The Queen Dowager, Teddington

Groundhog day
The pubs that do well locally are the modern, comfortable, stylish ones.

A summary of Youngs philosphy...
1 When something fails (unmodernised pubs in Teddington), try, try again.
2 Never learn from history or those who are successful round you
3 Take the pub back to the old / traditional model - it has recently failed at the Kings Arms (although there were other problems too),
mimic the Masons - closed apparently.
4 Keep battering away at it.
5 Appoint a young couple who they can control & bully.
The stupidity of the Area Manager and those in Wandsworth never ceases to amaze me.

Beer 10p cheaper - good (well it's a start)
Andy looks after his Bitter well - so far- (good) we are used to that here
Nice cushions - good
Quiz night - good
The big leather couch gone - bad
Getting rid of the good movie portraits in the loos- bad
Landlord / landlady who are boring / bland (bad)- charisma free zone here.
Magda still works here (good)
The big clique of boring Welsh teachers back - oh dear.
A couple of the rougher locals who Mark cleared out are back - Thick Nick etc.
Apparently there will be a paint job - good
They are apparently going to bring in some of the terrible old pub seating -(bad) which was got rid of because it didn't work...
It is coming from Youngs who have taken it out of other pubs where it hasn't worked....

Caroline whose food was laughably bad used to do fish finger sandwiches for about �2.20
The new girl is a chef so is doing ....wait for it....fish finger baps for �3.30. I suppose that counts as progress.
ROFLMAO
I could weep.

Norman -decent landlord not supported (shafted) by Youngs, replaced by someone useless -Caroline
Mark -decent landlord not supported (shafted) by Youngs, replaced by someone useless??? -Andy and Sam

Youngs really are hopeless at looking after this pub or good landlords, locals like me who love Youngs beer but have put up with their idiocy for years - I really don't want to make the Mallard my local or go to the Adelaide which is well run by Dermot and well supported by Shepherd Neame.
The Dowager has a difficult location - the rent is obviously skyhigh - cut it, stop messing around with my pub and taking it backwards.

28 Jan 2009 23:09

The Roebuck, Hampton Hill

Atmosphere ok but not exceptional.
Beer good. Wine so so,
Service adequate.
Not quite sure why I like this pub - they are not outstanding at anything but a good all rounder.
This is a nice pub with an eclectic (eccentric?) collection of bric a brac which is good to look at.

One reason I didn't like it on my last couple of visits was the big group of middle aged idiots in the corner (apparently used to drink in Adelaide and Dowager) I found very smarmy and obnoxious.
Presumably barred from the other pubs for being boring- it has improved the ambience of the former pubs to the detriment of this one.

11 Jun 2008 10:24

The Masons Arms, Teddington

Grotty boozer - old style pub with all the disadvantages of being old fashioned.
Bar Manager sort of hovered nearby eaves dropping - bit of a saddo - probably bored.

11 Jun 2008 10:15