough was enough... I said I'd like to have a word with the manager who dutifully came to sit with me. I told him I'd never heard of this before and it seemed unnecessary - as our party was very relaxed and just enjoying the evening. We certainly weren't causing any undue noise or any trouble. I simply could not understand why this approach was being taken.

The owner / manager said he had to stand by his barman who "in his professional opinion" thought that my colleague needed to drink a pint of water and had to be treated like a child. He also added, I quote "an inspector could come around at any time and if I have inebriated people on the premises I could lose my licence"... at which point I reminded him, politely, that he owned a pub.

I asked to close my tab. I took back �50-ish from the barman and we left. I won't be going back, I won't be taking customers back and I'll go somewhere that is welcoming and consistent. I left feeling very disappointed and a little confused. Couple that with a bit of embarrassment, as my customers were present, and I really didn't appreciate that treatment.

25 Nov 2010 15:35